Speaking of Mind Viruses
Michael Huemer thinks they exist
Recall that Dan Williams wrote There is no “woke mind virus.”
Ideas, including bad ones, are not infectious mind viruses. This metaphor rests on an inaccurate picture of human psychology and social behaviour that functions to demonise, not understand. Because of this, it poisons public debate, increases polarisation, and hinders our collective capacities to understand the world and each other.
Well, on Tuesday, I received my order of philosophy professor Michael Huemer’s book, Progressive Myths. You may recall that I like to read books from the “outside in,” starting with the cover and then proceeding to the introduction and conclusion. In the conclusion, I find
Contemporary woke progressivism…is better understood as a quasi-religious, intellectual virus that has infected the minds of a large portion of Western intellectual elites. Like other religions, the progressive mind virus spreads itself by taking advantage of the human psychological needs for meaning and community, and it deploys intellectual defense mechanisms designed to short circuit critical examination of its tenets.
…the belief system defenses deployed by progressivism directly attack the norms of free expression and rational inquiry that are necessary not only for identifying truth but for peacefully negotiating disagreements…
the virus, once lodged in a person’s mind, deactivates one’s truth-seeking capacities…
My hope is that this book will act as a kind of innoculation.
Perhaps we have here a valid use for the term “mind virus.” A mind virus is not merely a set of beliefs with which we disagree. A mind virus is a set of untrue beliefs that includes a defense mechanism against truth-seeking. In the case of Woke Progressivism, the defense mechanism is to deny the existence of truth and instead to claim that power relationships determine what people believe.
So perhaps Huemer has an answer for Williams. In any case, I recommend reading Progressive Myths.
substacks referenced above: @There is no "woke mind virus"
Viruses are much maligned in this discussion. Real viruses are (rarely) parasitical, sometimes mutualistic (bacteriophages), and sometimes just hanging around in the environment (or on or within our bodies) doing not much of anything in particular.
Wokism is more like a religion in that it is a broad framework of belief most humans seem to need (or most humans at least have a brain space that seems to long to be occupied by a belief system of this sort) - a framework that creates community, meaning, and purpose in life. A framework that helps us make sense of the world in moral and social terms and allows us to simplify otherwise complex and confusing information into something more easily digested. This is why my preferred term has always been Neopuritanism.
But let’s not continue to malign the poor viruses. We’d all be dead were it not for their hard work in controlling the bacterial population!
Interesting. I disagree with this analysis of psychology and wokeism - woke people clearly believe in truth (I should know given that I inhabit a social and professional world dominated by wokeism) - and the "belief system defences" are simply motivated tactics strategic ideologues deploy, not adaptations of a "mind virus" that bypass people's rationality. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to the book.