Purity and supremacy go hand-in-hand
This has been one of my private working theories for years, and the more I see confirms it. Any aspiration towards purity—be it spiritual, moral, ideological, cultural, political, on and on—leads to supremacy. The concept of purity means that impurity exists, so you’re drawing a line between the two, and placing yourself on the side that is elevated, superior, preferred.
But James sides with pluralism for a host of ethical, political, and psychological reasons: if we affirm a messy plurality rather than a perfect totality, then “evil” calls for a practical response rather than a speculative explanation; differences of opinion are signs of health rather than pathology; and our everyday experiences amount to “intimacy” with the universe itself.
- see also: diversity provides stability — the most precarious ecosystem is one without diversity