Disparaging without Knowledge for the Pleasure of Social Approval
December 31, 2009
Here's a great quote from Marilynne Robinson's essay on "Puritans and Prigs" in The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought (p. 153):
"The way we speak and think of the Puritans seems to me a serviceable model for important aspects of the phenomenon we call Puritanism. Very simply, it is a great example of our collective eagerness to disparage without knowledge or information about the thing disparaged, when the reward is the pleasure of sharing an attitude one knows is socially approved. And it demonstrates how effectively such consensus can close off a subject from inquiry. . . . Unauthorized views are in effect punished by incomprehension, not intentionally and not to anyone's benefit, but simply as a consequence of a hypertrophic instinct for consensus."
The quote, and much more, is discussed in a good interview with Professor Robinson by Mike Horton at the White Horse Inn.
"The way we speak and think of the Puritans seems to me a serviceable model for important aspects of the phenomenon we call Puritanism. Very simply, it is a great example of our collective eagerness to disparage without knowledge or information about the thing disparaged, when the reward is the pleasure of sharing an attitude one knows is socially approved. And it demonstrates how effectively such consensus can close off a subject from inquiry. . . . Unauthorized views are in effect punished by incomprehension, not intentionally and not to anyone's benefit, but simply as a consequence of a hypertrophic instinct for consensus."
The quote, and much more, is discussed in a good interview with Professor Robinson by Mike Horton at the White Horse Inn.
