Is excessive minority advocacy possible?

Why even ask?

In as much as minority groups have been oppressed (be they based on ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation), advocacy is a healthy thing — for them and the broader society they live in — because any one of those not in the minority group have the potential to become a member of that minority group. Through accident or association. Even if they don’t, acknowledging the common humanity between us is spiritually grounding.

Most women have been an oppressed majority in most societies since forever. But let us not confuse oppression with restriction. Men and women alike have been restricted to defined roles and behaviours throughout our evolution because it served the needs of the group in our journey towards the highly developed societies we are now. Excessive advocacy for women is also possible because there can be no genuine liberation for them without men’s liberation.

What all these groups will experience as a result of excessive advocacy is entrenched division and conflict.

It’s a journey, however and there is nothing to be gained from blame.

I contend that excessive advocacy is rooted in low self-esteem. This lack of genuine self respect may originate from the experience of oppression, but it isn’t necessarily solely due to the characteristic of the minority or oppressed group the member shares. Self-esteem is in us all from the moment we’re conceved [ sic]. Depending on our environment (including in utero) that inherent self-regard for ourselves is either nurtured in a balanced and healthy way, or distorted into an inflated ego or diminished confidence.

An inflated ego, but more probably a diminished confidence, can hitch itself to a minority identity and mistakenly assume that all its problems will be solved if they only get enough recompense. But it’s never enough. It will always seek validation through attention.

Major institutions who feed into this need should reconsider the wisdom of their actions. For example, private corporations that flag-wave their socially progressive credentials may be (commendably) acting inclusively, but they are also distracting from their commercially predatory policies that maintain and exacerbate material inequality. Material inequality retards the ability of individuals to improve their well being. Government institutions that behave similarly are also smoke-screening and virtue signalling, but are motivated not so much by profit as by political kudos and popularity in order to gain power or the higher moral ground.

The problem with excessive advocacy is that it loses sight of what we all really ultimately want; a society of common decency, recognition and respect of and for everyone, regardless of the characteristics they’ve inherited that they have no real control over. The content of our character, however, is something we all have far more governance over, given enough will, time, experience and opportunity.

Originally published at http://equanimity.blog on March 21, 2023.