The chain of thought that produced the Constitution, The Scientific Revolution and The American Experiment in Self Rule was beautiful and constructive.
The chain of thought that produced the left/right split was ugly, divisive and destructive.
There was a huge reactionary movement after the American Revolution in which the ruling class sought to preserve the ideals and social order of the monarchy.
In philosophy, the term "modern" refers to writings influenced by Kant in the late 1780s.
Modern Logic (Hegelian dialectics and material dialectics) is a paradoxical system that makes conflict the center of attention. Modern Conservatives were reactionaries who wanted to preserve the social order. Modern Liberals were radicals who wanted to use a huge centralized state to impose social change.
Both movements are against liberty.
Hegel typifies modern conservative thought. Hegel loved proofs that freedom was slavery and slavery freedom. Since slavery was a big issue in the early United States, Hegel was widely read. Hegel rewrote the ideals of the Covenant in philosophic speak.
The ideals of The Covenant can be stated nicely. In 1630, John Winthrop wrote:
Thus stands the case between God and us. We are entered into covenant with Him for this work.... But if we neglect to observe these articles, which are the ends we have propounded, and--dissembling with our God--we shall embrace and prosecute our carnal intentions, seeking great things for ourselves and our posterity, the Lord will surely break out in wrath against us and be revenged on such a perjured people, and He will make us know the price of the breach of such a covenant.
Winthrop produced a nice statement favoring morality.
Common versions of this thought were ignorant and ugly. People wanted to frame their group as the righteous and their enemies as the breakers of the covenant. The best example of the ugly side of this belief is "The Mark of Cain."
Covenant theory starts with the Book of Genesis. The idea is that Adam and Eve had a covenant with God that Adam broke when he ate an apple. God cursed Adam and his descendants with an Adam's Apple. He made childbirth extremely painful to punish the descendents of Eve.
The theory continues: God gave man a new covenant. Cain broke this covenant when he killed Abel. God turned Cain's descendants black and gave whites authority over blacks.
Advocates of Covenant theory held that Israel had various covenants with God that they systematically broke, justifying all the hateful anti-Semitism that mars western culture.
The reason the Nazis were committing genocide was a belief that Aryan race had to rid the world stage of the Jewish race. This idea evolved from this ugly, ignorant and hateful theory that exists within Modern Conservatism.
There is an ugly side of Modern Conservatism. Fortunately, much of this thought went away after World War II.
But the intellectual foundations of conservatism still contain some of this garbage.
IT IS GOD who establishes kings. He caused Saul and David to be anointed by Samuel; He vested royalty in the House of David, and ordered him to cause Solomon, his son, to reign in his place. . .
Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet
The Conservatives of 1776 stood with the British. They believed that kings had a divine right from a covenant with God.
Mormonism appeared in the early 1800s. The foundational documents of this church encapsulate the thought of the early 1800s.
The Book of Mormon claims that Native Americans were descendent of the Lost Tribes of Israel. King Benjamin granted the people a Democracy. An evil group of people called Lamanites won the election. There was a war. God smited the survivors of the war and turned Native Americans into red savages.
The theory claimed that Christians had a Covenant with God, but evil popes distorted this covenant and corrupted the Bible. Protestants are better, but they are still products of a false covenant created by an evil papacy.
Covenant Theory states that US Revolution was staged by God for one final restoration of the church in the Latter Days. The True Church was restored with the revelation of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants (the second edition of the Book of Commandments.)
Glenn Beck latched onto this discredited idea and is running around with a show called "Covenant America." http://www.covenantamerica.us/
The quotes on the page are part of the new Covenant which was first called "The Book of Comandments" then changed to the Doctrine and Covenants.
In Covenant Theory, this document is greater than the US Constitution or even the Bible (which is believed to have been corrupted). These words are direct Commandments from God revealed through his prophet Joseph Smith!
This is the most conservative document by the most conservative group in America.
So, what does this ultra-conservative document say?
The document instructs Joseph Smith to take the property from the people and put in a big pool. Former property owners would be reduced to stewards entitled to funds sufficient to maintain their family. The residue (capital gains) would be used to feed the needy and for the glorification of The Church.
Hegel and Joseph Smith were defining right wing ideologies. Marx (a young Hegelian) defined a left wing ideology.
Marx wrote Das Kapital 30 years after Smith. Marx studied the United Order of Enoch. His ideology "from each according to ability to each according to need" is similar to the right wing conservative ideas of Joseph Smith.
This pattern is repeated in PPACA. The basic model of PPACA came from the conservative Heritage Foundation.
This pattern works in reverse as well. Marx wrote a huge tome called "Das Kapital." Marx's Das Kapital is the intellectual foundation of Modern Capitalism.
Marx's version of Capitalism is largely a perversion of the free market. The ideals of the free market was largely about liberty and property rights. Das Kapital is a dystopia in which massive pools of capital are more important than the human mind or individual liberty.
Modern Conservatives defend Marx's perversion of Capitalism to the destruction of our liberties. Marx is the inteelectual father of modern capitalism.
If you compare thoughts on the Free Market with Marx's Das Kapital, you would realize that modern dialectics is behind many of the inequities of our day.
My observation is that the chain of thought that created the scientific revolution and the US Constitution are quite beautiful.
Modern thought and this idiotic split between Modern Conservatives and Modern Liberals has systematically had terrible results.
Modern Logic took hold in the US in the early 1800s. It led directly to the Civil War. Modern think was behind the great wars of the 20th century and continues to wreak havoc socially and economically.
The underlying system of thought behind the left/right split is corrupt. If we want to restore the American experiment in self rule, we have to stand against both Modern Liberalism and Modern Conservatism. These two ideologies are just different sides of the same coin.
No comments:
Post a Comment