On Sad Boys

 I recently read a provocative piece that claimed that distressed boys were at the root of most of what is wrong with the world, and have always been. Disgruntled maladjusted boys are uniquely vulnerable to so-called extremist ideologies of the left and the right, which, the piece claims are two poles of the same magnet. One sought a perfect utopia, while the other sought to cleanse society of pollution. It cited a quote that I agree with: ’A faith is not acquired by reasoning. One does not fall in love with a woman, or enter the womb of a church, as a result of logical persuasion. Reason may defend an act of faith — but only after the act has been committed, and the man committed to the act. Persuasion may play a part in a man's conversion; but only the part of bringing to it full and conscious climax a process that has been maturing in regions where no persuasion can penetrate.’ I have lived in proximity to activists long enough to know that political ideologies are grounded more in faith than in reason. The moral fervour that animates political activists is fuelled by faith. How else do people persist with fringe groups for years, if not decades? I would even grant that such zeal makes one susceptible to conspiracy theories that support one’s cause. But, I was not comfortable with the article’s claim that extreme left and extreme right causes are equally intolerant and prone to authoritarianism. Firstly, I am sure there are different shades among the far-right, but all of them support outright violence against marginalized peoples. I am not sure that is the case on the left. The article gives some examples of their run-ins with people of the far-left and far-right. Comparing privileged participants of Occupy Wall Street with the Sandy Hook shooter, as the article does, is laughably disingenuous. Secondly, of the far-left and far-right, only one is compatible with capitalism. In a world where capital is seemingly all-powerful and mobile, how an ideology positions itself in relation to capital matters in terms of its capacity to do damage. As recent events have shown, centrists who claim to be equally repelled by the far-left and the far-right are far more tolerant of right-wing governments if they don’t gum up the wheels of capitalism too much.