Ralph Müller's cartridge: «Exclusive inclusion»

Each month, we feature a column by one of the personalities who give us the pleasure of alternating between the two. Youtuber Ralph Müller, a doctoral student in literature at the University of Geneva, delivers his scathing analysis of a typical contemporary phenomenon.

In the age of the “like,” differences have found a champion: inclusivism. It has taken the language by storm, betraying it for the greater good, but it has its sights set far beyond and defends even exclusion—always for the greater good. What must be included are the attributes of every single person, their infinite nuances elevated to the status of a state. Autonomy, a conquest of the Enlightenment, is degenerating into egotism. It is the “I” that is sovereign, and it does not align itself with anything that does not concern it directly. A rational being? No—first and foremost, a gender, a sexual orientation, and a skin color.

To include everyone, include no one

From mind to body, and from consensus to compromise. According to pure liberal logic, politics must regulate individual interests and promote the flourishing of particularities, even at the cost of compartmentalizing collective life. Thus, an exponentially proliferating array of identities carves up the public sphere. On Monday, The game night at the game library will be reserved for cisgender men, so that it can be made available to non-binary people the next day. If there aren't enough days in the week to approve every profile, we'll have to consider increasing the number of days.

In short, this project is a dead end—all the more so because the demand for recognition conflicts with the requirement for equality: asserting an identity presupposes that value is attributed to it, yet values imply a hierarchy. The best way to include everyone is to include no one in particular. This is the whole point of abstraction, through which we distance ourselves from the self in order to conceive of ourselves within a shared way of being; and this is why Habermas argues that the true political subject is not the individual—who is always prone to error and bias—but the individual insofar as they recognize themselves within a “We,” shaped by the exchange in which beliefs are sublimated.

A breeding ground for division

We must also highlight the link between identity and rejection. Identity is often shaped by rejection, and a group’s sense of identity is all the stronger when it is formed through opposition. Its symbolic prestige depends on the difference it recognizes between itself and others, which is why it has every interest in maintaining that difference.

Consequently, endorsing identity-based dynamics creates fertile ground for division in the broadest and most negative sense of the term. And must we remind organizers of «selectively diverse» events that it is precisely through contact with others that prejudices—which fester within insular circles—are eroded? But perhaps that is precisely the goal: to purge one’s nest of the burdensome “otherness.” By revealing our limitations, encounters with others are painful to the narcissist…

Inclusivism is the exclusion of the common good, the rise of the crowd, and the negation of the people. It creates a fractured democratic space, where differences are not reconciled in the hope of reaching a consensus, but where people seek out those like themselves to take pride in their «differences.» We are a long way from Hugo:

«I used to wander all by myself among the cheerful groups
He didn't speak to anyone, yet he was calm and gentle
»Thus finding a way to be one and to be all"

Check out the YouTube channel «The Cartridge», with over 60,000 subscribers, where Ralph Müller analyzes contemporary topics related to language and thought. A fresh perspective guaranteed!

Illustration: © Nathanaël Schmid for Le Regard Libre

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