David Brooks recently took on student radicalism and the heightened cultural atmosphere of identity politics that permeates many colleges and universities these days. Brooks states that “what one sees in the essay are the various strains of American liberalism crashing into one another: the admiration for achievement clashing against the moral superiority of the victim; the desire to let students run free, clashing against the desire to protect the oppressed from psychologically unsafe experiences.”
In the alternate universe of identity politics, we are now asked to consider the “new” oppressed: the victims of race, sexual orientation, gender, or whatever arbitrary circle you can draw around people (or their private parts).
If we look at this from a higher context, we are definitely in a bit of a mess.
It’s not that all group identities are bad. Heck, we are tribal by nature. And sometimes it helps orientate us and gives us coherence. But the concern is when we allow these identities lose all objective standards and become one’s primary locus.
There was a time in the US when people saw themselves as Americans first, and then maybe by creed. But these identities were grounded in deep values that cohered around a nation or a faith. Now we have fragmented ever more into more superficial categories with the power of words and thrown away our deeper roots.
Many religions note that we are to look after the sick and weak. Goethe even had noted that “[Christianity] brought reverence for what is below us” during a violent time in history when the real oppressed were often seen as the scapegoats of society. Until then, we didn't give hoot about your problems (see Rene Girard's work on this).
But when we really consider the people who are to be revered as weak, it does not mean they are coming from a place of weakness. Unlike the students who are offended by any off-putting comment, there are people who can come from an inner strength no matter what their life conditions. And that’s all the difference in the eyes of the highest beholder. Again, it’s all about the interiors and if you don’t have much depth in that area, then you’re just going to get knocked around by the world and all the projections you throw at each other.
So when considering the real oppressed, it may be best we have some standards instead of the whims of one’s subjective experience. And “people who try to use politics to fill emotional and personal voids get more and more extreme and end up as fanatics.” And fanaticism won’t get you anywhere outside those campus gates.