Misanthropy

[ed miliband]

I tried this on another forum some time ago and it didn't really work, but I'm interested as to what the people of revleft think of this question: what are the political implications of a misanthropic worldview?


Misanthropy is a generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt and hatred of the human (http://www.answers.com/topic/human) species, human nature (http://www.answers.com/topic/human-nature), or society (http://www.answers.com/topic/society). A misanthrope is someone who holds those views and feelings. The word's origin is from Greek (http://www.answers.com/topic/ancient-greek-2)μῖσος (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BC%E1%BF%96%CF%83%CE%BF%CF%82) (misos, "hatred") and ἄνθρωπος (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E1%BC%84%CE%BD%CE%B8%CF%81%CF%89%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%8 2) (anthrōpos, "man, human being"). It can be considered a form of speciesism or a discrimination based on species. words

I'm of the belief that to be a misanthrope is to automatically give credence to right-wing politics. It justifies selfishness, elitism, hypocrisy, hatred (obviously), and stands against solidarity and compassion. It views humanity as a species made up of individual, warring cells, and such a view almost automatically stands opposed to the hope for a stateless, classless society.

I was told on the other forum that some people are misanthropes because they are compassionate but hate seeing what 'humanity' does to eachother. This seems flawed to me - it seems to blame the whole of humanity for issues largely caused by a small minority of the human race. Rather than critique capitalism, class society, the state, etc. it seems to me that people who choose to be misanthropes because they are 'compassionate' lazily blame suffering on an internal human flaw. This is no different from the 'human nature' argument often used to 'discredit' communism.

Another question: is misanthropy any better than racism, or sexism, or homophobia?

On the topic of misanthropy, it interests me how it is now seemingly quite acceptable in 'liberal' and 'centre-left' circles, especially since the rise of interest in environmentalism. An Italian comrade said at a talk that I went to that liberals in Italy are suprisingly friendly with elements of the far-right because their views on issues like this are sinisterly similar. Of course that could easily be bollocks.

[Blake's Baby]

No, there's definitely a green-fascist tie in. You can't have the master race in a poisoned world (anyway pollution is the fault of the Jews) and killing millions of people will help to restore 'the earth's natural balance' or some such. I paraphrase but it's there.

The problem with green politics in general is any old crackpot can come along and abuse it because it's not, actually, rooted in a materialist analysis. Greens can be so idealistic (like social democrats) that they think that capitalism can be somehow reformed to be nice. But misanthropy can certainly play a role in green thinking... 'the problem is, we have the wrong sort of humans'.

[Invincible Summer]

No, there's definitely a green-fascist tie in. You can't have the master race in a poisoned world (anyway pollution is the fault of the Jews) and killing millions of people will help to restore 'the earth's natural balance' or some such. I paraphrase but it's there.

The problem with green politics in general is any old crackpot can come along and abuse it because it's not, actually, rooted in a materialist analysis. Greens can be so idealistic (like social democrats) that they think that capitalism can be somehow reformed to be nice. But misanthropy can certainly play a role in green thinking... 'the problem is, we have the wrong sort of humans'.

More like "humans are a disease to the planet earth, and nature will take its course and wipe us out. Oh well we deserve it"


I've never heard of "green fascists."

[Wolf Larson]

More like "humans are a disease to the planet earth, and nature will take its course and wipe us out. Oh well we deserve it"


I've never heard of "green fascists."
Currently listening to dystopia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DDQwddR_fA

;)

[Dimentio]

More like "humans are a disease to the planet earth, and nature will take its course and wipe us out. Oh well we deserve it"


I've never heard of "green fascists."

http://www.aviisi.fi/media/kuvat/toimitus/0506linkola.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentti_Linkola

With all probability the most reactionary man ever.

[ed miliband]

:blink:: http://www.metamute.org/en/content/casa_pound_and_the_new_radical_right_in_italy

[RevolutionAdzy]

Misanthropy is usually secular, practiced by a sole few whose view on misanthropy itself may actually fluctuate depending on their own situation as well as events that may lead them to become a misanthrope. On a Political view, their idea is skewed biasly to the right, however only offering a small portion of those who believe in far right (or right wing anyway) ideals.

[Blake's Baby]

...

I've never heard of "green fascists."

I said "green-fascist tie in" - "a tie in between green and fascist ideologies".

In the 1980s there was a split in the National Front in Britain (the main far-right group at that time) and one group adopted an environmentalist agenda. They weren't very large, but there has been a strand of the far right that has continued with the same line. I'm not really up on fash-spotting, but I believe there are far-right groups in Scandinavia with a similar agenda.

More worrying than the whitey-green fantasies of a handful of clean-limbed Aryan nature-lovers, is the underlying misanthropy of much green politics. The reference to "the wrong sort of people" is a kind of British joke; 'the wrong sort of snow', 'the wrong sort of leaves' etc are standard excuses for failure to deliver policies (or pizzas) in the UK. So by "the wrong sort of people" I meant precisely what you outlined more explicitly - but I was trying to imply that the idea that "people are a disease" could easily morph into "some people are a disease, if only we had more 'white cells' to see them off, we could have a cleaner less poluted world..."

[Nwoye]

If one has nothing but contempt or hatred for mankind then it would make little sense to construct a political programme based around the liberation of humanity from all forms of oppression (ie be a communist). A misanthropic worldview to me it seems would probably lead to political conclusions driven by egotism and elitism.

[Jimmie Higgins]

If one has nothing but contempt or hatred for mankind then it would make little sense to construct a political programme based around the liberation of humanity from all forms of oppression (ie be a communist). A misanthropic worldview to me it seems would probably lead to political conclusions driven by egotism and elitism.Yes, this is how I've seen it play-out in practice. It leads to pessimism and crude nihilism: if people are the source of the problems in the world, then putting the majority in power (socialism) would not solve these human-originating problems, it would probably increase it. At best, the conclusions you can draw from that line of thinking are: "well nothing matters - the oppression now is inevitable and any other system would likely just replace this repression with other repression" (this is the view favored by cynical liberals). The other conclusion is, "If 'people' are the problem, maybe we can minimize that risk by putting one or maybe a few 'enlightened' people in power to control the rest of the slobs for their own good" (this would be the fascist-oriented view).

[Nwoye]

The other conclusion is, "If 'people' are the problem, maybe we can minimize that risk by putting one or maybe a few 'enlightened' people in power to control the rest of the slobs for their own good" (this would be the fascist-oriented view).
yes exactly, and the person support this view usually considers him/herself to be the one to fill that position.

[Hiratsuka]

Most misanthropes I know are either raging liberals or capitalist libertarians. The former due to environmentalism, the latter due to their own selfishness.

[ed miliband]

I said "green-fascist tie in" - "a tie in between green and fascist ideologies".

In the 1980s there was a split in the National Front in Britain (the main far-right group at that time) and one group adopted an environmentalist agenda. They weren't very large, but there has been a strand of the far right that has continued with the same line. I'm not really up on fash-spotting, but I believe there are far-right groups in Scandinavia with a similar agenda.

More worrying than the whitey-green fantasies of a handful of clean-limbed Aryan nature-lovers, is the underlying misanthropy of much green politics. The reference to "the wrong sort of people" is a kind of British joke; 'the wrong sort of snow', 'the wrong sort of leaves' etc are standard excuses for failure to deliver policies (or pizzas) in the UK. So by "the wrong sort of people" I meant precisely what you outlined more explicitly - but I was trying to imply that the idea that "people are a disease" could easily morph into "some people are a disease, if only we had more 'white cells' to see them off, we could have a cleaner less poluted world..."

Do you know anything about the magazine 'Green Anarchist' and their links with the far-right?

[Blake's Baby]

Not really, nothing concrete, just rumours that there was a link. I've heard that there is a primitivist-fascist crossover but never investigated it. I'm sure that the information is 'out there' somewhere.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Not really, nothing concrete, just rumours that there was a link. I've heard that there is a primitivist-fascist crossover but never investigated it. I'm sure that the information is 'out there' somewhere.Let's not investigate this as looking for it might somehow, supernaturally, cause this bastard "Rosemary's Baby" of an ideology to come into being (if it doesn't exist already):lol:.

[Wolf Larson]

how many people know COBRA from the old G.I. JOE cartoons was really an environmentalist group seeking to destroy humanity? LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlsMwg2bFDI&feature=related

[People's War]

To be fair, misanthropy is much more understandable than sexism, racism etc. It discriminates against everyone instead of just one group. But seriously, when we consider the human race and the millions exploited by capitalism, I wonder how anyone can't be at least a little misanthropic.

[Os Cangaceiros]

if people are the source of the problems in the world

I actually kinda believe that.

It's hard to not become disillusioned with humanity sometimes. I break with misanthropes on the issue of "what is to be done?", though; they have a rather lethargic view that we all suck and that's all there is to it, while I advocate a socio-economic system in which mankind's positive traits (like cooperation and solidarity) are supported while negative traits (like exploitation) are mitigated, to the extent possible.

A good number of misanthropes that I know don't realize that the standard of living that they enjoy was in part created by individuals and groups who did believe in people and fought hard in the pursuit of something better.

[ed miliband]

Let's not investigate this as looking for it might somehow, supernaturally, cause this bastard "Rosemary's Baby" of an ideology to come into being (if it doesn't exist already):lol:.

http://www.stewarthomesociety.org/ga/anaafaorg.htm

:(