About 20 years ago, there seemed to be a prevailing consensus (maybe more of a prevailing hope) that America was slowly becoming a more secular society. That’s not to say that religion wasn’t a very active political driver, but that it was in decline and its proponents on the defense.
The idea was that within a generation, more people would identify without religion than with, and along with it would come a greater emphasis on humanism, science, intellect, and rationality. The idea that appealed most to me was one of moderation (in the least freighted sense), that without an appeal to (omnipotent) authority, people would become more empathetic, more open to debate, less ideological.
Today, the U.S. is less religious than it has been at any point, but it feels even further from the secular utopia that was promised. This isn’t to diminish the very real theocratic movements that we’ve seen recently, but broadly, it seems that society has replaced religion with irreligious dogma, rather than secularism.
I think this is fairly evident in more nihilistic corners of the political right, where oppositionalism seems to have overtaken policy, but it also appears on the left. People who I really don’t agree with, like Ian Buruma or John McWhorter, have made some pretty compelling arguments that the modern left has co-opted religious—and specifically Protestant Christian—ethics. I find it compelling because it provides a framework for something I’ve felt so difficult to get a handle on. I remember the first time I saw an email from a colleague with a land acknowledgement signature and feeling utterly confused by such a bizarre appeal for penance (even if I don’t disagree with the underlying idea).
Similarly, as someone raised by Silent Spring liberals, “I trust the experts” as a mantra is slightly off putting to me. Having been in academia, the idea of abstractly aligning yourself with experts seems weirdly dogmatic to me. I trust the expert consensus, sure, but individually, I think experts are assholes.
Broadly, as someone who was raised as a secular Jew, what I find most striking is this need for something to appeal to, some center, some need for belief. It seems more like a replacement for religious dogma rather than an absence. In non-political terms, I think you can even see it in the rise of weird obsessions with astrology and the like.
Which is a long winded way of asking: is there a future for politics without belief? And is secular humanism relegated to the dustbin?
The idea was that within a generation, more people would identify without religion than with, and along with it would come a greater emphasis on humanism, science, intellect, and rationality. The idea that appealed most to me was one of moderation (in the least freighted sense), that without an appeal to (omnipotent) authority, people would become more empathetic, more open to debate, less ideological.
Today, the U.S. is less religious than it has been at any point, but it feels even further from the secular utopia that was promised. This isn’t to diminish the very real theocratic movements that we’ve seen recently, but broadly, it seems that society has replaced religion with irreligious dogma, rather than secularism.
I think this is fairly evident in more nihilistic corners of the political right, where oppositionalism seems to have overtaken policy, but it also appears on the left. People who I really don’t agree with, like Ian Buruma or John McWhorter, have made some pretty compelling arguments that the modern left has co-opted religious—and specifically Protestant Christian—ethics. I find it compelling because it provides a framework for something I’ve felt so difficult to get a handle on. I remember the first time I saw an email from a colleague with a land acknowledgement signature and feeling utterly confused by such a bizarre appeal for penance (even if I don’t disagree with the underlying idea).
Similarly, as someone raised by Silent Spring liberals, “I trust the experts” as a mantra is slightly off putting to me. Having been in academia, the idea of abstractly aligning yourself with experts seems weirdly dogmatic to me. I trust the expert consensus, sure, but individually, I think experts are assholes.
Broadly, as someone who was raised as a secular Jew, what I find most striking is this need for something to appeal to, some center, some need for belief. It seems more like a replacement for religious dogma rather than an absence. In non-political terms, I think you can even see it in the rise of weird obsessions with astrology and the like.
Which is a long winded way of asking: is there a future for politics without belief? And is secular humanism relegated to the dustbin?
