There’s a lot in Your article I agree with. A lot. I could nitpick some of the middle layers, but the conclusion is the same — we should simply disregard intentions, when judging the morality of the actions of someone (incl. ourselves).
Specially the 7th layer — what You said there is something that has been living in my mind for a long time, but I was never able to phrase it properly.
About the 8th layer: the bourgeoisie does love to exploit this problem when it helps them to get less blame, since it’s impossible to prove someone doesn’t have good intentions. But I don’t think they created it, I think the problem is older even than our own species, and it comes from developing a theory of mind.
In the spirit of level 7: I use capitalised pronouns in all three grammatical persons
I don’t think the Bourgeois created intentionalism, but I do think they’re responsible for its prevalence in our modern society. The degree to which most people are concerned with intentions is so stifling, unhealthy, and unsustainable that I do not believe it can be natural. We live in an age of relatively little social upheaval. There are fewer revolutions and wars than usual right now, and that’s not entirely a good thing. Look at the USA - they are in desperate need of a civil war, or we shall soon be fighting world war 3. Yet the people are far more passive than we would expect from history. Nonviolent resistance is also down, so it’s not just military technology. It’s propaganda.
I think intentionalism is a meme - an idea that through natural selection has taken on a life of its own. And because it helps the Bourgeoisie, they, perhaps unconsciously, create conditions that favour it in their media empires.
Pronouns fixed! (I hope. Let me know if I fucked it up. Also, just to be sure: You’re okay with indeterminate “you” being still in minuscules, right? As in, only capitalising it for the personal pronoun?)
I don’t have data to decide between my hypothesis (biological phenomenon) versus Yours (meme). And it’s possible it’s both things at the same time. So I think I’ll roll with the idea of it being a meme.
Perhaps what the bourgeoisie is selecting for isn’t intentionalism itself, but “assumptiveness”? I’ve been noticing people are becoming increasingly eager to voice certainty based on little to nothing; “what’s inside someone else’s head” is just a consequence of that. For the bourgeoisie, this would be useful for a lot more things, for example it makes people more vulnerable against advertisement.
On USA, another factor is false consciousness. (I know You aren’t Marxist, but I think the concept is useful to Anarchists too.) The United-Statian population sees itself as part of the “ruling caste”, as opposed to “the brown people” (…like me), and in the process they subject themselves even more to the actual ruling elites there.
You know, I don’t think the “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” thing is true anymore. It made sense back in the 70s when the USA had what the capitalists call a middle class, but that group is getting smaller and smaller. Wealth inequality is higher than it’s ever been in history, according to some measures. Maybe I’m just not in touch with the youth anymore, but everyone I know treats “Sigma male grindset” as a joke and knows our generation is never buying houses.
Then again I’ve lived in a homeless shelter and surround Myself with antirealists, so what do I know about the consciousness of white suburbia?
“you” as the pronoun for hypothetical people is perfectly amenable to Me. However I know other capitalised pronoun users, and the risk of misunderstandings and the annoyance of clarification has lead Me to use “one” as the hypothetical pronoun instead in most cases, and thus I recommend it to make your life easier as well.
I confess I don’t fully understand how increased assumptiveness should lead to an increased value placed on intentions as excuses for wrongdoing.
There’s a lot in Your article I agree with. A lot. I could nitpick some of the middle layers, but the conclusion is the same — we should simply disregard intentions, when judging the morality of the actions of someone (incl. ourselves).
Specially the 7th layer — what You said there is something that has been living in my mind for a long time, but I was never able to phrase it properly.
About the 8th layer: the bourgeoisie does love to exploit this problem when it helps them to get less blame, since it’s impossible to prove someone doesn’t have good intentions. But I don’t think they created it, I think the problem is older even than our own species, and it comes from developing a theory of mind.
Thank You for sharing it!
In the spirit of level 7: I use capitalised pronouns in all three grammatical persons
I don’t think the Bourgeois created intentionalism, but I do think they’re responsible for its prevalence in our modern society. The degree to which most people are concerned with intentions is so stifling, unhealthy, and unsustainable that I do not believe it can be natural. We live in an age of relatively little social upheaval. There are fewer revolutions and wars than usual right now, and that’s not entirely a good thing. Look at the USA - they are in desperate need of a civil war, or we shall soon be fighting world war 3. Yet the people are far more passive than we would expect from history. Nonviolent resistance is also down, so it’s not just military technology. It’s propaganda.
I think intentionalism is a meme - an idea that through natural selection has taken on a life of its own. And because it helps the Bourgeoisie, they, perhaps unconsciously, create conditions that favour it in their media empires.
Pronouns fixed! (I hope. Let me know if I fucked it up. Also, just to be sure: You’re okay with indeterminate “you” being still in minuscules, right? As in, only capitalising it for the personal pronoun?)
I don’t have data to decide between my hypothesis (biological phenomenon) versus Yours (meme). And it’s possible it’s both things at the same time. So I think I’ll roll with the idea of it being a meme.
Perhaps what the bourgeoisie is selecting for isn’t intentionalism itself, but “assumptiveness”? I’ve been noticing people are becoming increasingly eager to voice certainty based on little to nothing; “what’s inside someone else’s head” is just a consequence of that. For the bourgeoisie, this would be useful for a lot more things, for example it makes people more vulnerable against advertisement.
On USA, another factor is false consciousness. (I know You aren’t Marxist, but I think the concept is useful to Anarchists too.) The United-Statian population sees itself as part of the “ruling caste”, as opposed to “the brown people” (…like me), and in the process they subject themselves even more to the actual ruling elites there.
You know, I don’t think the “temporarily embarrassed millionaires” thing is true anymore. It made sense back in the 70s when the USA had what the capitalists call a middle class, but that group is getting smaller and smaller. Wealth inequality is higher than it’s ever been in history, according to some measures. Maybe I’m just not in touch with the youth anymore, but everyone I know treats “Sigma male grindset” as a joke and knows our generation is never buying houses.
Then again I’ve lived in a homeless shelter and surround Myself with antirealists, so what do I know about the consciousness of white suburbia?
“you” as the pronoun for hypothetical people is perfectly amenable to Me. However I know other capitalised pronoun users, and the risk of misunderstandings and the annoyance of clarification has lead Me to use “one” as the hypothetical pronoun instead in most cases, and thus I recommend it to make your life easier as well.
I confess I don’t fully understand how increased assumptiveness should lead to an increased value placed on intentions as excuses for wrongdoing.