By Carl R. Trueman
Dear Dr. Trueman, would you make this book required reading for every member of Congress?
G.K. Chesterton said, "Thinking means connecting things." In The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution, Carl Trueman connects today's SOGI politics to its philosophical roots, from the works of "Rousseau through the Romantics to Freud and then to the New Left." 384
Grab a cup of coffee. Get comfortable. This book is going to take awhile to read. And it is worth it!
Trueman contends the rise of identity politics "are a symptom or manifestation of the deeper revolution in selfhood that the rise and triumph of expressive individualism represents." p. 355 He writes:
Transgenderism is a symptom, not a cause. It is not the reason why gender categories are now so confused; it is rather a function of a world in which the collapse of metaphysics and of stable discourse has created such chaos that not even the most basic of binaries, that between male and female, can any longer lay claim to meaningful objective status. And the roots of this pathology lie deep within the intellectual traditions of the West. 376
As Richard Weaver told us in his 1948 work by the same title, ideas have consequences. And it is those ideas that Trueman wants us to see.
My purpose throughout has been to show how ideas that today permeate both the conscious philosophies and the intuitions that dominate the social imaginary have deep historical roots. p. 339
What I realized in reading Trueman is that the deep-seated emotivism that drives the sexual revolution makes discussions about philosophical differences nearly impossible. For example, oppositional appeals to my congressmen about the Equality Act based a historical heterosexual norm, classic definitions of marriage, or law rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition are likely to fall on deaf ears when the basis for right and wrong shift from the permanence of law to the psychology of self. That is not to say, "Don't make the appeal," but to recognize the challenge of civil discussion when the cultural norms change.
Trueman introduces the reader to the philosopher Charles Taylor. Taylor shows us two ways people think about the world: mimesis and poiesis.
A mimetic view regards the world as having a given order and a given meaning and thus sees human beings as required to discover that meaning and conform themselves to it. Poiesis, by way of contrast, sees the world as so much raw material out of which meaning and purpose can be created by the individual. p. 39
The reason it is increasingly difficult to carry on an ideological conversation is that the social imaginary of our day is poietic. Feelings trump objective truth. In fact, feelings are fact. Appeals to reason are dismissed as a part of a history of societal oppression. The maltreatment? Traditional views of binary gender distinction (male and female) and normative views of heterosexual relationship. The modern mind sees these ideas as oppressive. They must be condemned and cast off.
"Deathwork" is the name Philip Rieff gives to the way a group seeks to undermine and destroy established cultural norms and tear down the traditional moral structure of society. The LGBT+ community is engaged in facilitating that deathwork, an effort certainly made more likely with the passage of the Equality Act. Hence, as Trueman notes:
The LGBT+ alliance represents the latest and most powerful example of an anticulture, a deathwork, and a rejection of nature, underpinned by the aesthetic and emotive ethics that are so typical of a therapeutic age. p. 340
LGBTQ+ while representing differing perspectives relative to gender identity (and even disagreeing and contradicting one another) connect as victims of society's oppressive heterosexual norms (p. 355). As a group they wield significant influence.
As Trueman repeatedly points out, transgenderism (the "T" of the LGBTQ+ equation) is not so much the problem today as it is a symptom of a cultural ethic that has made the jump from mimesis to poiesis. That said, not every normative-defying group is on board with the transgender movement. Many feminists are not signing on. To them, simply declaring, "I am a woman trapped in a man's body" diminishes the place of women in history. As Germain Greer notes, "The pain, the struggle, and the history of oppression that shape what it means to be a woman in society are thus trivialized" (p. 360). Greer adds, "If uterus-and-ovaries transplants were made mandatory of wannabe women they would disappear overnight." p. 361 Holdouts notwithstanding, as Trueman's title suggests, the self-affirming sexualized modern self is on the ascendancy.
How Trueman divides his work:
The Rise And Triumph of the Modern Self is divided into four parts. In Part 1, Trueman examines the architecture of this sexual revolution. He shows us the reimagined self and culture. Part 2 is a deep dive into the ideological forces that have shaped what we are now experiencing. Trueman expertly traces the works of Rousseau, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Blake, as well as the impact of Nietzsche, Marx, and Darwin. Remember Chesterton? He said, "Thinking is connecting things." Trueman's connections are interesting and compelling. In Part 3, Trueman discusses Freud and the sexualization of the revolution. While Freud's theories are dismissed, culture has latched on to his fixation with all things erotic. Part 4, "Triumphs of the Revolution" points out how society's love affair with the erotic in art and culture is "symptomatic part of a larger cultural whole" (p. 380). Individualism, the psychologized view of reality, therapeutic ideals, cultural amnesia, and the pansexuality of our day must be understood -- and can only be understood -- in the broader context. His "Concluding Unscientific Prologue" is a fitting end to his work.
I gleaned a lot from The Rise And Triumph of the Modern Self. Here are a few items:
1. From mimesis to poiesis: Charles Taylor's construct is helpful as a broad ontological overview.
2. Psychology trumps biology: The reality of the body is not as real as the convictions of the mind. p. 369
3.Feelings trump reason: Trueman's subtitle includes the words "expressive individualism." This is a note he plays throughout the book while also demonstrating the historical basis for this shift.
4. Goodbye nuclear family: "What nature declares impossible--two people of the same sex can conceive a child--technology has made possible, and "the sexual revolution has then made imperative." p. 372
5. LGBTQ+ is a disparate and conflicting group united against "ideological and political enemies":The groups are disparate in that "T" denies the male-female binary the "L" and "G" embrace. The oppressors are a hetrological society whose biggest proponent has been religious groups, the most notorious "evil" being Christians.
6. It's not all bad: I appreciate how Trueman shows how all of us (yes, even Christians who oppose transgenderism) are expressive individualists. Consider your denominational choice, or social media account. He also acknowledges how the modern self's emphasis on human dignity is a perspective with which Christians agree.
7. But it's pretty bad: The reason for gloomy look is the basis for dignity is polar opposite. Christians base human dignity in that all humans are made in the image of God. This, he notes, was the driving force of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s. The premise of human dignity of expressive individualism, however, rests on human dignity detatched from any human or divine order. As Trueman notes, what we are left with is "a kind of totalitarian anarchy." p. 287
8. The Founding Fathers ideas of religious freedom and freedom of speech are out of step with the current social imaginary. When one's religious beliefs or patterns of speech "oppress" those whose identity is based in a selfhood void of a metaphysical construct, and that is the pervading view, it can only be a matter of time before such "rights" become wrongs.
9. Christian inconsistency: Christians cannot decry Obergefell and simply wink at no-fault divorce. It's inconsistent. The two are related.
10. Philip Rieff's "The Modern West as a Third-World Culture": See pages 74ff. So good and helpful for understanding why it is difficult to enter civil discourse today.
A Sobering Conclusion:
Trueman notes, "The long-term implications of this revolution are significant, for no culture or society that has had to justify itself by itself has every maintained itself for any length of time. Such always involves cultural entropy..." p. 381 The triumph of the modern self is a triumph of psychology over theology, of "I feel" over "thus saith the LORD." It is Judges 21:25, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." The result was chaos and captivity. Should we expect a different outcome?
Reason For Hope:
Trueman points Christians to the Christian community and to the second-century where he see parallels to the challenges of our day. The church's existence as a close-knit, doctrinally bounded community provides a foundation to live consistently with faithfulness to Christ and as a light that makes a difference today and prepares for a better tomorrow.
The Rise And Triumph Of The Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution is not an easy read, but it is an exceptionally good read. Carl Trueman is helping me make sense of these volatile times and chart a way through them. I highly recommend this book.
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Notes:
"Thinking means connecting things" from Twelve Types(Norfolk, VA.: IHS Press, 2003), 28)