{"id":9680,"date":"2012-05-26T04:59:08","date_gmt":"2012-05-26T04:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/05\/26\/propinquity-and-social-distance-2\/"},"modified":"2012-05-26T04:59:08","modified_gmt":"2012-05-26T04:59:08","slug":"propinquity-and-social-distance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2012\/05\/26\/propinquity-and-social-distance-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Propinquity and Social Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Familiarity and social proximity have their positive aspects, but they also breed contempt. No man a hero to his valet. Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua<\/em>:  No prophet is accepted in his own country. (Luke 4:24) Few bloggers are read by their relatives. <\/span>Social distance, too, has positive and negative sides.  One negative is that people are more ready  to demonize and abuse the  distant than the near-by.  Internet exchanges make that abundantly evident.  On the positive side, distance breeds respect  and idealization which can taper off into idolization.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is almost impossible to achieve is justice<\/em> in our relations with others, near and far, falling into neither favoritism nor contempt, demonization nor idolization.  Four extremes to avoid if you would be just.<\/span><\/p>\n

A. Inordinately favoring one's own; being partial; overlooking or downplaying their wrong-doing.  Tribalism. Nepotism.  Clanishness.  Chauvinism.  Racism.  Class-identification.  Blut und Boden <\/em>mentality.  Example: John Gotti's children thought him a good man despite the fact that his good qualities were overshadowed by his murderous thuggishness.  <\/span><\/p>\n

The conservative is more likely to make this mistake than the liberal.<\/span><\/p>\n

B. Contempt for one's own; being impartial in violation of duties to kith and kin; treating them exactly as one would treat an outsider, if not better.  A vacuousness internationalism that ignores real differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

The liberal is more likely to make this mistake than the conservative.<\/span><\/p>\n

C. Demonization of the other, the foreigner, the stranger.  Xenophobia.  Irrational hatred of the other just because he is other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some conservatives are prone to this.<\/span><\/p>\n

D. Excessive admiration of the other. Idolization of the far away. Idolatry.  Romanticization of foreign lands and cultures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many liberals make this mistake.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Familiarity and social proximity have their positive aspects, but they also breed contempt. No man a hero to his valet. Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua:  No prophet is accepted in his own country. (Luke 4:24) Few bloggers are read by their relatives. Social distance, too, has positive and negative sides.  One negative is that people … Continue reading “Propinquity and Social Distance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-and-political-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}