China Mieville on social sadism
Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 6:53 pmMieville is more famliar to me as an SF and fantasy writer, but he also writes dense political stuff from a socialist perspective.
The article below is quite long, but worth it IMO. Be warned though, there are some very disturbing accounts of political oppression and war crimes.
http://salvage.zone/in-print/on-social-sadism/
In terms of observations, I think the idea of ingrained social sadism explains a lot about the world as I've seen it.
Where he goes wrong IMO is in drawing his conclusions.
- Social sadism is not inextricably linked with capitalism. e.g. Look at the Soviet Union, which had plentiful instances of war crimes followed by Trump-style gaslighting doublespeak.
- His prescription for change seems to rely on the oppressors' propaganda tactics working for the oppressed, to at least some extent. I think this is morally wrong, and also not workable, because this kind of hate-propaganda is the lifeblood of oppressive power structures. You'll just bring in new and equally awful bosses: "Four legs good, two legs better!"
Basically I expect humans to keep reproducing the same oppressive shit, regardless of economics, until we get used to recognizing and quashing certain impulses.
Of course I might be misreading this completely. Take a look yourself, see what you think.
The article below is quite long, but worth it IMO. Be warned though, there are some very disturbing accounts of political oppression and war crimes.
http://salvage.zone/in-print/on-social-sadism/
In terms of observations, I think the idea of ingrained social sadism explains a lot about the world as I've seen it.
Where he goes wrong IMO is in drawing his conclusions.
- Social sadism is not inextricably linked with capitalism. e.g. Look at the Soviet Union, which had plentiful instances of war crimes followed by Trump-style gaslighting doublespeak.
- His prescription for change seems to rely on the oppressors' propaganda tactics working for the oppressed, to at least some extent. I think this is morally wrong, and also not workable, because this kind of hate-propaganda is the lifeblood of oppressive power structures. You'll just bring in new and equally awful bosses: "Four legs good, two legs better!"
Basically I expect humans to keep reproducing the same oppressive shit, regardless of economics, until we get used to recognizing and quashing certain impulses.
Of course I might be misreading this completely. Take a look yourself, see what you think.