(The audio above is pulled from the video version. Not word for word as the article below.)
Last week Muslim and Christian parents in Ottawa marched in protest of LGBT curriculum being taught in schools.
They united chanting, “Leave our kids alone.”
And they were met by counter-protesters chanting, “Go home fascists”.
This is not the first time this has happened this year, and it likely won’t be the last. This is one of many battles within the ongoing culture war.
But it’s particularly significant. (Beyond the obvious.)
While the current culture war has many unprecedented things about it, it’s also following the same pattern of every ideological battle.
The teams are different, but the game is essentially the same.
Both sides believe they are the “good guys”.
Both sides are sure the other side is evil.
One has has to wonder, how and why did this happen?
What this demonstration really demonstrates is the nature of ideological warfare.
Revolutions are (somewhat) predictable
In 1921, in the wake of the Great War, Alfred Korzybski theorized that violent revolutions predictably occur every few generations because of the discrepancy between hard sciences and soft sciences.
Hard sciences determine technological advancement which determine how we actually live. It develops at a geometrical (or nowadays exponential rate).
Soft sciences determine culture, morality, and law, which determine how we believe we should live. It develops at incremental rate.
Korzybski showed numerically that if a society’s hard and soft science level starts at ‘2’, but one is growing by a factor of two (2, 4, 8, 16, 32), and the other at a increment of two (2, 4, 6, 8, 10), the distance between those numbers creates an unbearable tension in the society.
In other words, the faster technology develops, the quicker our laws and culture fall “out of step” with actual lived experience.
Therefore, every few generations there needs to be a ‘correction’. Revolution aims to reset society and culture (soft science) to better reflect the times (hard science).
Korzybski suggested that the only way to prevent this is to require all world leaders to have an engineering degree rather than the more common law degree. Engineers would be able to adapt government to the pace of technology.
Korzybski did have a bias assuming more tech is better. Maybe that made sense in 1921, but I’d imagine he’d rethink some of that considering the pace of the social media generation.
Korzybski’s model does explain however why Western culture historically trends to the political Left.
Technology evolves to make life more comfortable. People have the luxury of fighting for more complex needs (such as social prejudice). This is why the Left will always be associated with “progress”— regardless of its implications.
New Ideologies need Old Enemies
In order for any new ideology to take hold, it needs two things:
(Abstract) Moral Switch— Change in perception of “Right vs. Wrong”
that says it will lead to…(Concrete) Opportunity Switch— Change in real results
First, the Moral Switch.
An ideology can only get noticed if it reverses something about people’s beliefs. The change has to be drastic if it will be noticed.
“Oh you thought the vegetables were good for you? No they’re full of micro-toxins. Eat only meat instead.”
A moral switch has to make enemies.
It has to say every preceding belief system before is wrong. (Either evil or misguided, or both.)
Hence Muslims and Christians have been put on the same team. The extreme Left frames both of them as evil.
Ideological War justified by Concrete Battle
Every ideology needs to promise a concrete result that’s tangible and better.
This is the Opportunity Switch— that your belief system leads to a better real world opportunity than the others. i.e. “Lose weight and feel great”, “Buy property with no money down”, “Help prevent harm in children.”
Ironically, both sides in the above protest actually want the same thing deep down— child safety and well-being.
Or at least, they using that concern to justify their belief.
Every social justice movement of 20th Century that gained traction, did so because they had a concrete fight for correction.
1st Wave Feminism fought for suffrage.
Civil Rights fought for desegregation.
LGBT Activism fought for same-sex marriage.
Regardless of your opinions, these were each overdue corrections in a democratic nation-state that proclaims “all are equal under the law”.
Each movement won their hard battle. But they couldn’t (and can’t possibly) defeat their ideological enemy.
Misogyny, racism, and homophobia/sexual-orientation prejudice can’t be eliminated completely, because it exists inside people’s heads. And government has no business policing people’s thoughts.
So every well-intentioned movement that starts with necessary correction, will inevitably enter into overcorrection… which brings us back to the current protests.
Ideologies keep fighting until stopped
In marketing, after the Opportunity Switch (initial conversion) is the Opportunity Stack (adding other products).
The initial switch gets them to convert to your belief system. Afterwards you keep adding on other needs, based on the initial conversion. (Also known as “upsells”.)
With an ideology it’s similar, but what your consumers are “buying” is more compliance.
As a business needs to keep making sales to stay profitable, an ideology needs to keep getting accepted to stay relevant. At first, this means converting more people. But just like a business, eventually you reach max market share, and then you need to “resell” to your customers.
Traditional religions do this mainly through rituals. Going to a place of worship, observing practices and yearly celebrations are renewals of faith. The rituals give practitioners an opportunity to “renew their subscription” eternally.
Newer ideologies don’t often have rituals. There is no clear way to “rebuy” in. So the only option is to keep pushing the boundaries.
LGBT activism has ventured into over-correction because:
They already succeeded in the major important “defensive” victories— correcting the lack of equality under the law.
It’s impossible to eradicate homophobia/transphobia from people’s minds.
So the only thing left for the ideology is to go on the offensive until they’ve conquered the hearts and minds of society.
This is a common theme throughout history. Offensive ideology is almost always born from defensive justification.
The only thing that stops an offensive ideology is another ideology. The extreme Left has been so antagonistic that almost every other ideology is part of the “Right”.
If the historical pattern continues, some of the following will happen next:
Wokeism dies out slowly
We will likely see corporations turn first. Corporations are money-motivated. They only signaled left in order to get better access to capital via ESG scores.
Given that many have suffered financially for their signaling, they will likely switch to follow the money.
Some will make a hard last stand
Individual public figures, namely politicians, will have a hard time pivoting because their votes are based on what they say they believe. In order to keep any level of power (and public consistency) they will have to double down. Their last followers will feel like they are the wise few who stayed true to a cause, and that the whole rest of the world is misguided.
Ultimately, though the current culture war seems unprecedented, it’s following script that has played out forever. Different teams, same game.
Breaking Down Ideological Conflict