Why You Shouldn't Believe Yourself

And an Unsung Notion of the Counter-Enlightenment that might Redeem Western Civilization!!

Image from KERA Think

By

James Pew

Around four or five times per years (give or take), I write a general sort of article which expresses gratitude for Woke Watch Canada readers, welcomes new readers, gives a little behind-the-scenes impression of the research effort (the larger of the two hemispheres which divides the mission of this independent think tank and publishing organization that I am in the process of building), and importantly, underlines the significance of the financial contributions made by this illustrious community of concerned citizens, academics, and truth-seekers.

However, I also make sure these posts have a little something of what Woke Watch Canada readers subscribe for. Today is no exception. So please stick with me, eventually the title of this post will make sense, and my exposition will include a fascinating side trip through an extraordinary insight made by an important modern thinker: Isaiah Berlin.

Uncomfortably, these posts must also put forth a humble request to those who find value in the offerings here. I ask you, dear reader, to consider making a financial contribution in whatever amount fits within your means. Not to overextend, but to assist, if you possibly can. The following paragraphs, while they are bound to meander around a bit, will in the end, make a case for the array of benefits, this research and publishing effort consistently unleashes upon the world. If you are as fired up about our mission as I am, I simply request that you join in the execution of our distinguished truth-seeking mandate. 

A one time contribution of any amount you deem fit can be made here. Alternatively, you can upgrade to a paid subscription. All of the fuel that powers Woke Watch Canada, comes from donations made by readers using either of these two methods.

One of the things which inspired the general comment found within these paragraphs today is a sort of ever-present anxiety I feel in regards to a series of self-imposed responsibilities and obligations in which absolutely no one, save for my own inner demons, holds me accountable. No reader of these pages has ever complained that the quantity of published articles had fallen short of their hopes or expectations. But never-the-less, I feel a constant pressure to deliver a consistent quality of analysis, or at the very least, an insightful commentary, to both hold the interest of this sophisticated readership, but also provide the substance deserved by those who so generously give their time, and in some cases money, who tacitly, and often overtly, support the ideas put forward in the works I publish.

The anxiety I have been feeling the last few days is quite high. Although, it is also mixed with an anticipatory excitement boiling under the surface, robbing me of quality sleep, occupying my every waking thought, consuming my whole essence. This is a temporary condition, I have been in this exact spot countless times. I am a professional at getting back to equilibrium. But at the moment, dear reader, I don’t mind at all admitting to you that I am completely unhinged, unbalanced, out of focus, and fully twisted under a skewed sort of psychic alignment that has utterly distorted my normal way of moving through the world and thinking about things. It’s a magical thing, a degree or two perhaps shy of epiphany, intensely exhilarating, even if also exhausting and utterly unsustainable. 

The responsibility for this blissful but tiresome state lies squarely with the imminence concerning the completion, and ultimate publishing of my next essay from an in-depth series on Israel that I have been working on since October of last year. The new essay is such a big deal that I actually wrote an article about it that will be published in these pages the day after the new one gets posted on The Turn. For new readers, I should explain that I have moved my long-form Israel writing over to my other Substack, The Turn. Please do become a subscriber there!! The first essay in the series is an 11,000 word deep dive called The Case for Israel. The new essay continues from the foundation the first one established. As well, it is also over 10,000 words, so make sure you set aside enough time, and have ample coffee (which my writing is designed to be paired with).

Ok, now that I have gotten the above off my chest. Let’s get to the good stuff. But before I discuss Isaiah Berlin, let me first deal with the odd title of this piece: Why you shouldn’t believe yourself.

One of the big takeaways from Noam Chomsky’s and Edward Herman’s classic Manufacturing Consent, is the idea that modern Westerners (those born in approximately 1960 and after), were born into a unique environment unlike any other in the history of mankind. In a nutshell, what is special about our advanced modern world is the saturation of propaganda. Marketing, is essentially propaganda, is essentially thought control. Public messaging, education, and entertainment of all forms hold in them countless suggestions. In the day in the life of an average North American, thousands of suggestions, the subtle coercion and persuasion that exist in advertising, media, political messaging arrives at the individuals sensorium and penetrates their psyche. We are utterly defenseless against such a relentless assault. We are merely individuals, while the program that assaults us is organized by institutional collectives. We are helpless against such forces which are made more effective by the somewhat hidden and subversive nature in which they operate.

Considering that the mechanics of thought control, for the most part, function out in the open, it is the normalizing of these coercive acts which make them fade into the background along with other artefacts that make up our environmental condition. As Marshall McLuhan would have it, when a thing becomes pervasive, it becomes environmental, it then becomes for the most part, invisible. 

Thought control has become a totalizing but invisible part of our environment, of our everyday life. It has been so since about 1960, meaning most of us were born into this condition and have no frame of reference to an environment that is not saturated and totalized with thought control. This is why we cannot believe ourselves, at least, not our first instincts. Because of the environment in which our brains developed, because of the millions of coercive and persuasive suggestions that have been embed in our cartoons, movies, books, games, formal education, and the countless ways that advertising reaches us, since before we knew how to speak…because of all this, we simply cannot believe that our thoughts, are indeed our thoughts and not the result of manufactured consent artificially embedded in our psyches through a vast institutionally driven campaign of propagandistic thought control. An argument could be made that your thoughts are actually more likely to be implanted by outside design, than driven by an inside self-generated desire or intent.

Alright, before we move on. It is worth noting that my intentions concerning the consequential things I just discussed, and the even more consequential things I’m about to discuss, are not simply to throw these notions out there and let them fall on the floor. On the contrary these themes are to be expanded on in future works. By introducing a few of these threads which have been driving my research, I aim simply to share in the process and hopefully plant a few seeds of interest. To inspire readers to keep coming back. But also, to demonstrate to readers the complexity of the work, and show it as deeply thoughtful and worthy of the financial support I request.

And on a side note, since we are already midway through a digression, the work published here is having an impact. I would need a full essay to do justice to exactly how our impact is being felt in the culture, but let me give you one hilarious example. Whenever I publish articles, whether written by me or others, on the topic of education - especially when it is commentary based on Chanel Pfahl’s research (which often includes images of woke things shared online by woke teachers), the woke teachers who are often the subjects of these pieces, are the first to read them. 

On January 20th I published Ontario Ed is still Obsessed with Racism, based on some sleuthing Chanel Pfahl had done. It was set to automatically post at 5:30 am. The first person to comment about it on X, within hours of the piece being published, was vice principal, Brandon Zoras, whom the article made fun of for showing off on social media an antiracism card deck in which he uses to catalyze conversations with students over such questions as “What privileges do poor white people typically have compared to poor black people?” Yawn. Anyway, principal Zoras was quite triggered, which I was very happy to see. And it was further proof that our message is penetrating, and we are getting under the skin of the woke cult. Success!! 

This brings us to Isaiah Berlin. I plan to go into more detail regarding his work in future essays, but for now most people are familiar with Berlin because of his groundbreaking liberal framework, which involves making a distinction between what he called positive and negative liberty. This popular Berlin-ism is beyond the scope of today's purpose. However, there is another idea of Berlin’s which influenced the conclusions I reached in my forthcoming essay on Israel. It is such a mind-blowing notion, that I put it on par with the notions described above about thought control and manufactured consent. Further, Berlin’s notion is related to the pervasive environment of propaganda, in that its essence makes a world of controlled thought more likely, more permanent.

In the upcoming essay mentioned, in a subsection called The Monistic Nature of Enlightenment Rationality, I discuss a complaint Berlin had with enlightenment currents of thought during his time. According to Berlin, it was an over-emphasis on rationality, or an over-reasoning, which caused enlightenment thinkers to believe that methods of knowledge production which lent well to mathematics and science, would serve a similar outcome in the various fields of the humanities.

Berlin felt the reliance on enlightenment rationally led thinkers of the day to a sort of monism. In a math problem there is only one correct solution. This is an example of a monistic framework. Obviously, this mode of problem solving or knowledge production was central to the technological advancement of humankind, however, it is Berlin’s contention that monism has no place in the social sciences and humanities. Berlin was equally hostile to the relativism that was the reactionary opposite of enlightenment monism. Instead he advocated for a midway point between monism and relativism he called pluralism. According to Berlin, this was the largely unsung breakthrough of the counter-enlightenment. Pluralism meant the holding of multiple correct solutions to a single problem. Not, the romantic and relativistic multiple points of view that came to be formalised under stand-point epistemology, and which dominates Critical Social Justice scholarship today.

Monistic habits of mind carried with them tendencies to moralize. The WWI period in the Middle East, the topic under examination in my forthcoming work, was driven in large part by monism and its moral baggage, on behalf of the key players throughout British officialdom. In short, through the research, not only did I discover a plausible explanation for the troubles in the Middles East (including those concerning Israel and Palestine) in the wake of the Great War, but that the same plausible explanation sheds a radiant light on the fall of the British Empire and on the modern threat to Western Civilization. For the sake of concision, I can say no more. The forthcoming essay will be popping up on The Turn any day now, and the day after that, a related collection of prosaic soundings consisting of additional bits of non-trivialities will appear here.

I have far exceeded the word length I had set as the upper limit. It's too bad. I wanted to discuss the Indian Residential Research Group, maybe say a few words about our new best-selling book Grave Error. And I was going to open up a bit about further anxieties I hold concerning yet more self-imposed responsibilities and obligations, this time to the illustrious members of that insanely determined and productive research group. Alas, there is no time, to explain, dear reader, that even though none of my colleagues put any pressure on me, and no one makes any demands what-so-ever, the fact that I was invited to contribute to the great effort performed by the various members of the IRS Research Group, makes me feel duty-bound and determined to make a meaningful contribution. The work I have been doing on the Israel file has pulled me away from Canadian indigenous issues…however, my return is imminent. With the publishing of the forthcoming mega essay in which I have so greatly obsessed over, I pledge, both to the IRS Research Group and to the Woke Watch Canada readers who subscribed for the coverage on indigenous issues, to return to that important file, and fulfill my obligations.

Lastly, another important file, education, was also the reason why many subscribed to Woke Watch Canada. This delicate file thankfully gets the attention of various other writers who contribute their works here. However, I also intend to offer my two cents regarding the mess in Canadian education. 

The workload is immense. There is so much research and writing that needs to be done in order to meaningfully put the pieces together and shed light on a pathway out of the madness. Lofty goals, big visions, yes indeed, welcome to my world. Thank you dear readers, from the bottom of my heart. It is on your generous contributions I rely completely. If you have not already, please consider supporting Woke Watch Canada with a financial contribution.

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Thanks for reading. For more on education in Ontario, read How Schools Sexualize Children

BREAKING NEWS: James Pew has contributed a chapter to the new book Grave Error: How The Media Misled us (And the Truth about Residential Schools). You can read about it here - The Rise of Independent Canadian Researchers

Also, for more evidence of the ideological indoctrination in Canadian education, read Yes, schools are indoctrinating kids! And also, Yes, The University is an Indoctrination Camp!

There are now two ways to support Woke Watch Canada through donations:

1) By subscribing to the paid version of the Woke Watch Canada Newsletter for - $7 Cdn/month or $50 Cdn/year

2) By making a contribution to the Investigating Wokeism In Canada Initiative, which raises the funds necessary to maintain and expand Woke Watch Canada’s research and investigation into Dysfunctional Canadian School Boards, Education, Indigenous Issues, Free Speech, and other areas of Illiberal Subversion and the Canadian Culture Wars.