D
Deleted member 88
Guest
Which is why “social justice”, “ending institutional racism” and so on are never ending cause celebrés.This honestly sums it up best for me. They want to feel important, like their lives mean something, so they have to have causes even if the causes are disingenuous and ultimately counter-productive. The cause is not really to achieve the goal, the goal is to have a cause. Having a cause and acting on it manufactures meaning and self-importance, the more hopeless the cause the better, so long as there is enough of a following to construct an echo-chamber and provide funding. This is probably also partly why the "finish-line" is never stationary, as that would mean success of the cause which would then revoke their self-worth.
The funny thing is, this all reminds me of Jordan Peterson, where he's talking about how young people are starved for meaning and self-worth. It's... kind of a sad comparison. Like, you can become a fanatic, or you can take charge of your life.
I mean after the Oberfell decision the NYT ran an article where a lot of gay activists asked “well what are we going to do know, I know-gays are still discriminated against in housing!”
If your life is built around a cause, then when you win you either put up your activist cap and placards and celebrate your victory in peace(which about 99% of these people can’t do at all) or find another cause or an extension of the first one.
It’s a way of looking for meaning.
Especially for privileged people. The average say privileged white girl who supports BLM does so for a variety of reasons(some more...base) but an important one is having something meaningful to give her life to.
People especially young people actually don’t enjoy sitting around doing nothing. They want purpose and meaning through doing that gives or has implicit moral or social worth.
One thing I’ve noted that cause participation is proportional to how easy it is or “successful” it can be.
Which is why modern environmental activism isn’t widely promoted among youth anymore.
Because stopping climate change(the reality of it ignored for the moment) or species extinction is just not something a young twenty something activist has much power over real or felt. The extinction rebellion being less about the environment and more a general leftist “anti capitalist” sort of movement.
An activist needs to feel they are contributing and their contributions are having a real impact which is why we see a lot of what we see with BLM. While all the marches and tweets in the world aren’t going to stop the Chinese from driving elephants into extinction via the wildlife trade.
It’s a quest for meaning made.