a theory of Assholes
Jun. 25th, 2017 05:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backup**I concocted all of the below before discovering that this book already exists: https://www.amazon.com/Assholes-Theory-Donald-Aaron-James/dp/0385542038/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8. So I'm not especially clever, but in the hopes that my slow meanderings are of interest to all of you. Also, it's 4 am.
When I consider the DT phenomenon in its broadest historical terms, I think it's really about Asshole-ism. If I can use such a term. Bear with me.
What does it mean to be an Asshole? At its existential core, the Asshole is a person who cuts you off when driving, or rounds a curve without thinking that people might be there, or blasts music from his car late at night. The Asshole is recklessly, almost deliberately thoughtless. Assholes are not exactly evil - they aren't necessarily out to cause pain - but they're indifferent to the possibility that they might do so. In fact, they are contemptuous of the need to recognize that this might happen. Being an Asshole, then is the opposite of being empathetic - not only do you not feel someone's pain, you spitefully reject the need to recognize the other at all.
What's interesting about most stories of Asshole-ishness that you and I might exchange with each other is that they're premised on the opacity or anonymity of the person being an Asshole, who becomes a kind of idealized notion of indifference. "This asshole crossed three lanes of traffic to make that left turn," you might say. What kind of selfish Asshole would do that? If, according to the French maxim, to understand is to forgive, then Assholes are usually, almost by definition, people who don't explain themselves to us and who we cannot forgive.
Usually, but not always. I remember, many years ago, encountering in an online discussion group, the brother of an ex-girlfriend of mine. He was defending these Assholes who drive around in pickup trucks, blaring nationalist slogans and waving Israeli flags in East Jerusalem just to piss off Arabs. Kind of the Platonic ideal of Assholes.
I was shocked that this scrawny kid I once knew had become a some kind of wacky Kahanist jerk. I don't remember what I emailed him, but I do remember his response: "Yeah yeah yeah."
That's it. That's the core of being an Asshole - that "yeah yeah yeah." Not just a dismissal of moral objections, but a kind of defiance of them. It perfectly expresses an attitude in which you and your petty morality are just meaningless. But it's more than that. It's an implicit acknowledgment of guilt, while also, in the utterance, sweeping it away with one's hand.
Conversely, "Don't be an Asshole" is kind of the whole point of pretty much every work of art, philosophy, or religion that you've ever read. This isn't the "banality of evil" - being an Asshole is an act of rebellion against the moral impulses that you learn as a child.
Another interesting part of Assholish-ness, also, is that we've probably all had the experience of being Assholes ourselves. I remember vividly once honking at cars apparently charging through an intersection, until belatedly realizing that they were part of a funeral. Or we say something thoughtless that we then regret. I thought they were the Asshole, but really I'm the Asshole, is probably something that good people have experienced. Then there are the grey areas in which our own intentions are muddled by confusion or ignorance, maybe with a dash or two of indignant anger or snap judgment. All ways in which we dimly acknowledge that our view of ourselves as good and not Assholes is insufficient.
***************************************************
What does this have to do with Trump? I think the thing that reveals itself, when you engage with his supporters, or read what they write, is how strikingly they adopt the language of Assholes. Now, by saying that, I kind of wish there was a way to say it that didn't sound pejorative, because I'm trying to be precise, not judgmental. I'm not saying that these people are amoral scum. In fact, they clearly have moral and rational arguments for their positions, no matter how much I disagree with them. But I'm saying that they embody the ethos and attitude of "yeah yeah yeah" as applied to politics.
I've never yet encountered defenders of DT, in person or online, who don't seem, on one level, profoundly stupid. That is, they make incoherent arguments that evade the issue at hand and bring up a mishmash of other hatreds that they feel that somehow excuse whatever DT is doing (like a few weeks ago, when my dentist spontaneously told me, "I've never hated the media as much as I do right now."). This is because their beliefs about DT are conditioned by their pre-existing hyperpartisanship. And, to be fair, my views of DT are conditioned by my own - that's the world we live in.
But what interests me is that Trump supporters do have a language at hand to deal with your accusations of racism, misogyny, collusion with Russia, and so on. It's what in rhetorical terms is called "Tu Quoque" - "you're just a hypocrite." A letter writer to the local newspaper says (paraphrasing): "All these liberals with these 'we have no hate here' lawn signs just ignore how much hate they really have." If you say that they are poisoning our lives with partisan hatreds, they point to Kathy Griffin or something similar and say, "you started it." Actually, there are countless Tweets by DT himself that show this mindset in its purest form.
I don't think it's any great insight on my part to say that this American partisan blindness is the reason why DT is impervious to scandal or other things that we used to think would bring down corrupt political leaders. But Asshole-ism as a political ideology, the defense of dreadful acts on the basis of muddled reasoning and "ends-justify-the-means" thinking, is something that we can probably understand more broadly and historically. It's the same mental phenomenon behind why people join ISIS or why they beat civil rights protesters in the 1960s; it's how many people in larger society endorse or tolerate evil acts while not considering themselves to be evil. We might call it "fascism" because this kind of nihilistic amorality characterized the nazi regime. But in reality it's the key element of all forms of social oppression, regardless of ideology.
I don't love an argument that says that to defeat DT we need to defeat Asshole-ism. Assholes are everywhere, mysteriously ruining our lives with their indifference, and historically, they're as old as time itself. So it stands to reason that there will always be movements that seek to express Assholishness in political form: to say that we must be impervious to shame in order to do what needs to be done. But it doesn't seem inevitable to me that they have to win, because, you know, at the end of the day - they're Assholes. In most times and places, people have a low ongoing tolerance for Assholes. And that includes in politics.
Despite what this might imply, I don't think the answer is to say to DT supporters, "you people are being such assholes!" The whole point of being an Asshole is that they don't care. They feel guilt; they just squelch it. The key, then, must be to defeat the logic behind squelching that impulse to recognize the difference between good and bad. Creating alternate social visions must be part of it, and increasing social contacts with people we disagree with has to be part of it too. Because you won't be an Asshole if you know who you're hurting - that's what it seems like to me.
When I consider the DT phenomenon in its broadest historical terms, I think it's really about Asshole-ism. If I can use such a term. Bear with me.
What does it mean to be an Asshole? At its existential core, the Asshole is a person who cuts you off when driving, or rounds a curve without thinking that people might be there, or blasts music from his car late at night. The Asshole is recklessly, almost deliberately thoughtless. Assholes are not exactly evil - they aren't necessarily out to cause pain - but they're indifferent to the possibility that they might do so. In fact, they are contemptuous of the need to recognize that this might happen. Being an Asshole, then is the opposite of being empathetic - not only do you not feel someone's pain, you spitefully reject the need to recognize the other at all.
What's interesting about most stories of Asshole-ishness that you and I might exchange with each other is that they're premised on the opacity or anonymity of the person being an Asshole, who becomes a kind of idealized notion of indifference. "This asshole crossed three lanes of traffic to make that left turn," you might say. What kind of selfish Asshole would do that? If, according to the French maxim, to understand is to forgive, then Assholes are usually, almost by definition, people who don't explain themselves to us and who we cannot forgive.
Usually, but not always. I remember, many years ago, encountering in an online discussion group, the brother of an ex-girlfriend of mine. He was defending these Assholes who drive around in pickup trucks, blaring nationalist slogans and waving Israeli flags in East Jerusalem just to piss off Arabs. Kind of the Platonic ideal of Assholes.
I was shocked that this scrawny kid I once knew had become a some kind of wacky Kahanist jerk. I don't remember what I emailed him, but I do remember his response: "Yeah yeah yeah."
That's it. That's the core of being an Asshole - that "yeah yeah yeah." Not just a dismissal of moral objections, but a kind of defiance of them. It perfectly expresses an attitude in which you and your petty morality are just meaningless. But it's more than that. It's an implicit acknowledgment of guilt, while also, in the utterance, sweeping it away with one's hand.
Conversely, "Don't be an Asshole" is kind of the whole point of pretty much every work of art, philosophy, or religion that you've ever read. This isn't the "banality of evil" - being an Asshole is an act of rebellion against the moral impulses that you learn as a child.
Another interesting part of Assholish-ness, also, is that we've probably all had the experience of being Assholes ourselves. I remember vividly once honking at cars apparently charging through an intersection, until belatedly realizing that they were part of a funeral. Or we say something thoughtless that we then regret. I thought they were the Asshole, but really I'm the Asshole, is probably something that good people have experienced. Then there are the grey areas in which our own intentions are muddled by confusion or ignorance, maybe with a dash or two of indignant anger or snap judgment. All ways in which we dimly acknowledge that our view of ourselves as good and not Assholes is insufficient.
***************************************************
What does this have to do with Trump? I think the thing that reveals itself, when you engage with his supporters, or read what they write, is how strikingly they adopt the language of Assholes. Now, by saying that, I kind of wish there was a way to say it that didn't sound pejorative, because I'm trying to be precise, not judgmental. I'm not saying that these people are amoral scum. In fact, they clearly have moral and rational arguments for their positions, no matter how much I disagree with them. But I'm saying that they embody the ethos and attitude of "yeah yeah yeah" as applied to politics.
I've never yet encountered defenders of DT, in person or online, who don't seem, on one level, profoundly stupid. That is, they make incoherent arguments that evade the issue at hand and bring up a mishmash of other hatreds that they feel that somehow excuse whatever DT is doing (like a few weeks ago, when my dentist spontaneously told me, "I've never hated the media as much as I do right now."). This is because their beliefs about DT are conditioned by their pre-existing hyperpartisanship. And, to be fair, my views of DT are conditioned by my own - that's the world we live in.
But what interests me is that Trump supporters do have a language at hand to deal with your accusations of racism, misogyny, collusion with Russia, and so on. It's what in rhetorical terms is called "Tu Quoque" - "you're just a hypocrite." A letter writer to the local newspaper says (paraphrasing): "All these liberals with these 'we have no hate here' lawn signs just ignore how much hate they really have." If you say that they are poisoning our lives with partisan hatreds, they point to Kathy Griffin or something similar and say, "you started it." Actually, there are countless Tweets by DT himself that show this mindset in its purest form.
I don't think it's any great insight on my part to say that this American partisan blindness is the reason why DT is impervious to scandal or other things that we used to think would bring down corrupt political leaders. But Asshole-ism as a political ideology, the defense of dreadful acts on the basis of muddled reasoning and "ends-justify-the-means" thinking, is something that we can probably understand more broadly and historically. It's the same mental phenomenon behind why people join ISIS or why they beat civil rights protesters in the 1960s; it's how many people in larger society endorse or tolerate evil acts while not considering themselves to be evil. We might call it "fascism" because this kind of nihilistic amorality characterized the nazi regime. But in reality it's the key element of all forms of social oppression, regardless of ideology.
I don't love an argument that says that to defeat DT we need to defeat Asshole-ism. Assholes are everywhere, mysteriously ruining our lives with their indifference, and historically, they're as old as time itself. So it stands to reason that there will always be movements that seek to express Assholishness in political form: to say that we must be impervious to shame in order to do what needs to be done. But it doesn't seem inevitable to me that they have to win, because, you know, at the end of the day - they're Assholes. In most times and places, people have a low ongoing tolerance for Assholes. And that includes in politics.
Despite what this might imply, I don't think the answer is to say to DT supporters, "you people are being such assholes!" The whole point of being an Asshole is that they don't care. They feel guilt; they just squelch it. The key, then, must be to defeat the logic behind squelching that impulse to recognize the difference between good and bad. Creating alternate social visions must be part of it, and increasing social contacts with people we disagree with has to be part of it too. Because you won't be an Asshole if you know who you're hurting - that's what it seems like to me.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-25 10:46 am (UTC)I think that what is at the root of all the assholes that I am seeing out there (it is on the rise, no question!) is institutional psychopathology. And when people are exposed to individual psychopaths they respond in two ways, they either have self-compassion, and become heroes, or they identify with their victimizer and become made-psychopaths. A created psychopath is a bit of different creature from a born-psychopath. They are more of a monster. It's almost... the reverse of how we deal with autism. These are people who were born with compassion and empathy intact, and who have unlearned their pro-social instincts. It is cause for a little hope. If born-psychopaths can meticulously learn social rules, then made-psychopaths should be able to return to them.
The problem is, of course, that we are all, collectively, throwing the rules onto a great big pyre.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-25 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-25 09:04 pm (UTC)Totally agreed, and also agreed about the lack of rules. Turns out "traditionalists" are completely willing to chuck law, tradition, faith out the window when it suits them.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-26 12:11 pm (UTC)Except of course for the fact that the "crimes" of the Left are fantasies of the Right and the crimes of the Right are just... glossed over. They don't even joke about investigating them. The hypocrisy is so thick it's mind boggling. And it just keeps coming day after day after day. Nothing will stop them but violence. They, as you point out, just throw the rule of law out when it applies to themselves.
It's a fundamentally different world view that Leftists REFUSE to accept. To the Right, laws are things that THE RIGHT uses to stop THE LEFT. They are tools FOR THEM. Because they "own" morality in their minds, and we "own" the incredible pleasures of sacrificing gay babies to Mohammed while we inject heroin into our eyeballs and worship Richard Dawkins.