An ability to dehumanise the “other” is an unfortunate component of human nature. As Sheldon Solomon and colleagues wrote in their book “The Worm at the Core”:

“The Nazis portrayed Jews as rats. In the Inuit, Mbuti, Orokawa, Yanomamo, and Maliki cultures, the word for their group means “man” or “human,” implying, of course, that members of other groups are not human.”

In times of conflict and chaos, the increase in fear and uncertainty brings these chimp-ish aspects of human nature come to the fore.

The sociopolitical and economic upheaval in the Western world is concerning. It isn’t hyperbolic to draw comparisons to 1920s/30s Germany and the fall of the Weimar Republic. Western societies were already facing attention-worthy sources of tension; economic hardship, mass immigration, tribalistic populism, politically correct identity politics, and a loss of trust in sense-making institutions, and the establishment at large. Recently the tensions have been magnified by the pandemic and the social unrest since the death of George Floyd.

What we want, however, is to focus on fighting bad ideas and not on dehumanising people.

In this show we discuss:

• The line between Good and Evil.
• The tension that exists between not wanting to have enemies yet needing to fight the bad ideas that threaten the very Western Enlightenment values that even allow us to have an open discussion.
• The ideology which is responsible for a man in the UK getting fired from Asda for sharing a comedy sketch on his private social media page.
• This same ideology which results in the creation of female-only professorships in Ireland for which men are not allowed to apply.
• The Western Enlightenment values of Science, Reason, and Freedom as error-correcting technologies.
• The myth of the rational “Homo Economicus” and the reality of human irrationality.
• The benefit of having the Nazis in public.
• The absurdity of intersectional-feminist categorisation and the uniqueness of the individual as paramount.
• Enlightenment vs Woke values as Rational vs Irrational Memes.
• Seeking Truth vs Defending Beliefs.
• Is skin colour useful as a means of identifying people involved in crimes?
• Using the ideal result as a potential framework for discourse?
• Changing the world vs changing ourselves.

Ciaran O’ Regan:
Website - www.quarrelsomelife.com
Instagram - @CTQuarrelsome
Twitter - @CTQuarrelsome

James Valaitis:
Website - infinityjames.com
Twitter - @infinityjames