‘Highly convoluted’
This is a response to George Will’s “A common enemy: Individualism” (Tribune-Herald, Dec. 26).
I was amazed to read this brilliant piece by George Will about individualism versus anti-modernism in the Trib. But his brilliance ultimately undermines his own argument, which is highly convoluted, if not contradictory and inconsistent.
He prophesies the rapid disappearance of critical race theory, or CRT, as an intellectual fad, which has replaced, as he argues, the proletarian struggle as the fuel of history. No more a class struggle, but a race struggle as the hip of the intellectuals on the left.
This would constitute a battle against the principle of individualism as it had emerged in 14th-century Europe, hence a war against modernism in support of collectivism. Such an argument constitutes intellectual arrogance by a white critic and misconstrues the powerful liberation both of the masses and the individual as a result of CRT.
What value is there to materialistic individualism when it is based on the disenfranchisement of racial minorities and gender groups? The United States is going through a fundamental paradigm shift that is not repressing the individual but consists of an appeal to all to understand and accept their responsibilities and moral duties as members of our democratic society.
Past injustice cannot be eliminated, but we must understand and acknowledge what had happened, so we have to accept our obligation today to work toward justice and equality for all.
Absolute (white) individualism is simply passé. Our world faces too many challenges (climate change, energy, racism, antisemitism, all kinds of phobias, violence, etc.) that our society must address collectively and constructively.
The notion of anti-modernism behind the current political and environmental struggles, as identified by Will, sounds to me like a desperate form of snobbism.
Albrecht Classen
Hilo
Bells not bombs
I believe I speak for many, if not all, war veterans when I say those firecrackers and mini-bombs that go off on New Year’s Eve and July Fourth (right in our own neighborhoods) conjure up memories we would rather not bring to mind, ever again.
Those sounds also fill our companion animals with body-shaking fear.
Isn’t 2022 time to change those war-like sounds to more celebratory sounds, such as bells, chimes and meaningful music?
New Year’s Eve and July Fourth should be filled with sounds of peace we hope to remember, not sounds of war we wish to forget.
Dov Kadima
Kohala