Catching Flies With Vinegar
Before reading Gad Saad’s The Parasitic Mind, How Infectious Ideas are Killing Common Sense, I reflected on a few of my previously gathered ideas about ideologies. As people’s understanding of life is formed by their family, faith and political environments, it crystallizes into a framework of understanding the world. How people think and feel about the world is impacted by an increasing abandonment of civil discourse and debate about ideas, in exchange for a stronger group-think around social identity markers, and polarization from those who disagree. What I witness is an increase of ‘cancel culture’ towards people with competing ideas, and the gathering of an echo chamber of support from others with shared ideas about the world. It has also brought increased virtue-signalling for social justice causes, often fuelled by social media, and promoted by the majority of Western society’s University environments, who espouse post-modernist ideals.
What was confirmed
The first idea I had which this book confirms is that the loss of debate, and loss of free speech are being fueled by post-modernism, and particularly in the University setting where post-modernism underpins an erosion of ideological differences. Saad’s main premise in his book is that a set of “idea pathogens”[1] are assaulting science, reason, logic, freedom of thought and speech and individual liberty.[2] Even more pointed, he is indicating that there is a battle for a particular ideology that is making it uncomfortable for those who reject a liberal identity politic. He calls social justice warriors “intellectual terrorists who limit people’s willingness to speak and think freely, without ever constituting a majority.”[3]
Another idea which Saad confirms is what I see as behind a lot of the silent assent — not wanting to hurt others’ feeling. Is it possible that people don’t speak out for fear of offending others? Saad says yes. Caring more about how people feel over what they think has, in his mind, become paramount.[4] It is part of a wider phenomena dividing the world into two systems: the cognitive (thinking) and the affective (feeling), producing two ways of relating to one another, which Saad categorizes as “deontological and consequentialist ethics.”[5] What is produced is a silent majority who change their profile pictures with the latest social justice cause, based more on emotion than on having worked through the real complexity of the situation.
And so, I’m wondering if Saad’s approach will help to awaken people to the threat of the Parasitic virus he is warning us about.
Language that repels or invites?
Matthew Petrusek articulates the kind of progressivism that Saad is critiquing.
On the one hand, it denies the existence of objective truth altogether, and on the other hand, it asserts that mere disagreement with that position is a severe moral defect. That leaves the befuddled observer of this ideological ploy with two options: either submit to what the identity group is saying, shut up, and obey or go ahead and use “supremacist rationality” to disagree with the identity group and thereby prove that you are in fact guilty of everything they are accusing you of.[6]
I see Saad’s arguments delivered as a prophetic warning. He is not timid in declaring what is at stake if there is no counter force. “Unless we win the battle of ideas, the enemies of reason, along with the mind viruses that they promulgate, will lead our free societies to lunatic self-destruction.”[7] He is fighting fire with fire. Calling his enemies lunatics or idiots is a sure way to be dismissed by the same people trapped in a consequentialist, emotionally-informed ethic. If you’re not nice, don’t be surprised if you are not listened to.
There’s an old saying, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”. It is credited to Francis De Sales, who lived around the turn of the 17th Century. From my faith perspective, this is highlighted by the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work in the life of followers of Jesus, including love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and gentleness (Galatians 5:22-23). The problem I see with Gad’s hard critique is whether or not it will simply contribute to the echo chamber, along with Jordan Peterson. As we’ve been saying in recent weeks, some thinkers are ‘a bit like marmite’ — love them or hate them.
I find myself looking for less repellent ways to address the viruses. Here are some examples which I think will simply be rejected in kind:
- “Avoid topics [like studying critical race theory, intersectional feminism, queer theory, and postmodernism] that are firmly rooted in a desire to liberate students from the shackles of reality.”[8]
- Saad’s labelling of D.E.I. As DIE.[9]
Satire is good, but I think will not be sufficient for addressing the infection. The post-modernist idea virus which has taken hold, and for which there is a cure needs medical intervention, like a vaccine. Yet without compassion for the countless people trapped in this cultural moment, without gentleness and kindness towards those suffering from the virus, Saad may succeed only in producing a new crop of anti-vaxers.
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[1] Gad Saad, The Parasitic Mind, How infectious Ideas are Killing Common Sense, (NY: Regnery, 2020), 190.
[2] Parasitic, 1, 190.
[3] Parasitic, xiii.
[4] Parasitic, Chapter 2.
[5] Parasitic, 29.
[6] Matthew Petrusek, Evangelisation and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture, (Word on Fire, 2023), 333.
[7] Parasitic, 22.
[8] Parasitic, 78.
[9] Parasitic, xii.
About the Author
Joel Zantingh
Joel Zantingh is a catalyst for peacemaking and intercultural teams, speaker, theologian and consultant. He is the Canadian Coordinator of the World Evangelical Alliance's Peace and Reconciliation Network, and the Director of Engagement with Lausanne Movement Canada. He has served in local and national roles within the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, and led their global mission arm. He has experience teaching in formal and informal settings with Bible college students and leaders from various cultures and generations. Joel and Christie are parents to adult children, as well as grandparents. They reside in Guelph, Ont., situated on the treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and home to many past, present and future First Nations peoples, including the Anishinnabe and Hodinöhsö:ni'.One response to “Catching Flies With Vinegar”
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Hey Joel! Thanks for sharing this. My thoughts align with yours in regards to Gad’s approach. How can be better present Gad’s message in a way that is more reflective than repellant?