Below is an excerpt from my forthcoming book…
© Mahabodhi Burton
15 minute read
This excerpt is from the chapter ‘Woke As Old Testament Religion’ and goes into guilt in all its forms, including Buddhism’s view of where guilt is helpful and where it is not.
An accelerating trend in taking offense
In 2008, Christian Lander joked in Stuff White People Like that being offended was something a certain brand of white people enjoyed, alongside attending film festivals and wearing vintage T-shirts. Today, such a person hearing that joke would likely:
‘launch into a hissing tirade about how there is nothing funny about people trying to dismantle the prevalence of white supremacy and all whites’ “complicitness” in it. If he were to write that book today, Lander would be unlikely to include that joke, which is an indication of the extent to which there is something in the air that we hadn’t seen until quite recently.’[1]
A critical mass of white liberals no longer quietly pride themselves in knowing they need to be offended about certain things,
‘but now see it as a duty to excoriate and shun those (including black people) who don’t share their degree of offense. To some, all of that may sound like mere matters of manner and texture.’[2]
Third Wave Antiracism, McWhorter claims, harms black people in the name of its guiding impulses: in insisting that it is racism when black boys are overrepresented among those suspended or expelled from schools for violence, ceasing to suspend or expel perpetrators only leading to violence persisting and a declining skillset among the young black population, which white liberals are complicit in.
The high priests of Woke today: Joel Kotkin’s Clerisy (See Chapter 3) tell us just how we should speak and think. Religion, McWhorter contends, has no place in the classroom or elite university, nor in our codes of ethics, nor in delineating how all members of society are to express themselves, and ‘almost all of us spontaneously understand that and see any misunderstanding of the premise as backward.’[3]
‘Yet, since about 2015, a peculiar contingent is slowly headlocking us into making an exception, supposing that this particular new religion is so incontestably correct, so gorgeously surpassing millennia of brilliant philosophers’ attempts to identify the ultimate morality, that we can only bow down in humble acquiescence.’[4]
The liberal middle-classes are often fully unaware of just what they are doing:
‘Question these people for real and they howl as if having a finger pulled backward. But it isn’t that they don’t want their power taken away: The Elect see themselves as speaking truth to power, not as occupying it. [5]
McWhorter puts his finger why white liberals enthusiastically support Woke: it plays into their central myth of being engaged humans in the world: being saviours of those less advantaged is so central to the liberal self-image that, lacking a cause, they feel as if they are nothing.
‘We cannot hate them for that, but our problem is the vast gulf between their sense of personal mission and the rest of ours, and the fact that their mission includes the tool of calling people racists in the public square. We are genuinely in Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory.’[6]
Grounded, perhaps, in low self-esteem and already guilty about their often-unearned privilege, certain groups of whites sought to allay their guilt by bowing down to anything black: in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, whites adopted religious body language pledging loyalty to black people, often present and standing in attendance.[7] Police officers washed the feet of black religious leaders in Cary, North Carolina during a prayer walk that was aimed at ending racism.[8]
‘while elsewhere, many black protesters sensed some performativity in white activists strolling around with painted whip scars on their bodies, to show their sympathy for the black condition.’[9]
Performativity being the relevant concept! But this is only a continuation of the way that the middle-class people throughout history have served themselves rather than serving the community, its proper role.
Uroboric incest
This desire for white liberals to ‘disappear’ and abase themselves when faced with the accusation of ‘white privilege’ is an aspect of being drawn down into unconsciousness: it reminds me of the concept of uroboric incest[10] which Erich Neumann explores in The Origin and History of Consciousnes,[11] where he says:
‘Many forms of nostalgia and longing signify no more than a return to uroboric incest and self-dissolution, from the unio mystica of the saint to the drunkard’s craving for unconsciousness and the “death-romanticism” of the Germanic races.’
‘Uroboric incest is a form of entry into the mother, of union with her, and it stands in sharp contrast to other and later forms of incest. In uroboric incest, the emphasis upon pleasure and love is in no sense active, it is more a desire to be dissolved and absorbed; passively one lets oneself be taken, sinks into the pleroma [the totality of divine powers], melts away in the ocean of pleasure—a Libestod [love death]. The Great Mother takes the little child back into herself.’
The uroboros is and ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.
In a blog post by eirboe entitled ‘Alcoholism and the Urorobos, a reason to drink?’[12] the author says how the very numbness in his body when drunk brought Neumann’s description of uroboric incest to mind,
‘As well as (Jordan) Peterson’s lectures on Adam and Eve, as uroboric incest is basically what he describes the Fall was from. Getting drunk is becoming unconscious of your own “nakedness” and vulnerability, becoming unconscious of your own struggle between right and wrong. It’s not until the next morning, with a terrible hangover, that you realize what you did the night before was probably both dangerous and wrong. But the freedom of not knowing that for a few hours!’
Uroboric incest is an unhealthy and sometimes pathological relationship that a person has to their unconscious; it is a refusing to take on the burden of consciousness and instead desiring to remain unconscious. Uroboric incest can be understood as a love of the unconscious; refusing to take on a higher level of consciousness when demands are placed upon us can be a natural reaction, as consciousness can be an onerous obligation. But consequences can emerge if person refuses to enter into life consciously and instead remains unconscious: remaining unconscious may be easier than facing conscious realization but it is unrealistic because life poses challenges that demand a full consciousness of the situation. As Carl Jung says;
‘When we must deal with problems, we instinctively resist trying the way that leads through obscurity and darkness. We wish to hear only of unequivocal results, and completely forget that these results can only be brought about when we have ventured into and emerged again from the darkness. But to penetrate the darkness we must summon all the powers of enlightenment that consciousness can offer.’[13]
But it is advisable to take on the difficulties of consciousness heroically, because only by becoming conscious of our problems will we be able to take action.
‘To straddle that fundamental duality is to be balanced: to have one foot firmly planted in order and security, and the other in chaos, possibility, growth and adventure. When life suddenly reveals itself as intense, gripping and meaningful; when time passes, and you’re so engrossed in what you’re doing you don’t notice—it is there and then that you are located precisely on the border between order and chaos.’[14]
For a healthy balance in life, one foot needs to be planted in the known; and the other in the unknown. However, when people experience too much unknown, or are under stress, depressed or anxious, they often reach for the bottle (or the phone) to retreat into unconsciousness; to the known; the familiar. Woke and Safetyism signify a return to uroboric incest: a sinking into the warm bath of comforting ideology or impracticable caution: all the time being blissfully unaware of the negative consequences.
That warm bath may already be present, in terms of privilege: Andrew Doyle is the creator of the fictitious character Titania McGrath, who, writing as Titania, is the author of the book ‘Woke: A Guide to Social Justice.’ Doyle taught the Shakespeare option at Oxford University, then left and spent a period in teaching in schools. Asked by Dave Rubin, how ‘woke’ is Oxford generally, Doyle replied:
‘There is evidence to suggest that the most privileged students; the richest, are far more likely to be social justice activists. Spiked Online does a survey of universities every year and every single year it is determined that the ones who are the worst offenders when it comes to censorship, when it comes to free speech, tend to be from the kids who are the poshest. So, it’s not really surprising that you get the woke elements at Oxford, but as a caveat to that I would say, that I do talks at universities around the country and what I’ve noticed is the kids are often great; they are often not the snowflakes that people make them out to be, they want to be challenged, they want to hear the other side, even if they don’t necessarily agree. It is generally the academics. I did a talk at a university recently where the students were great, they wanted to be challenged, but then the Politics department refused to publicize my appearance, because they said any talk that was an antithetical to the woke culture was against their diversity policy.’[15]
Buddhism and guilt
The Buddhist word associated with anxiety, guilt and remorse is kaukrtya.[16] According to Subhuti,[17] it is of three kinds: general anxiety; genuinely ethical feeling; and neurotic guilt.
General anxiety
Functional kaukrtya or generalized anxiety is a sort of troublesome background noise one experiences in one’s consciousness: an obscure feeling of unease or tension, like the feeling you have when you wake up at night and think, ‘Did I lock the back door before I went to bed?
One could argue that there could be an ethical element to this sort of feeling: because lack of mindfulness becomes negligence; and negligence can cause harm to others. Nevertheless, we would not—on the whole—consider this kind of feeling to indicate a moral misdemeanour, as it does not involve any intention to cause harm, nor to take advantage of anyone. It is more a mental alarm bell that goes off to warn us that we have omitted to do something that needs to be done. And we can respond to it by recognizing it and taking appropriate action to remedy the situation. Sometimes, we realize that there is in fact nothing that we can do about it: and so we might as well relax: there is no point in worrying about the safety of air travel when the plane you are in has already left the ground.
Genuine ethical remorse
We experience ethical kaukrtya or remorse when–in our heart of hearts–we know that we have done harm: when we have offended against our own ethical values.
We only do feel bad (i.e., pain) because our state of mind is what Buddhists call skilful: which mean it is oriented towards, and realizes, the well-being of ourselves and others. This is the kind of wholesome ethical anxiety I mentioned in Chapter 1; in relation to religion. Such remorse leads naturally to personal reparations for any damage that we have caused; and to caution in relation to our current mental states, lest we create further such damage in the future.
Neurotic or irrational guilt
Yet there is also an unwholesome version of ethical anxiety: the kind of kaukrtya that Subhuti terms neurotic or false remorse. In this case our worry is about what people will think. Behind it lies fear of punishment; losing love, acceptance or status.
Buddhism has the concept of near and far enemies: for instance the far enemy of compassion—its opposite—is cruelty: instead of feeling concerned when someone is suffering we feel happy. A near enemy[18] is so called because it looks like the real thing but isn’t. Sentimental pity, then, is the near enemy of compassion, because it is more about the subject’s self-image than the object’s suffering. In the same way, neurotic guilt resembles our natural moral sense, but is actually its near enemy.
Of course, this kind of false remorse / neurotic guilt often has its roots in our conditioning and religious backgrounds (especially in family relationships experienced in childhood).
I alluded to high and low-level religions in Chapter 1. More enlightened religious attitudes focus on personal ethical responsibility and self-awareness, whereas their older versions—think of Old Testament Christianity—focus more on fear of punishment. For many, belief in divine reward and punishment is integral to their religion: they think: who is going to refrain from doing bad things—or care about doing good—if there is no punishment for evil; if people do not believe there is an all-powerful God waiting to punish them if they step out of line, surely they will throw all moral restraint to the winds. It seems that most societies have considered it necessary to frighten the masses into morality—or at least into docility—through these means, but while such terror tactics will achieve a level of social control, they are disrespectful to the individual’s sensibility, and no basis to build an open society upon. The point is that fear of a punishing power has got nothing to do with Buddhist morality as such.
We can go too far the other way though, in combating our neurotic conditioning:
‘One way in which such fear harms us is through seeking to escape it in the wrong way. In trying to get free from the cowed state of dependence arising from our conditioning, we can go too far and start to distrust all feelings of remorse. We may even try to rid ourselves of skilful remorse. Following this logic, we can, if we are not careful, end up doing something immoral for apparently moral reasons–justifying acts of moral rebellion on the grounds that we are breaking free from our conditioning. A lot of unskilful behaviour gets justified on the grounds of ‘authenticity’ or ‘spontaneity.’ A concern to be authentic or spontaneous can be valid of course, but I suspect that sometimes it is a smokescreen for moral laziness, shielding various moral weaknesses such as drug taking, sexual misconduct, harsh speech, or almost any breach of the precepts. Perhaps most of the unskilful things that get done behind this smokescreen are not too serious. Mostly they are just crude. Nevertheless, they can hamper our spiritual progress significantly.’[19]
The secular religions of Woke and Safetyism actively encourage neurotic guilt, which is considered to be highly unskilful in Buddhism. To foster this guilt in others, individuals are encouraged to take offence and proclaim they feel unsafe at any occasion: people are being taught they have a duty to society to maintain and promote what amounts to a postmodern Old Testament commandment: ‘Thou Shall Take Offence from Others.’
However, in any communication there are two sides; and each side has a moral responsibility for the outcome. To tell the truth is morally important, but, equally, to hear the truth whenever the truth is being told is as important; likewise, to not give offence to others is morally important, but, equally, to not take offence when none is intended is as important, as both break the bond of connection between two human beings; therefore, Buddhists try to not take offence.
Obviously the three kinds of remorse require different responses. We should aim to deal with generalized anxiety as and when it arises (See Chapter 9 on ‘Buddhist Practice’). As for neurotic guilt, we need to identify it when it is present; and gradually free ourselves from it. And in terms of genuine ethical remorse, we need to cultivate it because it protects the world from our future wrongdoing.
I go on to explore how Woke and Buddhism are effectively competing religions, it is therefore unjust for the US Congress to make a law to compel Woke’s implementation, in the face of other religions.
[1] McWhorter, John. Woke Racism. Swift Press. Kindle Edition. p15
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid. p61.
[4] Ibid. p61-2.
[5] Ibid. p62.
[6] Ibid. p62-3.
[7] ‘White people kneel, ask forgiveness from the black community in Third Ward.’ KPRC 2 Click2Houston. YouTube. 1 June 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdX6aVzPgHs
[8] ‘Police officers wash feet of black pastors in North Carolina.’ APnews.com. 8 June 2020. https://apnews.com/article/ab636068d57de116e1c2685306646518
[9] Ibid. p60.
[10] Here is a brief explanation of Uroboric Incest on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq5qQwI370A
[11] Free audio version available here, Erich Neumann – The Origins and History of Consciousness, Part I. T.P.M. Bernssen. YouTube. 6 August 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGObo8O-XaA&t=2585s
[12] See blog post ‘Alcoholism and the Urorobos, a reason to drink?’
[13] Carl Jung; ‘The Stages of Life’ (1930). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. p752.
[14] Jordan B. Peterson. (2018) 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Allen Lane.
[15] ‘Titania McGrath: the insane jokes that have come true (pt. 1). Andrew Doyle. Politics.’ The Rubin Report. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_qMWTYhVqk
[16] Pronounced kau-krut-ya.
[17] Subhuti. Remorse and Confession in the Spiritual Community. Free Buddhist Audio.
https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/texts/othertexts/Subhuti/FBA182_Remorse_and_Confession-Subhuti.pdf
[18] Oliver Burkeman. ‘This column will change your life: near enemies.’ The Guardian. 7 June 2014.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/07/change-your-life-near-enemies-buddhism
[19] Remorse and Confession in the Spiritual Community. p9.
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