Western civilization is experiencing a post-Enlightenment crisis.
For hundreds of years we fought the chains of doctrinaire thinking — as told to us by superstition, folklore, and the churches. In the 20th century the trappings of the churches were almost entirely cast off, and for a few decades we (the West) thought we’d finally done it. We’d liberated our collective intellect from the machinery of dispensed truth. All souls would be free to find their own truths and their own meanings, and none could gainsay another man’s or woman’s path of self-discovery. The 21st century was going to be a wonderland of abundance economics, and the melting away of nationalism, tribalism, territorialism, and all the rotten isms of history. A global village, joined by the techno-wizardry of the internet, would rise.
Brad R. Torgersen
April 12, 2015
Flaming rage nozzles of tolerance
[As Rolf said it’s, “Well worth the read.”
I particularly liked the references to Original Sin which, in essence, hypothesizes the concept of Original Sin is semi-hardwired into us. If this hypothesis is true then one might be able to rigorously show that as traditional religion fell from popularity it has been replaced with something else which has the same mindset including an updated version of the Inquisition for suppression of modern day heresy.—Joe]
Unfortunately, GKC was right.
That is a pretty good read. I like the term “Flaming Rage Nozzles of Tolerance” (FRNT) in that it contains the total contradiction (or mockery) that defines the left. So, can we henceforth correctly attribute it to Brad Torgersen?
To the best of my knowledge, yes.
Your Original Sin hypothesis is valid. Much has been said about Marxism, or secular totalitarianism in general, along the same lines, that it is a religion unto itself. I tend to see it as willful mockery of religion or spirituality, born of envy and the hate that flows from it.
It reminds me of the bum I saw in Seattle, many years ago. He found a discarded toothbrush on the street. He picked it up and started following me while making mock tooth brushing movements and staring me eye to eye (gooning at me, as I call it). When he failed to get a reaction out of me, he threw the toothbrush at me. That may be seen as a perfect analog to the left’s response to spirituality.
In Tolkien’s trilogy, orcs are a mockery of elves. Communism likewise can be seen as mockery of the Christian ideal of eschewing Earthly, material wealth in favor of a higher form of prosperity; faith, hope, love and charity, and so on– Take something beautiful, like sharing as arising from love and enthusiasm, and turn it into something horrible at the point of a gun. Yes; I think mockery is the key word. Take the hierarchy of faith in the Creator, to the family, to community, to country at the expense of your more immediate wants and comforts, and possibly even your life, and turn it inside out and upside down into faith and fealty to the Dear Leader and his cronies under pain of severe punishment. Mockery.
Interesting. Leftism is a religion, the most dynamic and successfully proselytizing of the last 200 years. It has its rituals like Judaism and Islam. Recycling and the various organic, natural, local, cage free range, cruelty free, vegetarian/vegan rules are like kosher/ halal.
I think the idea of original sin appears in the environmental doctrines of Leftism that denies that Man is a part of nature and always alien to it.
Indeed. And it has its sub-cults, like warmism, communism, fascism, etc.
In defense of religious food codes, Windy, they at least served practical purposes at one time; washing your hands and avoiding animals that tended to have higher capacity for parasites or infection if improperly handled, etc.