4. Here's the relevant thread with excellent recommendations:https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1002932017678422016 …
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5. One interesting thing here is that
@jbouie is looking at Enlightenment as historian does (as a complex, evolving, time-bound thing). His right-wing critics are treating it as an etherial, ahistoric talisman offering perfect wisdom on individualism, freedom, democray8 replies 39 retweets 320 likesShow this thread -
6. There is a fetishization of the Enlightenment similar to way fundamentalist believers treat sacred texts: it was perfect so can't be challenged or seen as complex, ironic, paradoxical, etc. "Racism is bad," implicit logic goes, "So Enlightenment can't be racist."
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8. One paradox is that contemporary right, by fetishizing mythical Enlightenment, cuts itself off from rich, still-pertinent conservative tradition of criticizing failures & limits of Enlightenment.
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9. Some of the earliest & sharpest observations on hypocrisy & limits of Enlightenment came from Tories & reactionaries. "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" Samuel Johnson owning Jefferson, 1776.
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10. In fact, a large part of what's valuable in conservatism comes from comes from reactionary critics of its false claims to universality (think of Burke contrasting abstract "rights of man" to concrete "rights of Englishmen")
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11. (This is tangential but the discovery of the value of cultural difference & contingent identity came from the reactionary right. It's not an accident that visiting Hindus in 18th century England found hospitality in the house of Edmund Burke).
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Jeet Heer Retweeted Michael Brendan Dougherty
12. Speaking of smart reactionaries, this is a good tweet by someone who knows what historical (as opposed to fetishized) Enlightenment was all about:https://twitter.com/michaelbd/status/967226685115502592 …
Jeet Heer added,
Michael Brendan DoughertyVerified account @michaelbd“He says he believes in 'Enlightenment principles.' Naturally I thought he meant political absolutism, and the duty of subjects to profess the religion of their political sovereign. But it turns out he just shares YouTube clips of atheists and anti-feminists."1 reply 29 retweets 117 likesShow this thread -
Jeet Heer Retweeted b-boy bouiebaisse
13. Completely agree here. The point is not to jettison Enlightenment (impossible in any case since it is too formative) but to improve by critique:https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1003029377423032320 …
Jeet Heer added,
b-boy bouiebaisseVerified account @jbouieReplying to @DavidOttlinger @HeerJeetspeaking only for myself, the takeaway here should be interrogating the extent to which the ideas and ideologies that grow out of the enlightenment contain race thinking (or misogynist thinking or classist thinking) and work to decolonize the ideas we like of those elements4 replies 21 retweets 123 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @HeerJeet
@jbouie My gut reaction is: Yeah, of course we’re talking about the fetishized Enlightenment; there’s no reason for anyone outside a very narrow grad seminar to care about the ‘historical’ one in the sense you mean it. Every era label that broad is a selective reconstruction.3 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
I think the difference between a grad school understanding & a popular understanding can be narrow (as it is with, say, American Revolution) or it could be glaring (as it is here).
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And that difference is contested and can be revised, nuanced or flipped on its head over time. In fact, exchanges like this, multiplied many times over many years, is exactly how it happens.
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