In his 2012 book “The Righteous Mind,” Jonathon Haidt argues that it is Intuition that ought to be our moral beacon, suggesting, in typical Postmodern fashion, that Reason is but a weapon we use to justify that which is in our own best interest. Whereas thinkers from Socrates to Sartre to Nathaniel Branden see rational self-awareness as the key to human integrity and tolerance, Haidt recommends shared “living” experiences like singing or dancing together as the means of achieving that Inclusiveness which is the ultimate [only?] value of the political Left. But in 2018’s “The Coddling of the American Mind” which he wrote in tandem with Greg Lukianoff, he identifies, according to the N.Y. Times, “three great untruths” of our contemporary culture, one of which is “always trust your feelings.” Indeed in a subsequent interview with Ben Shapiro he says it is mandatory our “intuitions” be submitted to the discipline of rational scrutiny. By his own admission he has moved towards the center, stating he is now able to appreciate many of the ideas of his former “conservative” opponents. But I would suggest he has radically altered his position. Whereas “The Righteous Mind” implicitly albeit unintentionally “coddled” the sort of mindless hysteria we see in the streets of America today, Haidt now seems utterly repulsed by such. Indeed when he laments what The Times describes as “the consequences of a generation unable or disinclined to engage with ideas” he sounds more like a “conservative” such as Camille Paglia than his former “progressive” self. The sub-title of his later book perhaps best suggests his revised opinion of the political Left: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting up a Generation for Failure.
I have already referred to Nicholas Kristof’s N.Y. Times article lamenting the ironic intolerance of his fellow “liberals.” Author and former counter-cultural radical Paul Berman is now appalled by the ideas and behavior of many on the Left. Political commentator Dave Rubin, a gay man, realizing that sector only seemed to value him because of his sexual orientation, has now recoiled from what he sees as its intellectual bankruptcy. Fiery Lebanese-American “conservative” Brigitte Gabriel sheepishly admits she once voted for Al Gore. Canadian singer Kelly Day attributes her transition to “conservatism” to her growing recognition of the need to respond to the dictates of both “head” and “heart.” And the youthful Lindsay Shepherd, who until recently deemed herself a “progressive,” has now, due to her treatment by the authorities at Wilfred Laurier University who demonized her for daring to show a politically incorrect video in one of her classes, renounced the culture of the Left as humorless, slanderous and, to use her very own word “disgusting.”
In 2018 Branden Straka, a gay N.Y. hairdresser, posted his now famous Walk Away video, encouraging others to follow him in denouncing his youthful political affiliation. He was fairly unambiguous in expressing himself: “For years now, I have watched as the left has devolved into intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, menacing, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded and, at times, blatantly fascistic behavior and rhetoric.”
The accuracy of his assessment, I believe, ought to be obvious to any but the most deluded. Unfortunately that would seem to include the bulk of our educated, Western “intellectual” elites.
In early 2020 Straka posted that his movement had already enticed a half million disenchanted Leftists to also Walk Away. Glimmers of hope in a Civilization seemingly bent on self annihilation!