Recent searches
Search options
Adam Serwer’s essay “The Cruelty Is the Point” changed the way I inhabit the world. I already had the pieces. I already understood them, sort of. Yet when I read his writing, something clicked for me. I see the world differently after reading it.
It’s a piece that is worth rereading now, all the way to its powerful final paragraph:
(Non-paywalled link, ht @mybarkingdogs@freeradical.zone: https://archive.is/bZyGQ)
1/2
I can’t remember how long it’s been since I read a piece like that in The Atlantic.
What I can remember is a parade of facile pieces that present deliberate obtuseness as evidence in favor of morally abhorrent conclusions.
I do want publications that challenge my assumptions — but only if that challenege results in me saying “Oh, I see something new!” and not “Ugh, how annoying!” as if they came from a Reply Guy with a copy editor.
I used to be a paid Atlantic subscriber. Used to.
2/2
@inthehands I remember I used to enjoy reading it too and now an author being published there is a red flag in itself
@inthehands
Serwer’s piece on the Coming Second Redemption from November 2016 was also just as clear.
@inthehands It's a very good article that does, in fact, put all the pieces into a single picture, and ties it together with the past.
The thing it touches on, but doesn't really go deeply into, is that this desire for unity through cruelty is a human trait; it doesn't just apply to the MAGA crowd. Trump and his cult is just the latest group to operate unchecked.
Those of us on the other side need to pay attention to the cruelty we wish for as well. The left doesn't have a lot of concrete examples, probably because many of its demographics have not been in the position of unchecked power that facilitates overt, explicit cruelty. That doesn't mean we don't talk about it, fantasize about it, demand it as "justice." I think it is important that we look honestly at ourselves and seek to block those feelings, lest we find ourselves in a position of power and become the smiling faces and cheering crowds, overjoyed that some cruelty was inflicted on someone from the other side.
Or better yet - maybe the introspection will help us realize that any unchecked power will always inevitably lead to cruelty, and instead we'll turn our energy into ensuring nobody - not even ourselves - are able to operate unchecked.
@mathaetaes
The lightbulb that the piece turned on for me is not just that “unchecked power will always inevitably lead to cruelty” — that I knew — but rather that •the euphoria of cruelty leads to unchecked power•.
@mathaetaes
(And yes, just as you say, we all need to recognize that the euphoria of cruelty is a potential that exists in every one of us, something to which that no belief and no credo can make us immune.)
@inthehands Interesting perspective. The idea that cruelty attracts more support (generally from people who are insecure, and need to be cruel for their on self esteem) was always a given to me, but there was a time when I believed that if the right people had power, they would use it for good. I no longer believe that's possible, regardless of who we give power to.
There are plenty of examples where cruelty doesn't lead to unchecked power, though; situations where someone is rude/cruel/etc, but some more powerful force comes in and checks them. Schoolyard bullies who get checked by a teacher, asshole customers in a restaurant getting checked by other customers, etc.
I think it has to start from a place where someone already has enough power to do something cruel without getting checked. That attracts a certain kind of people which snowballs into something with varying degrees of horrible. At some point, the equation flips and cruelty drives the power... but initially, I think power has to drive the cruelty.
Fortunately, even the biggest, worst cases have always eventually been checked - both via small acts of opposition within the area of control, but also by external actors. Fascism, Apartheid, Nazis, Slavery (in any number of places and times) - they were all cruel, unchecked power that eventually went too far and got checked themselves. The MAGA cult will be no different... the question is how much damage will they do before it happens. Hell, even the wealth inequality facilitated by late stage capitalism is bound to get checked eventually, and assuming humanity survives long enough, I'm sure the history books will report our entire lifetime quite unfavorably - as a time when individualism and greed drove nationwide homelessness, heathcare shortages, an unchecked pandemic, etc - hopefully from a society that has learned from these mistakes and is overall better off.
It's the one silver lining in an otherwise horribly depressing history of humanity.
Machiavelli highlighted this 600 years ago.
The only pathway to power that is durable and constructive is to be loved and feared. The zeroth step of that path is to not seek power.
But he built upon ancients.
I have no desire to be cruel towards anyone. I choose to not inflict pain on others and self and I view all humans as equally human. It’s a simple concept that has roots going back millennia, yet we act like it’s an alien concept.
@inthehands
I had a subscription in high school. The Atlantic is the height of establishment journalism. Their current editor Jeffrey Goldberg, an American, took time out from college to volunteer as a prison guard in the IDF during the First Intifada.
Even so, they still have a good article every now and then.
@Voline @inthehands
This explains so much.