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Justice & Dignity?
Feb. 17th, 2022 11:46 amI am struggling with the word "freedom". Not only because has it been co-opted to mean an anarchic strong-take-all, but even in its idealistic form, I don't think it captures what I want my society to prioritize.
I recently read The Dawn of Everything by Graeber & Wengrow. I recommend it to you.
One of the things the book does is interrogate our use of the social term "equality". They argue that the use of the term equality is ultimately based on an impulse to treat everyone as interchangeable parts - equal because indistinguishable. This often leads to cruelty and neglect in real terms for real people.
I think I want to replace equality & freedom with justice & dignity.
I don't think these are unproblematic. The concept of justice is underpinned by "fairness" which I think has moving goal posts just like all the other concepts. Dignity is underpinned by "pride" and each culture prioritizes different sources of pride for itself and its various members (male & female, for instance).
Something is missing.
I recently read The Dawn of Everything by Graeber & Wengrow. I recommend it to you.
One of the things the book does is interrogate our use of the social term "equality". They argue that the use of the term equality is ultimately based on an impulse to treat everyone as interchangeable parts - equal because indistinguishable. This often leads to cruelty and neglect in real terms for real people.
I think I want to replace equality & freedom with justice & dignity.
I don't think these are unproblematic. The concept of justice is underpinned by "fairness" which I think has moving goal posts just like all the other concepts. Dignity is underpinned by "pride" and each culture prioritizes different sources of pride for itself and its various members (male & female, for instance).
Something is missing.
