"According to Aristotle, everything has a purpose or final end. If we want to understand what something is, it must be understood in terms of that end, which we can discover through careful study." 3 The telos (end goal) of medicine is health. For scholarship it's truth. For law it's justice. For business it's profit or value. For social justice it's equality (racial, gender, etc).
There are constructive and destructive ways telos' react to each other. It's destructive when one groups tries to force their thoughts into other areas.
2. Motivated Reasoning
We are not good at acknowledging which side has more truth. We want to believe what we want to believe. When there is ambiguity we see what we want to see.
In social science psychology in 2016 there was a 17:1 ratio of liberals to conservatives. That means today students are going to schools that are very heavily leaning to one end of the spectrum. It can make some students feel they are walking on eggshells when expressing their view points, and nobody dares contradict what's being taught.
Another down side to this is that students aren't used to hearing things that contradict their ideas so increasing numbers of people won't even listen to what the other side has to say.
For professors, they can feel great fear of students (it's easy for people to get offended and report them for anything they want).
3. Sacredness
In Raphael's famous painting, School of Athens, the greatest mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers were gathered together to share discoveries with one another. It seemed they had one cause - to find out what was true. That should be the cause for us today - find out truth, even if it means we are wrong.
What's sacred now? It feels as though social justice causes are. Women's rights, black lives matter, LGBTQ+, etc.
Again, I 100% believe in treating everyone equally. I have dozens of friends who are huge supporters or parts of each of those groups. But I think the role of an education though is to discover Lux Et Veritas, not to push social causes.
4. Anti-Fragility
Sociologists have shared the past few years people who are victimizing themselves, "rather than emphasize either their strength or inner self worth, the aggrieved emphasize their oppression and social marginalization." 4 This type of culture is debilitating. Those who embrace a 'marginalized' identity become more fragile and morally dependent; less likely to thrive after leaving the bubble of safety.
We are living in a society that is creating a culture of victimhood. It divides people into 'good' and 'bad' categories. It teaches black and white thinking - which is what cognitive psychology is trying to combat!
5. Correlation
If you attend social justice university you're told over and over again that there is discrimination against gender even though correlation doesn't imply causation. Yes, there are more men getting engineering degrees but that doesn't mean it's sexist. Women tend to gravitate to social sciences and teaching. Men gravitate towards technology, math, etc.,)
6. Justice
Social justice as it is practiced in the US today is focused on equal outcomes. It is just to treat everyone equally, it is not just to demand equal outcomes.
In an economic system, socialists favor equality of outcome - meaning, at the end of the year, despite how hard someone works or not, financially the outcomes would be equal. Does that foster the desire to work hard to get ahead? I would like to say no...
Similar to equal outcomes socially. I 100% believe in treating everyone equally - we are all brothers and sisters and have the potential to become great, I don't support having equal outcomes if some are working harder to get where they want to be.
Conclusion
I highly recommend Jonathan Haidt's presentation as it was very eye opening. May we treat others kindly and treat them as equals. May we love as God has commanded us to. And may we ever be in search of Lux Et Veritas.
Well wishes,
Ashley Marie
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