Posted on 01/01/2007 1:38:50 AM PST by Noumenon
A Philosophy - If You can Get One
The Germans of the Weimar period were increasingly frustrated, angry, disgusted with the “system,” and ready for change. So are Americans. The Germans, following their intellectuals, were disgusted with what they regarded as reason and freedom, and they were ready for Hitler. The Americans are disgusted with unreason and statism; but they are directionless. Without intellectual guidance, they do not know what went wrong with their system or how to prevent the country’s disintegration and collapse.
Thus, by default – despite the profound differences between Americans and the pre-Hitler Germans – the similarities between the two nations, the similarities between their intellectuals and the social trends they shape, are growing. The most ominous aspect of the trend is that, if it is not reversed, it will ultimately change the character of the American people. It has already begun to do so.
The philosophy that shapes a nation’s culture and institutions tends, other things being equal, to become a self-fulfilling prophecy: by creating the conditions and setting of men’s daily life, it increasingly establishes itself as an unquestioned frame of reference in most people’s minds. A society shaped by altruism, for instance – a society of chronic, politically enforced man-eat-man policies in the name of “the public welfare” – leads many of its victims to feel that safety lies in flaunting public service, that selfishness (the “selfishness” of others, who are draining them) is a threat, and that the solution is to urge and practice greater selflessness. A society shaped by collectivism, in which the only effective means of survival is the group or the state, leads many to feel that the ideas and the personal independence appropriate to an individualist era are no longer possible or relevant. A society shaped by irrationalism – a society dominated by incomprehensible crisis and inexplicable injustice and the constant eruptions of a senseless, nihilist culture – leads many to feel that the world cannot be understood, i.e, that their own mind is inadequate, and that they need guidance from some higher power.
Thus, corrupt ideas, once institutionalized, tend to be continually reinforced (the same would hold true of rational ideas); and the unphilosophical men, however decent their own unidentified premises might be, eventually succumb. Across a span of generations they gradually relinquish any better heritage. In part, they are yielding to the explicit ideological promptings of their teachers and the universities. In part, they are adapting resignedly to what they have come to accept from their own experience as the facts and necessities of life.
The American spirit has not yet been destroyed, but it cannot withstand this kind of undermining indefinitely. If the United States continues to go the way of all Europe, the people’s rebellion against the present intellectual leadership will be perverted, and re-channeled into an opposite course.
Nonintellectual rebels cannot challenge the fundamental ideas they have been taught. All they can do by way of rebellion is to accept a series of false alternatives urged by their teachers, and then defiantly choose what they regard as the anti-establishment side. Thus, the proliferation of groups that uphold anti-intellectuality as the only alternative to today’s intellectuals; mindless activism as the alternative to “moderation”; Christian faith as the alternative to nihilism; female inferiority as the alternative to feminism; racism as the alternative to egalitarianism; sacrifice in behalf of a united nation, as the alternative to sacrifice on behalf of warring pressure groups; and government controls for the sake of the middle class, as the alternative to government controls for the sake of the rich or the poor.
The type of mentality produced by these choices – activist, religionist, racist, nationalist, authoritarian – would have been familiar in the Weimar Republic.
If it happens here, the primary responsibility will not belong to the people, who still reject such a mentality and are groping for a better kind of answer. The responsibility will belong to those who banished from the schools all knowledge of the original American system, and who would have finally convinced the nation that men’s only choice is a choice of dictatorships.
No one can predict the form or the timing of the catastrophe that will befall this country if our direction is not changed. No one can know the concatenation of crises, in what progression of steps and across what interval of years, would finally break the nation’s spirit and system of government. No one can know whether such a breakdown would lead to an American dictatorship directly – or indirectly, after a civil war and/or a protracted Dark Ages of primitive roving gangs.
What one can know is only this much: the end result of the country’s present course is some kind of dictatorship; and the cultural-political signs for may years now have been pointing increasingly to one kind in particular. The signs have been pointing to an American form of Nazism.
If the political trend remains unchanged, the same fate – collapse and ultimate dictatorship – is in store for the countries of Western Europe, which are farther along the statist road than America is, and which are now obviously In the process of decline and disintegration. (The Communist countries and the so-called “third world” have long since fallen, or have never risen to anything.) A European dictatorship need not be identical to an American one; dictatorships can vary widely in form, according to a given people’s special history, traditions, and crises; in form, but not in essence. Most of the East is gone. The West is going.
A German intellectual made the following statement after the Nazis fell from power.
”In the early days of Hitler’s regime, he recalled, anyone troubled by the Nazi practices and concerned about Germany’s future was shrugged off as an alarmist. And you are an alarmist. You are saying that this must lead to this, and you can’t prove it. These are the beginnings, yes; but how do you know for sure when you don’t know the end, and how do you know, or even surmise the end? On the one hand, your enemies, the law, the regime, the Party, intimidate you. On the other your colleagues pooh-pooh you as pessimistic or even neurotic.”
One can “know, or surmise the end” by knowing what cause produces what effect, i.e., what factor determines the fate of nations. Today, the only nation still capable of saving itself, and thereby the world, is the United States. It can do so only by one means. The Constitution cannot stop the trend. A constitution, however noble, cannot stand the death or eclipse of its animating principle. Religion cannot stop the trend. It helped to cause it.
The demonstrated practicality of the original American system cannot stop the trend. Practicality as such does not move nations.
The profound differences between America and Germany – the differences in history, institutions, heroes, national character, starting premises - cannot stop the trend. After a century, a crucial similarity began to develop between the two countries, the similarity of basic ideas; and this one similarity is gradually overriding, subverting, or negating the differences, and consigning their remnants to the dead end the unappreciated, the undefended, the historically impotent.
There is only one antidote to today’s trend: a new, pro-reason philosophy. Such a philosophy would have to offer for the first time a full statement and an unbreached defense of the fundamental ideas of America.
The same German intellectual quoted above, looking back at Hitler's rise to power said,
"Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about - we were decent people - and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the 'national enemies', without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?"
They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayer, U of Chicago Press, pp 167-68.
The Ominous Parallels 1980 Leonard Peikoff
Who indeed wants to think? And in case you don't, try reading a little of Solzhenitsyn's Gulag to get an idea of how far we have yet to fall. Who wants to consider the fundamental premises and ideas necessary to a free and a just society? Evidently, most of us don't think it's worth the time, if we even bother to think that much.
Peikoff's words should haunt you - the evidence and the proof of his premises is written in the historical record - and its playing itself out right in front of the dazed and bemused eyes of the walking dead who think they're free Americans.
As Peikoff said - "There is only one antidote to today’s trend: a new, pro-reason philosophy. Such a philosophy would have to offer for the first time a full statement and an unbreached defense of the fundamental ideas of America."
The foundation of this nation lay in the assumption that we were wise enough to control our own lives. Everything that the Founders wrote reflects this underlying assumption. They believed, without exception (even those with strong religious beliefs) that the Church should play no role in the conduct of government because of the Church's tendency to manipulate or otherwise usurp control of the populace's lives in ways the Founders found abhorrent. They were strongly pro-gun; firearms made it possible for a citizen to protect himself from encroachments upon his liberty, even by his own government. They desired a free press because they believed that as individuals, we were wise enough to make decisions that would ultimately be beneficial to the larger community. In short, the Founders produced the first nation ever in the history of the world based upon an idea – a philosophy, if you will - of freedom. Sadly, we are witness to its fall.
Now, the despicable and contemptible lot of political whores that we have voted and applauded into office speaks of party loyalty when they should be speaking of liberty.
They speak of unity when they should be speaking of independence and self-determination.
A mere handful uphold and defend of a set of values based upon reality and rationality.
Most of them are willing to compromise their principles for the sake of "getting along."
Virtually none of them demonstrate an understanding, much less a passion for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights - or the philosophical, metaphysical, and epistemological fundamentals upon which those documents are based.
Virtually none of them uphold the ideals of the Founding Fathers: individual freedom and the right to own the products of one’s labor based upon the rule of law - the only logical and proper conditions for a just and free society. Why? Because they don't believe in them! And they don't understand them!
Once a nation such as ours loses sight of the philosophical principles upon which it was founded, it is lost. Dwight D Eisenhower, in his 1953 inaugural address said, "A people that values its privileges over its principles soon loses both." A man without a firm grasp of unbreachable and intransigent moral principles based upon reason is a man disarmed. We are a nation disarmed - morally, ethically, and philosophically. The silence of our alleged representatives concerning the encroachment on our fundamental rights speaks more eloquently than anything I can write. Don't you suppose that the real reason for the 'silence of the damned' is simply because they have nothing to say?
"I heard no mention of the loss of personal freedom... Apparently this was not much of a sacrifice. They couldn't have cared less." This, from William Shirer, "Hitler and the Third Reich: First Impressions", from The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 (Little, Brown, and Co., 1984)
You are evading the truth if you deny the reality of the systematic abrogation of the rule of law and the destruction of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights at the hands of both mainstream American political parties. Once it has become apparent that the rule of law no longer applies to the common man; once the application of existing law has become arbitrary and outcomes subject to the amount of money one can apply; once laws are made and applied in such a way that it becomes virtually impossible to exist without violating them - the party's over.
Some of us are willing to acknowledge the indisputable and incontrovertible evidence that the rule of law is all but dead, and that the political process as it now exists is irretrievably corrupt. The rest of you cling to the fiction that the rule of law still governs, and that the first principles of human freedom upon which our nation was founded are honored and upheld, much less understood. And that's the dirty secret, isn't it? Too many of us are willing to look the other way, to deny the evidence, to pretend that it doesn't matter. The loss of our freedom is akin to the crazy uncle locked up in the basement - we all know he's there; we just won't talk about it. But I will. I will remind you all from time to time of the good work your favorite - and not so favorite representatives are doing in the service of tyranny.
We ought to swing from the end of a rope any of our so-called leaders who fail to enthusiastically and articulately embrace and endorse these ideas. And before we do that, we've got to acquire that same rigor and habit of thought if we do not have it already. Those of us who do will be the ones to step forward and rebuild the Republic after we pay the butcher's bill that's coming due.
Hehehehe! Wow! A comment removed already.
This might be possible if America were actually practicing any of those fundamental ideals Mr. Piekoff writes of. Sadly, she isn't and hasn't in a very, very long time.
"I heard no mention of the loss of personal freedom... Apparently this was not much of a sacrifice. They couldn't have cared less." This, from William Shirer, "Hitler and the Third Reich: First Impressions", from The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940 (Little, Brown, and Co., 1984)
My younger brother is a big WWII buff. One time when we were having dinner he wondered aloud what it must have been like to live in Europe in the mid 1930s. I told him to take a good, hard look around and the parallels would become obvious.
He got real quiet after that.
. Once it has become apparent that the rule of law no longer applies to the common man; once the application of existing law has become arbitrary and outcomes subject to the amount of money one can apply; once laws are made and applied in such a way that it becomes virtually impossible to exist without violating them - the party's over.
I recently got a C & R license from the ATF. (Yea, I know....) As a 'courtesy' they sent me a copy of all the Federal Firearms Laws and associated Regulations. Just for fun I put the documents on our kitchen scale.
The combined weight is over two pounds. Think about that. Two pounds of paper 'regulating' what is supposed to be a fundamental Constitutional right. And that's only the Federal stuff.
Most of the 'problems' we're facing in this country can be traced directly to the loss of individual freedoms. Just name one and chances are there's some completely un-Constitutional Government Program designed to fix this 'problem' that has demonstrably failed to ameliorate said problem. What each and every one of them has done is limit human freedom in ways our grandparents would never have stood for.
Most people here won't believe it, but the list of Federal crimes is staggeringly long now. Do you take medication regularly and remove it from the container your pharmacist gave you and put it in one of those daily reminder things?
Felony.
Travel with a large amount of cash?
Expect to have it confiscated without charge, indictment, or trial.
Some people say the world has changed since 9-11 and we must now surrender just a bit more of our freedoms.
If we were a truly free people, 9-11 would never have happened.
Up until the mid 1960s one could board an aircraft armed and not violate any laws. Well, in order to 'solve' a problem the Government outlawed that. As a result no one on any of those airplanes had access to the simple tools that could have saved thousands of lives.
And those 19 asshats who murdered all those people? They were here on US Government 'education' visas. Some of them even got us, the US Taxpayer, to fund their little jaunt at flight school.
To add insult to injury the State Dept. actually approved some of the murderers visas months after they were identified as hijackers. Yep. Your tax dollars at work.
We ought to swing from the end of a rope any of our so-called leaders who fail to enthusiastically and articulately embrace and endorse these ideas
It's far too late for that my friend. Any one seriously proposing such a course of action would be looking at a long prison stretch at the very least and quite possibly a sudden and violent end of their days at the hands of government 'law enforcement'.
As the inestimable Claire Wolfe put it: "America is at that akward stage. It's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the bastards."
The Federal Government is, or was designed to be, Constitutionally bound to do about 4 things. Mostly because the Founders understood that those things were about all it would be able to do at all, much less do well.
IN short those things are:
1. Control the borders and set a rational immigration policy.-Failing miserably at both.
2. Run a functioning fair and open Court system.-Not doing really well with this one.
3. Defend the citizens of the US and their property from foreign invaders.-9/11 showed how pathetically inept the Feds really are at that.
4. See that the States don't get into trade wars with each other.-One could argue this point either way.
As to the rest of those myriad things the Feds are busying themselves doing? Miserable failures mostly.
War On Poverty? 40 years and we've still got poor people.
War On Drugs? 30 years and we've still got drugs. More than ever in fact.
As little as 100 years ago people would have dragged this current bunch of poseur Congresscritters into the streets and ridden them out of Washington on a rail, no matter what their party affiliation.
We're now fighting a War On Terror. That makes about as much sense as Roosevelt declaring on Dec. 8, 1941 that we were fighting a "War On Aviation" because the enemy used planes to attack us.
We're led by fools, charlatans, and worse.
We're going to pay very dearly for that.
Very dearly indeed.
L
When you start losing your personal freedom, even if some actions offend some, you are on the road to what Germany fraught more than a half century ago.
Let's look hard at government deciding if we can smoke or not, if we can make our food with certain products (NY bans trans fat), if we can drive without seatbelts etc.etc.etc.
The blase American just stands by and allows our leaders to impose these rules (for our own good, becaue they must act as big brother) without a whimper.
God help us
When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion--when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing--when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors--when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice--you may know that your society is doomed.
Take a good hard look around and tell me if this isn't the case today.
L
Galileo was branded a kook and a heretic and very nearly paid with his life for spreading what he knew to be the truth.
History is chock full of people who were branded kooks, liars, heretics, and worse that were later proved to be right.
A good chunk of the Republican party thinks a sizeable number of the folks on forums just like this one are kooks.
That doesn't make them right.
L
Impressive post, Noumenon. I have a personally autographed copy of The Ominous Parallels. The chapter on America ranks as one of the most memorable tributes to our country I've ever read. And Peikoff is from Canada! Also the chapter on the camps is so utterly horrifying that I've been unable to read anything more about that genocide since. The best history of the camps I've read, probably because he explains the true cause of the Nazi's brutality.
We're led by fools, charlatans, and worse.
We're going to pay very dearly for that.
When I was growing up in the fifties, it wasn't just conservatives, but even Democrats and liberals, who understood that the right to speak freely, bear arms, and be secure in your home ( and all the rest of that BOR stuff ) was essential to being and remaining a free, sovereign, and self-governing people.
The "let's outlaw transfats" lunacy is just the latest and worst manifestation ( or is that infestation? ) of the Nanny-State we are sliding into.
Not with a bang, and, alas, not even with a whimper.
I remember reading Hubert Humphreys thoughts on the 2nd Amendment a couple decades back. They would drum him out of the Dem party today for what he said back then.
It seems that neither Party wants us to be a free, sovereign, and self-governing people any longer.
Me? I got other ideas about that.
L
Damn straight, on both counts. Regards from the swamps of Georgia.
Take care,
L
The primary responsibility, and power, resides in each of us.
A good chunk of the Republican party thinks a sizeable number of the folks on forums just like this one are kooks.
That doesn't make them right.
Nah, just infuriated.
Some random thoughts on today's world...
Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will get you sued in a court of law in a heartbeat.
When Muslim men blame the raping of women on their lack of veils and their manner of dress it really points out their utter lack of self control.
If the last election was really about the lack of support by the American people for the war on terrorism then only "pro-peace" candidates should even be nominated by the Dems...and since none of the "popular" candidates fits that bill that foolishness goes flying right out of the window.
By 1980 it was becoming clearer that philosophy had kind of stopped moving forward and was bifurcating and ramifying into narrow interest groups. It currently is pretty much a cable that has totally frayed at the end. But, by the principle of evolution it is possible that one of these frayed threads will find it likes the world it is in and will thicken and become robust and become a new cable in itself. There are several unexamined threads even now.
Now, the despicable and contemptible lot of political whores that we have voted and applauded into office speaks of party loyalty when they should be speaking of liberty.
They speak of unity when they should be speaking of independence and self-determination.
A mere handful uphold and defend of a set of values based upon reality and rationality.
Most of them are willing to compromise their principles for the sake of "getting along."
____________________________________________________
Newt was such a philospher and he was destroyed by the socialist pimp media as recently as 1999. What did we do? We watched his destruction and moved along.
That is prescient.
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1203
It's quite true, but I think you missed the philosophic point, which was that the responsibility for this mess rests with the professors of philosophy and all the professors of the humanities who "banished from the schools all knowledge of the original American system, and who would have fully convinced the nation that men's only choice is a choice of dictatorships."
I didn't miss the point, I rejected it.
Philosophers have their market, and people buy their product.
I don't let "the people" off the hook.
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