{"id":31221,"date":"2023-02-22T10:01:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T18:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31221"},"modified":"2023-02-21T20:03:53","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T04:03:53","slug":"shine-more-brightly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/shine-more-brightly\/","title":{"rendered":"Shine More Brightly"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the get-go, the authors of Cynical Theories <\/em>make a bold and accusational statement with the cover,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

and subtitle, \u201cHow Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity \u2013 and Why This Harms Everybody.<\/em>\u201d Helen Pluckrose, a British author and cultural critic, teamed up with James Lindsay, an American author, mathematician, and critic, to write this philosophical\/social historical work to<\/p>\n

tell l the story of how postmodernism applied its cynical theories to deconstruct what we might agree to call \u2018the old religions\u2019 of human thought – which include conventional religious faiths like Christianity and secular ideologies like Marxism, as well as cohesive modern systems such as science, philosophical liberalism, and \u201cprogress\u201d – and replaced them with a new religion of its own, called \u201cSocial Justice.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Regarding those on the far left, the authors refer to these individuals as \u201cprogressive social crusaders [who] portray themselves as the sole and righteous champions of social and moral progress without which democracy is meaningless and hollow.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

In a book review of Cynical Theory<\/em>, Richard Roland writes,<\/p>\n

The basic tenet of Social Justice theory is that unjust power can be found in all walks of life, and it manifests in biases that are largely invisible because they have been internalized as \u201cnormal.\u201d The oppressed understand this power by definition, simply through their lived experience, while the oppressors are inured to it, shielded by their privileges, and blinded by the language being employed.[3]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Throughout the book, the authors critique several theories, such as postmodernism, postcolonial theory, queer theory, critical race theory, feminism and gender studies, and disability and fat studies.[4]<\/a> Written for lay people with little academic awareness of these topics, the authors introduce their critique of these debated items by stating that<\/p>\n

This is not a book that seeks to undermine liberal feminism, activities against racism, or campaigns for LGBT equality. On the contrary, Cynical Theories<\/em> is born of our commitment to gender, racial and LBGT equality with our concern that the validity and importance of these are currently being alarmingly undermined by Social Justice approaches.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Upon finishing the book, I was reminded of this statement by the authors while taking notes. While this may have been the sentiment by which the authors sought to address these heavy topics, I believe this humble position of love was not emphasized well, or at all, throughout the book. Perhaps the authors should have emphasized this more throughout the text.<\/p>\n

My musings far exceed the word count for this blog, so I will highlight one concept concerning Social Justice and the impact of the educational system. The authors write, \u201cThere is a problem that begins in our universities, and it comes down to Social Justice. The most immediate aspect of the problem is that Social Justice scholarship gets passed down to students, who then go out into the world.\u201d[6]<\/a> I am flooded with many thoughts from this quote and section of the book. For one, I think of my interview with a colleague this past week regarding how she feels as they have been out of the US for the last decade, but sensing the massive cultural shift that has happened, especially regarding sexuality and gender. She finds that she lives between two worlds and is experiencing more of a gap between her generation and the younger generation, particularly those who recently graduated from college. From her perspective, she has witnessed the impact the education system has made on issues related to gender and sexuality. Two, the authors\u2019 position is that the university setting carries a lot of weight in influencing culture and future generations. Of course, I see this on the one hand, but on the other, it seems it is written from a position of scarcity and fear. Do I really agree with this, that as a follower of Jesus, our culture and way of living (as a disciple, not an American citizen) is compromised? <\/em>I don\u2019t believe this to be true, but rather, I see such \u201cdifficulty and trials\u201d as strengthening our resolve in Christ. As the lights dim in our world, so will the Light (and culture) of Christ shine even more brightly.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Helen Pluckrose and James A. Lindsay, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity-and Why This Harms Everybody<\/em>, First Edition. (Durham, North Carolina: Pitchstone Publishing, 2020), 17\u201318.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 12.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Roland Rich, \u201cHelen Pluckrose and James Lindsay Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity-and Why This Harms Everybody,\u201d Population and Development Review<\/em> 47, no. 1 (2021): 264\u2013267.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Little did I know that \u201cfat studies\u201d was an area of discipline!<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Pluckrose and Lindsay, Cynical Theories<\/em>, 19.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 215.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the get-go, the authors of Cynical Theories make a bold and accusational statement with the cover, and subtitle, \u201cHow Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity \u2013 and Why This Harms Everybody.\u201d Helen Pluckrose, a British author and cultural critic, teamed up with James Lindsay, an American author, mathematician, and critic, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2624,2619],"class_list":["post-31221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lindsay","tag-pluckrose","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31223,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31221\/revisions\/31223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}