{"id":41757,"date":"2025-04-20T05:37:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T12:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=41757"},"modified":"2025-04-20T05:37:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T12:37:50","slug":"catching-flies-with-vinegar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/catching-flies-with-vinegar\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching Flies With Vinegar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before reading Gad Saad\u2019s The Parasitic Mind, How Infectious Ideas are Killing Common Sense<\/em>, I reflected on a few of my previously gathered ideas about ideologies. As people\u2019s 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 \u2018cancel culture\u2019 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\u2019s University environments, who espouse post-modernist ideals.<\/p>\n

What was confirmed<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s main premise in his book is that a set of \u201cidea pathogens\u201d[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 \u201cintellectual terrorists who limit people\u2019s willingness to speak and think freely, without ever constituting a majority.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n

Another idea which Saad confirms is what I see as behind a lot of the silent assent \u2014 not wanting to hurt others\u2019 feeling. Is it possible that people don\u2019t 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 \u201cdeontological and consequentialist ethics.\u201d[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.<\/p>\n

And so, I\u2019m wondering if Saad\u2019s approach will help to awaken people to the threat of the Parasitic virus he is warning us about.<\/p>\n

Language that repels or invites?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Matthew Petrusek articulates the kind of progressivism that Saad is critiquing.<\/p>\n

\n

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 \u201csupremacist rationality\u201d to disagree with the identity group and thereby prove that you are in fact guilty of everything they are accusing you of.[6]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I see Saad\u2019s arguments delivered as a prophetic warning. He is not timid in declaring what is at stake if there is no counter force. \u201cUnless 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.\u201d<\/em>[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\u2019re not nice, don\u2019t be surprised if you are not listened to.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old saying, \u201cYou catch more flies with honey than with vinegar\u201d. 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\u2019s hard critique is whether or not it will simply contribute to the echo chamber, along with Jordan Peterson. As we\u2019ve been saying in recent weeks, some thinkers are \u2018a bit like marmite\u2019 \u2014 love them or hate them.<\/p>\n

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:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • \u201cAvoid 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.\u201d[8]<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Saad\u2019s labelling of D.E.I. As DIE.[9]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Satire is good, but I think will not be sufficient for addressing the infection. \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    _____<\/p>\n

    [1] Gad Saad, <\/span>The Parasitic Mind<\/span>, <\/span>How infectious Ideas are Killing Common Sense,<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(NY: Regnery, 2020), 190.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [2]\u00a0Parasitic<\/em>, 1, 190.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [3] Parasitic<\/em>, xiii.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [4] Parasitic<\/em>, Chapter 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [5] Parasitic<\/em>, 29.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [6] Matthew Petrusek, <\/span>Evangelisation and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture,<\/span><\/em> (Word on Fire, 2023), 333.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [7] Parasitic<\/em>, <\/span>22.<\/p>\n

    [8] Parasitic<\/em>, 78.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [9] Parasitic<\/em>, xii.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Before reading Gad Saad\u2019s The Parasitic Mind, How Infectious Ideas are Killing Common Sense, I reflected on a few of my previously gathered ideas about ideologies. As people\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[3443],"class_list":["post-41757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-saad-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41757","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\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41757"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41770,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41757\/revisions\/41770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}