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Good evening. This is Radio Free
Beszel. I am Alphonse. Tonight:

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Discourse, the Demon of
Social Justice. My very

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first episode was The Case
for Social Justice.

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But I indicated I didn't
buy it. And now I

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want to return to that
issue, and I want to

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continue from where I left
off and draw together

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some of the threads from
the episodes so far.

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What I said before is one
of the core ideas of

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social justice is language
- that language shapes

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the world, and that it acts
and speaks through

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us. And so language really
matters. And I take

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pains to avoid jargon terms
where I can, but the

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word that's used for this
is discourse. And I'm

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going to draw on a definition
from a book that's

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commonly used by college
and university students

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in the social sciences,
titled Communication

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Cultural and Media Studies:
Key Concepts, 3rd

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edition. Now I'm going to
read from the book. "The

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potentially infinite senses
any language system

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is capable of producing
are always limited and

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fixed by the structure of
social relations which

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prevails in a given time
and place, and` which is

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itself represented through
various discourses."

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So we can't say anything
we want. And if language

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is so important, if language
shapes the world,

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we can't make any world
we want. It's

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limited by discourses.
I'll continue:

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"individuals don't simply
learn languages

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as abstract skills.
On the contrary,

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everyone is predated by
established discourses

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in which various subjectivities
are represented

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already - for instance those
of class, gender,

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nation, ethnicity, age, family
and individuality."

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So here we have a list of
identity categories.

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Now this book is from 2003.
It doesn't include

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the term intersectionality,
but that's

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basically what it's
talking about.

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Let me continue: we establish
and experience

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our own individuality by
'inhabiting' numbers

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of such discursive
subjectivities." In other

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words, our identity is
an intersection of

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these different categories,
these different

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identities, and they are
the defining features.

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We may have some unique
individuality, but the

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most important thing is the
ruts, the guides that

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are laid down by the
pre-existing discourses. We

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can't stray too far from that.
I'll continue: "The

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theory of discourse proposes
that individuality

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itself is the site, as it
were, on which socially

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produced and historically
established discourses

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are reproduced and regulated."
As I said,

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language speaks through us.
Language is doing the

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speaking. We are the site,
we are the territory,

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and we are also a battleground.
Quote,

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"Discourses are power
relations.

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It follows that much
of the social sense

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making we are subjected
to in the media,

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at school, in conversation
is the working through

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of an ideological struggle
between discourses."

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This is a theory that makes
discourses language

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the most important thing.
It makes human beings

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the territory on which
discourses battle as

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though they are gods and
we're puppets. We're

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like ants down on the ground,
and the territory

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they occupy, the territory
they win is us.

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And they act through us, but
it's the discourses that matter.

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So I could ask, is social
justice effective?

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Is it making life better
for the marginalized

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people that it claims to
represent? But if you

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look at the objective of
social justice, if that

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objective is to change
discourses, then yes, it is

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- even if there's greater
racial strife, even if

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there's greater sexism
and greater conflict

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between the sexes. So it
makes perfect sense

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in a world where discourses
shape reality,

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where discourses battle
each other through

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the medium of people, that
the way they do that

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is by controlling what people
say. Censorship is

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not a regrettable aspect
of social justice. In

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this understanding ,it's
an essential feature.

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But my critique of social
justice isn't just about

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its ideas. It's about where
it comes from. This

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idea of discourses is the
belief of a professional

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elite. And that professional
elite are produced

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in our educational institutions.
And one of

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the primary functions of
those institutions,

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as I've said, is to train
people to conformity,

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and it is to teach them
to use language.

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This theory of discourses
is a perfect fit for

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the skill set that we are
producing. And this idea

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that discourses act and
people are basically

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puppets or marionettes
is something we

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see all around us. Not
only advocates of

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social justice talk about
people this way.

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Across the political spectrum
we have people

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accusing their opponents
of being NPCs,

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pod people or sheep. There's
a widespread belief

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that other people are possessed,
that they're not

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authentic individuals -
although of course the

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person saying that thinks
that he or she is.

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So this idea that people
are like puppets

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or sheep - that's why
I talk about demons.

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This is almost an
idea that people

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are possessed by
discourses.

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Discourses like race, as I spoke
about in my previous episode.

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Discourses are the demons
of social justice. The

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battle between the discourses,
these invisible

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imagined social constructions,
actually takes

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place through conflicts
among people. But it's

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the discourses that are
primary. I find this

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profoundly dehumanizing.
The pandemic has laid

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bare that the social justice
movement, it seems

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to me, is just an expression
of something deeper.

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Because the authoritarian
pandemic response shares

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so much in common with a
social justice movement,

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and yet its content, health,
is so different:

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there must be something
deeper at work.

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Now of course social change
on this scale has

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multiple converging causes.
But one key one jumps

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out at me. John Michael
Greer has talked about

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this, Paul Kingsnorth, and
others. And that's the

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narrative of progress. Our
elites produced by our

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educational institutions
- their elite status is

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justified on the basis of
making the world better.

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It's justified on the basis
of progress. And

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indeed the vast majority
of them call themselves

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progressives. The idea that
technology and society

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are improving hand in hand,
the idea that we can

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make and become better people.
But that narrative

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is breaking down. We look
around us and we see a

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society and a civilization
in decline. And this

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threatens the very reason
for being for these

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elites. If progress justifies
their status,

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if progress justifies their
moral superiority,

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what happens when progress
breaks down?

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Well, how do human beings
respond to bad things?

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As I've said several times
before, we don't like

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to think it's just chance.
We don't like to blame

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it on impersonal forces. We
want someone to blame.

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And social justice does
this. It doesn't just

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blame discourses, it blames
the people who are

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possessed by those discourses.
It identifies

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scapegoats. And the pandemic
does exactly the

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same. And I think that's
an excellent candidate

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for why we're seeing social
justice and why we're

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seeing response to the pandemic
that we are. But

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those deeper causes are
topic for next season.

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This is the final episode
in the first season

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of this podcast. I'm going
to take a break now,

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I'm not sure for how
long. Social justice

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was the theme of this
first season,

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and almost every episode
(although

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I usually didn't
state it)

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had at its heart a
critique of some

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aspect of the social
justice movement.

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But when i come back I'm
going to talk about

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what i think are perhaps
deeper forces:

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issues like technology,
technocracy,

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and the narrative
of progress.

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Until then, this
is Alphonse, for

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Radio Free Beszel,
www.beszel.ca.

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good night