The Destructivists

'Identity Politics and allied moral corruptions are providing the perfect moral smokescreens behind which authoritarianism is advancing, which is why these issues are so very pressing.'

By William Collins, aka MRA-UK: Yes, I’ve seen fit to inflict the world with more of my verbiage. It’s probably an illness.

Well, it might be crap but at least it’s shorter than the last one.

It’s only fair to warn you that the new book is nothing like the last one, The Empathy Gap. That was mainly a presentation of empirical evidence. There are no tables or graphs in the new book. It’s more a work of opinion, and more overtly political though it focusses on the role of morality in political and social change. The contents of Part One of the book aligns well with my ICMI21 talk. But the book develops from there covering three more Parts plus Appendices.

Sorry about the price. Print-on-demand is wonderfully flexible and makes publication by the amateur very easy, but it isn’t cheap for single copies. I make essentially nothing, perhaps a few pence. My UK RRP was £14.99. At present it is £15.24 on UK Amazon, at least 36% of which goes to Amazon, and quite a lot more than that if Amazon bulk up the order. You may wish to wait for the ebook version which I intend to produce in the next couple of months – assuming other projects don’t get in the way.
 

For people in the UK this is the Amazon link.

For people in the USA this is the Amazon link.

For people in Australia this is the Amazon link.

Here is the Description…

All “Western” societies have become deeply divided, and the divisions have become ever more acrimonious. The reason is that the differences of opinion stem from differences of moral perspective. One side sees the other as dangerously bonkers, whilst in return the latter interprets the former as fascistic hatemongers (or so they say). Where existing works fall short is in explaining why and how this dichotomous morality has arisen, a question which is related to who benefits from it.

One of the purposes of this book is to address that question: why has a radically different view of moral rectitude arisen and become so widespread? The answer cannot be morally neutral. Indeed, that moral neutrality is itself a moral error is central to the thesis presented, which is based upon the existence of a true, absolute or natural morality. The central thesis of the book focusses on “moral usurpation”, a process of nudging popular opinion over many decades and targeting moral perceptions. The mechanisms deployed are familiar from PR campaigns or outright propaganda, but it is the targeting of the moral sensibilities which produces adherents who are so implacably hostile to contrary views.

The cluster of social and political phenomena, the origin of whose peculiar rise to prominence the theory seeks to explain, is known by many names: Progressivism, Cultural Marxism, Collectivism, Identity Politics, Intersectional Feminism, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism, Critical Theory, Victimhood Culture, Social Justice (complete with Warriors), or simply “Woke”, or perhaps just “the hard Left”. With no pretence of neutrality, all these terms are replaced with one umbrella term: Destructivism, because their common feature is the undermining and destruction of Western culture – hence the book’s title.

It is not original to observe that annexing the moral high ground can provide a smokescreen for other purposes. But a further aspect of the thesis presented is that capturing ostensible moral peaks (even if fraudulently) functions as a source of social and political power. This has been too little appreciated, but is not new. It is pointed out that ruling elites have always needed to present themselves as upholders of moral principle, and one could always question the extent to which they truly lived up to such pretensions. However, a more virulent problem arises when the moral principles which the public endorse have been nudged away from their valid origins in the true morality. If public morals can be distorted into precepts which happen to favour the elites, then the elites can be relied upon to uphold them.

According to the thesis presented, this provides the answer to a pressing conundrum: why have all agencies of the State, including the justice process, as well as large corporations, mega-rich globalists and trans-national bodies like the UN, all aligned themselves so eagerly with feminism and Woke – in short, with Destructivism? The answer lies in three things: (i) that all these entities are keenly interested in acquiring or consolidating their power, (ii) that power is inherent in ostensible moral cachet, and, (iii) that the Destructivists are manufacturers of artificial moral rectitude, via the moral usurpation process.

Understanding our predicament requires appreciation that we are not dealing with a single phenomenon or a single group of people, but with an ecosystem of mutually supporting groups who trade between themselves in different forms of power. These forms of power are: money, civic and legislative power, the control of information, and moral standing. Unless the implicit power value of moral standing is appreciated, the overall ecosystem cannot be understood. But the ecosystem forms the Woke Industrial Complex (a term coined by Vivek Ramaswamy).

However, the confected morality manufactured by the Destructivists is false, which is why this mutually self-supporting ecosystem of traded power is wreaking cultural destruction as it pumps ever more power to the triumvirate of power groups which are its higher socio-political animals. Identity Politics and allied moral corruptions are providing the perfect moral smokescreens behind which authoritarianism is advancing, which is why these issues are so very pressing.

The Contents (chapter titles)…

• A Signpost
• Our Parlous Society
• Social Morality
• How do the Few Control the Many?
• Divide and Conquer
• True Morality
• Moral Infantilism      
• Moral Vampirism
• The Creation of Zealots
• The Appeal of Moral Usurpation to the Elites
• The Role of Feedback in Moral Usurpation
• Gramsci and Moral Usurpation
• The Woke Industrial Complex
• The Inevitability of Intolerance under Identity Politics
• Ideology, Auto-Totalism and Ethical Capture
• The Evolved Pair Bond and Female Moral Authority
• Weighing the Anchor
• The Moral Elements of Political Opinion and the Care/Harm Axis
• Is Liberalism to Blame?
• The Psychology of Female Feminists
• The Psychology of the Male Feminist
• The Psychology of the Masses: Obedience and Conformity
• Feminism as the Gateway
• Individualism, Collectivism, Hierarchy and the Destruction of Merit
• The Destruction of Truth: Postmodernism and Critical Theory
• The Destruction of Beauty
• The Destruction of Love
• The Destruction of Religion and the Transcendent
• The Destruction of Education
• The Destruction of Family, Parenting and Relations between the Sexes
• The Destruction of Science
• The Exploitation of Tolerance: LGBTQ
• A Multiplicity of Tactics        
• Directed Intent
• Examples of Moral Usurpation Praxis
• The Globalists and Rising Authoritarianism
• The Cleft Stick
• Living Within The Truth
• Counter-Praxis
• Conclusion and Forgiveness
• Appendices
• A: The Destruction of Education (Elaboration)
• B: Rousseau, Hegel and the Philosophical Roots of Totalitarianism
• C: The Great Reset by Klaus Schwab
• D: Examples of how Feminism is Embedded within Global Organisations

For people buying the paperback, the html links to the references are here.

Source