It's more complex than that. James Lindsay gave the best summary, IMO (see his Twitter feed for examples):So I took a shot at Lobaczewski’s book to figure out what "paramoralism" is supposed to mean, and the closest I got is exploiting a tragic event/situation for personal or political gains by exaggerating the severity of that event, particularly exploiting human emotions through effusions of outrage or exaltation. Like attorneys do when they try to impress a jury, claiming compensation for the ‘emotional distress’ caused to their client. I like that term.
Ideological Paramorality
Alongside the paralogical structure used to trick useful idiots into defending the ideological pseudo-reality project is a powerful tool of social enforcement using an ostensibly moral dimension. A relativist might refer to this as a "moral framework" that is ethical "within the ideology," but as it is a morality contingent not upon the facts of human existence as those exist in reality but instead as they are distorted in the constructed pseudo-reality, it would be more appropriate to refer to it as a paramorality, an immoral false morality which lies beside (and apart from) anything that deserves to be called "moral." The goal of the paramorality is to socially enforce the belief that good people accept the paramorality and attendant pseudo-reality while everyone else is morally deficient and evil. That is, it is an inversion of morality, the slave morality as described by Nietzsche in his Genealogy of Morals.
Because the paramorality is, in fact, immoral, participants in the pseudo-reality will experience vigorous, usually totalitarian, enforcement of the ideological paramorality. It is in this way that the requisite social pressure is created to maintain the lie and its immoral system. In turn, following the cycle of abuse, they will then use the same tenets and tactics to (para)-moralize normal people outside of it, eventually far more vigorously. The trend toward puritan-style pietism, authoritarianism, and eventually totalitarianism in application of this paramorality is a virtual certainty of acceptance of an ideological pseudo-reality, and these abuses will be visited not only on every participant in the constructed fictional reality but also to everyone who can be found or placed within its shadow (which can come to include entire nations or peoples or, in fact, everyone, even those who reject it). Again, this is the true alchemy of the pseudo-realist program; it transforms normal, moral people into immoral agents who must perpetrate evil to feel good and perceive as evil those who do good.
An ideological paramorality is even less accessible to disagreement than the paralogic of an ideological pseudo-reality because it bets everything — including reality itself and the well-being of every individual who inhabits it — against Utopia, a daydream of absolute perfection. Thus, the paramorality sees only two types of people: those who accept the pseudo-reality and replace actual morality with its paramorality positioned as champions against those who must not want Utopia (and who therefore must want a world of suffering of the kind its architects are least capable of bearing). In this regard, there is no neutrality in a paramoral system, and all shades of gray are alchemically transformed into real black and pseudo-real white. Thus, in a pseudo-realist's paramorality, there is either fully convicted support or incomprehensible (in the paralogical system) and depraved (in the paramorality) desire to see the indefinite continuation of the evils that will no longer exist when the Utopia is (technically never) realized. Vicious moralizing that will eventually justify violence, including on wide scales, is an eventual guarantee of such demands, if they are enabled sufficiently to shift that power to the ideologues.
This guarantees the paramorality of an ideological pseudo-reality will always be repressive and totalitarian. Dissent and doubt cannot be tolerated, and disagreement must be cordoned off into a moral pit that adherents dare not approach. Further, the paramorality will mandate deceptively bifurcated concepts of concepts like tolerance (which must be repressive), acceptance, compassion, empathy, fairness (all of which must be conditional and selective), merit (in regurgitating the doctrines of the pseudo-reality), and compromise (to always favor pseudo-real claims) that preposterously support the pseudo-reality, all propped up by the linguistic games at the heart of the pseudo-real ideological project. That is, specifically, the bifurcation makes these concepts completely relevant in ways that bias for its ideas, but strictly prohibited for any others. These bogus constructions are meant to unilaterally shift power to the ideologues so that their pseudo-reality can remain propped up.
It must be stressed that the paramorality in play is always an inversion of the prevailing morality that is also parasitic upon it — namely, Nietzsche's slave morality. In other words, it is a particular type of perversion of morality that can feel more moral than moral but is, in fact, evil. This is because the paramorality acts in service to a pseudo-reality, not reality, and is thus the domain of psychopathy, which, when inflicted on the normal masses, is evil. The goal of the paramorality will always arise from and exist to favor people with particular psychopathologies who cannot otherwise cope with the discomforts of reality. This implies that an ideological pseudo-reality's most successful means of gaining strength is through appealing to the perceived victimhood of those people and whipping up the grievances of those who have suffered similar injustices with more dignity. When widely empowered, this should be treated as another symptom of impending civilizational calamity and a need to identify and reject the pseudo-reality manipulating these feelings.
He doesn't say that. Maybe you were reading a different book.I was hopeful that I could find some theological insight, so I first jumped to the chapter on Religion: very simplistic - basically religion was just an instrument used by pathocrats/elites to exert their dominance, I was disappointed.
Another misreading and conflation of concepts. A pathocracy is a government and social structure in which all positions of influence and authority are held by people with certain personality and character disorders. 'Elites' are more often than not part of a psychologically 'normal' society, even if the elites themselves might be detached from reality and SOBs by virtue of their position. Re-read the chapter on the hysteroidal cycle.‘Pathocracy’ which is synonym with ‘elite’ refers to a group of people who make decisions and exert control over the majority of the population. By analogy: the politburo in Communist Russia or the board of directors of a corp.
There are a few in there, if you look for them, but that's not the purpose of the book. Do you look for cooking advice in an economics textbook?The book is heavy on psychopathology, for those interested, I was more interested in the religion/consciousness insights - I couldn’t find much.
Again, no. It's not that the elites "start to behave as psychopaths" (though that is part of it). It is that psychopaths hijack ideological movements and ride to power using their popularity, further pathologizing the ideologies along the way, until the totally reshape society and wield total control.Basically the book’s premise is that the same type of causes, symptoms and evolution that can be observed and characterize individual pathological cases can be applied at macro level, and as such ‘elites’ (i.e. those who come in position of power) start to behave as psychopaths, or become ponerized.
Not a good example. Having a majority stake owner is not determinative of the pathology of the corporate board. It may be, but it may not be.Corporation board model looks pretty ponerized to me, especially when you have a majority stake owner.
Yes, everything can be "ponerized". (We use the word that way, but Lobaczewski just uses it to describe the pathological takeover of an ideology or its group.) And that is the problem. Again, here's Lindsay's take on it:Problem is everything can be ponerized this way, bad cops, good cops...even the store that doesn’t let you in if you don’t wear a mask is becoming ponerized.
Most concerningly, psychopathic ideologies reliably generate (temporary but) functional psychopathy in otherwise normal people who, by means of these manipulations, become sufficiently convicted fellow travelers with and sympathizers to the ideology. Quite literally, aside from the direct effects of demoralization and the destabilization caused by the growing drift of their beliefs away from reality and toward unreality (pseudo-reality), a psychopathic ideology makes its sympathizers believe and act in psychopathic ways themselves, at least in a functional sense. These are the demands and costs of upholding the paralogic (so as not to be a "fool" in pseudo-reality) and paramorality (so as not to be the wrong kind of person in pseudo-reality), and slowly these victims of the ideology become the monsters they were too weak to fight. As noted previously, virtues like tolerance and empathy are intentionally perverted until they begin to bifurcate so that they carry a political valence (paramorality good, morality bad) that increasingly favors the pseudo-real ideology and becomes legitimately psychopathic as the effect strengthens.
Eventually, a normal person subjected to these circumstances ceases to be normal. This occurs when they "awaken" to a "full consciousness" in the pseudo-reality. At that point, they will have reached a place where, from their perspective, pseudo-reality is reality and reality is the pseudo-reality. That is, they will be psychopathic themselves, in thrall to the paralogic of the pseudo-real delusion and with bifurcated and narrowed ethics and moral virtues under its paramoral system. Presumably, in the majority of such previously normal people, this effect is temporary and contingent upon participation in the cult, though it is likely that some of the relevant psychological damage will be long-lasting, if not permanent. Nevertheless, in the short term, the result of this dynamic is a growing body of functionally and legitimately psychopathic people accruing more and more power for themselves, which they use (in psychopathic ways) to enforce their ideological pseudo-reality on everyone, most notably everyone else.
Because that's reality. We also divide between normal people and serial killers. And honest people and con men.It creates a divide between ‘normal people’ and those perceived as ‘ponerized’ or ‘psychopaths’.
Only if you're living in some pseudo-reality. In the real world, it's why we try to put murderers, rapists, and con men in prison.When this is propagated at group mentality level - it becomes a serious problem: us vs them, der anderen.
You've got it backwards.And that’s how adversity and division creep in society and from there is just a descent to barbarism.
Diversity and inclusion are ideological buzz words currently in service of a psychopathic pseudo-reality.As opposed to diversity and inclusion (even artificially instilled) which foster cohesion and lead the way to the future.
Now I think you're just trolling. "We're moving into a new era of diversion, equity and inclusion, and you better adapt, because otherwise you'll feel our diverse, equitable and inclusive boot on your face while we destroy you for not getting on board with our utopian fantasy."If you don’t at least try to understand that we are moving into a new era, and some preps for these changes that lie ahead of us are necessary, concepts of unity, acceptance and tolerance gaining more prominence and a certain neuroplasticity - you’re going to have a hard time dealing with these feelings of elites, control, programming, psyops, etc.