Beware the Purity Test

I’m writing this for primarily, but not exclusively for those leaning Left. [Keep in mind that there are “After Capitalism” folks that lean right]. Full disclosure: I am not a fan of “purity tests” in general. I think these particular times, on this particular topic, with a particular group, however, deserves some special attention. Let me build a case.

I suspect that purity tests are more prevalent in times of turbulence. In good times”we are likely more inclined to ”live and let live.” In challenging times, we are perhaps more inclined to look for who to blame and scapegoat. Everyone is under a bit more scrutiny, and therefore we need to prove we are not to blame by demonstrating our purity to the prevailing cause.

In Imagining After Capitalism, I was a little hard on the Left – one of the seven key drivers was Ineffective Left. In a nutshell, it is the Left’s inability to develop a vision or support developments that smacked of grand theory, hierarchy. or compromise. The proposals I came across in the research were overwhelmingly small, decentralized and local. These are actually very good things! They fit perfectly with the postmodern preference for equality, participation, self-expression, co-creation, etc. Again, these are good things in general, but can become problematic when taken to extremes (like anything, I suppose). I wrote a bunch about the “mean green meme” which is the unhealthy expression of the postmoderns.

The unhealthy expression shows up in purity test modes of thinking. One must pick a side and adhere to the expressed or unexpressed purity test items. We must turn our backs on those who do not pass the test. And not quietly, but loudly. Neutrality is almost as bad as being on the wrong side.

One more time — I love the small, local, direct democratic ideas, but I just want to be able to talk about scale without flunking the purity test. I hope you’ll allow me to avoid a rabbit hole on scale … suffice it to say, how do we enable the small, local, direct experiments to in effect become the core of After Capitalism? The asymmetry between these efforts and the ever-growing and ever more powerful centralizing tendencies of late-stage capitalism is enormous.

So, can we have difficult conversations without purity tests? Can we respectfully disagree with other views without us-vs-them? The good news is that underlying values work supporting After Capitalism does see a long term trend to an integral perspective that avoids the us-vs-them thinking. I hope we each can do our part to accelerate this trend. – Andy Hines