2.1.4 |
COMPONENTIAL MANIFESTATIONS |
The exclusive attitude towards a quality or thing may be
an anti-attitude or a pro-attitude. In the former case a
low, or negative, value is assigned to an object of exclusion;
in the latter case a high, or positive, value is assigned to an
object of exclusivity. This may be done consciously and explicitly,
or unconsciously and implicitly. Of course, it is not
necessarily the case that assigning a low value to something, or
having an anti-attitude, is in itself exclusivistic. Such would
even make it impossible to have an anti-attitude towards
exclusivism. It follows from the adherence to a normative
doctrine that one assigns values and develops an anti-attitude
towards one thing and a pro-attitude towards another,
like the doctrine itself, its norms and the ideals associated
with these norms. Whether such an anti-attitude and such a
pro-attitude are exclusivistic depends on the doctrine, its
norms and its ideals.
Now, an exclusivism is aggrandizemental if a high(er) value
is assigned to a certain class or characteristic quality, and
abnegational if a low(er) value is assigned to that class or
quality. In other words, in the case of aggrandizemental
exism
an object is regarded, felt or treated as superior, possibly
even by giving or allowing it an exclusive position in the
physical sense; in the case of abnegational exism it is
regarded, felt or treated as inferior, possibly even by excluding
or by not admitting it in the physical sense. (That there is
no justification for these judgments, feelings and treatments is
already implied in their being exclusivistic.) A form of
aggrandizemental exclusivism with an own name in traditional
language is favoritism. Dependent on its definition the term
favoritism is only used when the exclusivism is shown in
practise, and when the object of exclusivity is a person or
group of persons. The antithetical facet of inclusivity is neither
expressive of aggrandizement, nor of abnegation, but neutral
in this respect. Inclusivity, that is, neutral-inclusivity,
is therefore always flanked by these two sides of exclusivism.
This level on which exclusivist aggrandizement and exclusivist
abnegation together lay stress on the neutrality of inclusiveness
will be termed "evaluative".
The evaluative distinction is only one of (at least) three
ways to subdivide an integral exism, or (if present) a dimensional
manifestation of such an exism. A second distinction is
the 'agent-relative' one between internal and external exisms.
An internal exclusivism is an exclusivism held by someone who
has 'imself the characteristic which is the object of the exism,
or who belongs to the exclusive or excluded class
'imself,
whereas an external exclusivism is an exism held by someone
who does not have that characteristic, or who does not belong to
that class 'imself. Internal is not the same as self-regarding;
only the combination of internal and aggrandizemental
is (granted that the class to which someone belongs is part of
the 'self'). An exism can be both internal and abnegational,
that is, self-abnegational. An example is a person who speaks a
dialect and feels inferior in respect of someone speaking an
official variant of the same language, because
'e believes that
speaking a dialect would be something inferior. The expression
other-regarding might refer to an external, aggrandizemental
exism, but it seems to be used too for an attitude or practise
which is neither abnegational nor aggrandizemental towards
others, that is, a nonexclusivist one in this respect. In the
latter sense it could not be called "other-regarding", for
instance, to believe that one or more official state functions
ought to be reserved for members of a certain family to which
the 'believer' does not belong 'imself. All the same, such an
exclusivist belief is both external and aggrandizemental.
Neutral-inclusivity, however, is not only not aggrandizemental or
abnegational, it is not (exclusively) internal or (exclusively)
external either. The norm of inclusivity prescribes the inclusion
of other classes than the ones to which one belongs
oneself, and of other persons on equal terms with one's own
class, characteristics and person, and vice versa. (This is the
inclusivistic alternative for the agapist love thy neighbour as
thyself.)
Besides the evaluative and agent-relative aspects of exclusivism
there is a third important distinction, namely between
those exisms which are of the active type and those which are
of the sentimental type. This distinction will be termed
"symptomatic". An exclusivism is active if it is actively
expressed, that is, if it involves the implications of the
exclusivist attitude or action for the object which is excluded
or (made) exclusive; it is sentimental if it involves exclusive
sentiments and tendencies, or the implications for the
subject who holds the exclusivism 'imself. (The reason that it
is not called "passive" here, is that a person who is the
'passive' object of an active exism need not be the subject of
such a 'sentimental' exism 'imself.) Active exclusivisms refer
particularly to the conative aspect of attitudes and to actions,
whereas sentimental exclusivisms refer particularly to the
cognitive and affective aspects. It has to be borne in mind tho,
that when an exclusivist idea or cognition is actively expressed
the speech act itself is an action, and the exclusivism active,
if, and insofar as, the implications for the object are
concerned. For the basic distinction is not between elements of
one and the same attitude, but between the particular implications
it has for the object on the one hand, and for the subject
itself on the other.
By combining the evaluative, agent-relative and symptomatic
aspects, we arrive conceptually at nine components of an
integral or dimensional exclusivism. However, de facto the
external abnegational component of an exism is equal to the
internal aggrandizemental component of the exism which is its
'complement'. By complement is, then, to be understood the set
of all classes or characteristics other than the one excluded or
made exclusive, but belonging to the same field. Thus the
external aggrandizemental component also equals the internal
abnegational component of the exclusivism's complement. The
external components of exclusivism need therefore not be dealt
with separately in the present classification system. External
abnegational female exism (such as the belief in the inferiority
of girls or women by boys or men), for instance, is de facto the
same as internal aggrandizemental or self-aggrandizemental male
exism (the belief in the superiority of males by males), and
external aggrandizemental male exism (the belief in the superiority
of males by females) the same as self-abnegational female
exism (the belief in the inferiority of females by females). Not
only are female and male exism themselves antithetical to
gender-neutral inclusivity, but also all their componential
manifestations.
Components like aggrandizemental exism which are distinguished
on the basis of only one criterion (such as the
evaluative one) will be termed "elemental" here, and components
like self-aggrandizemental exism which are distinguished
on the basis of two or three criterions "compound". In the
names we shall use for these compound components self-
stands for internal, aggrandizing for aggrandizemental
(and) active and abnegating for abnegational (and) active.
Figure F.2.1.4.1 shows the classificatory
cladogram of componential manifestations with their binary-decimal numbers.
It depends on the integral exclusivism in question which
manifestations do occur and are, or were, most common, and
should therefore be actually mentioned separately, whether
elemental or compound. If they are mentioned, it is roughly in
the following forms of behavior and states of mind that human
componential exclusivisms are expressed:
- aggrandizing-exclusivism (comp.4):
- commandment or prescription of a certain characteristic
quality (rated positive in a normative sense on other than
relevant grounds)
- exclusive involvement, contact with and/or preferential
treatment of something/someone/people belonging to a certain
class or with a certain quality (rated positive on other
than relevant grounds)
- sentimental aggrandizemental exclusivism (comp.5):
- exclusive respect for, or worship or idolatry of
something/someone/people belonging to a certain class
- obsession or sentimental preoccupation with a certain
characteristic quality (rated positive);
if internal (that is, sentimental self-aggrandizemental)
(comp.10) also:
- arrogance or (aggrandizemental) self-consciousness (regarding
one or more of one's own qualities rated positive)
- abnegating exclusivism (comp.6):
- prohibition, restriction, condemnation or (complete)
disregard for a certain characteristic quality (rated negative
in a normative sense on other than relevant grounds)
- exclusion of something/someone/people belonging to a certain
class or with a certain characteristic (rated negative)
from equality, that is, stigmatization and/or abnegational
discrimination of certain classes or characteristics
- sentimental abnegational exclusivism (comp.7):
- hatred, irrational fear or distrust of, uneasiness with, or
alienation from something/someone/people belonging to a certain
class (rated negative on other than relevant grounds)
- nausea, phobia, discomfort, inhibition or ignorance with
respect to a certain characteristic (rated negative);
if internal (that is, sentimental self-abnegational)
(comp.14) also:
- shame, shyness or (abnegational) self-consciousness (regarding
one's own characteristic(s) rated negative).
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