Understanding Reflexive Environments

Reflexive environments have a tell: we are being asked to believe a narrative, a Just So story, one that creates division and attaches morality to the extremes as in, “If you do/do not agree, do/do not believe, do/do not act, do/do not demonstrate, do/do not attempt to make changes, do/do not go along with the overreaching and authoritarian solution, you are A Very Bad Person.”

That’s the artificial divide necessary for the activism to have effect. The ‘they’ who are attempting this crafting of the divisive environment are those who benefit by the division. Those who attempt to divide are the Bad Guys and they live and operate across the political spectrum.

The defence is to not believe a narrative. Ever. Ask yourself if the narrative is, in fact, true across the board (pay particular attention to what doesn’t fit) and then look to reality to arbitrate where the reasonable and ethical position lives.

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I, too, have faced this imposed ideology in my various bands. Fortunately, and because of the contribution my playing brings to these groups (and having the ears of the different conductors), my opinion happens to carry a lot of weight. When I ask, what does that (issue, and the social justice activism that is imported) have to do with this piece or that concert and ask the person raising it to explain how our actions will supposedly alter the issue itself or show a positive, uniting element, enough questions/questionable intentions are raised to sideline this inclusion and we can get back to doing what the group is intended to do: perform music well.

I say this to raise what I think is a very interesting aspect of today’s activism: it reveals an agenda to manipulate others using what I call feminine tactics (think of how girls at elementary and secondary school learn to use these tactics to affect other girls) versus the much more direct competition of ideas and results using what I call masculine tactics (again, think of how boys at elementary and secondary school arrange pecking orders and settle disputes publicly and forcefully). What I see in social justice activism is very much female driven and I sincerely worry about the pushback by younger disenfranchised males. It is a dangerous reckoning that I think few activists truly grasp is creeping ever closer on the horizon because of their intolerance of meaningful differences and the lean towards uniform authoritarianism to achieve.

Whoever harnesses this angry disenchantment will be very powerful indeed. It reminds me very much of Germany’s and Italy’s social reckoning in the 30s. What could emerge is frightening to anyone who cares about the survival of liberal democracy. Undermining today’s liberal democracy in the name of this or that social justice goal is advancing us all towards the violent accounting. And violence will win.

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