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Well, I'm not sure if I accept the premise on two fronts. I'm not necessarily persuaded that narcissism is the primary root of all the problems in the West. However, I think the excesses of trans activism are a perfect example of a problem which is ultimately downstream of narcissism.
Have you read this piece by Lou Keep? Or After Virtue by MacIntyre? If not I highly recommend both, especially if you like TLP.
If you'd have to pick the primary root of all problems in the West, what would your guess be?
Broadly: I think in the twentieth century we tore down a huge proportion of our most long-standing institutions, or dramatically scaled back the extent of their power and influence, or they collapsed under the weight of their own contradictions. Whatever the many and varied deficiencies of these institutions, they were load-bearing in the sense of providing a unified Western telos. Many people, I think, did not recognise that a proper society needs an orienting telos to function properly; or were naïve enough to think that, once we abolished all the old decrepit institutions which had systematically kept the truth from us, a new telos would manifest itself of its own accord. But a telos doesn't just happen, any more than a ship or a factory does: it has to be patiently grown, constructed and tended to. It's a fragile, delicate thing. I have a lot of criticisms of the Catholic Church, and in its modern diminished capacity it's a shadow of its former self, but I can't dispute that, at the peak of its power and influence in Ireland, it did provide a telos, an orienting principle, something to work towards. When people talk about the crisis of meaning in Western society, this is what they're getting at. Nothing the progressive coalition has offered as an alternative telos fits the bill ("diversity" is an instrumental goal, not a terminal one; "equality" is a relative and hence meaningless goal, likewise "inclusion"). I don't think modern Anglophone conservatism has much to offer in terms of a telos either. We have technological and economic wonders at our disposal, but are beset with indecision as to what to use them for. We built a spaceship without deciding where we wanted to go with it.
Either that, or the phones.
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