Posted on 03/04/2014 3:50:06 PM PST by Olympiad Fisherman
And I agree with everything you have said. But I don’t think the article at the head of this thread was a typical Jonah Goldberg-esque accusation that the left is “fascist.” It is a serious look into how the left has changed from its classic form and the role Heideggerian philosophy may have played in that transformation.
Wideawake--I agree completely that nations that began as colonies (the USA, Australia, Brazil) simply cannot have the mystical "integral" ethno-nationalism of more traditonal nations as (for example) Japan, nevertheless there is a temptation even in American conservatism in this direction. Note how over the years American conservatism has ceased to invoke chrstianity as true, but rather as "the American religion." Why do so so many conservative American chrstians invoke George Washington and the Founding Fathers to defend and excuse public observance of chrstianity? Shouldn't the justification for chrstianity be that it is the true religion? Yet American conservative chrstianity is becoming more and more a national and tribal religion of white northwest Europeans (Pat Buchanan is the ultimate example of this, even going so far as to favor northwestern European Protestants to Catholics from elsewhere). And we have all noted the banning over recent years of various FReepers (most of whom I disagreed with most profoundly) whose chrstianity was a little too objective and universal, and not "American" enough.
I've said this before, but a man's religious beliefs (or lack thereof) are just one dimension to his existence. You don't really believe that a Catholic German has more in common with a Catholic in the Philippines than he does with his Lutheran countrymen just because both share a common religion? So why shouldn't an English-speaking, middle class American Catholic not have a greater sense of solidarity with his Protestant fellow Americans (who are his colleagues, friends, and possibly spouses) than with a Mexican illegal immigrant who happens to also be Catholic?
I would only assume that the author is also saying the Left has also ditched the Neo-Marxist Frankfurt group as they continue to hurl themselves headlong further and further into Post Modernism.
This is what comes from the transformation of religion into a mere aspect of ethnicity.
One's religious identity is supposed to be one's supreme and highest identity. Religious identity is older than national identity (see medieval Europe). Furthermore, each and every traditional religious person in the world pays lip service to G-d being the Ultimate Sovereign and King over all other authorities. Is that all a lie? Then why utter the words?
Either G-d exists or he does not (chas vechalilah!). If He exists, then He is the ultimate King of every nation and every individual. If He does not (chas vechalilah!), then the world and we are meaningless, there are no objective evils to fight or problems to overcome, and we should all withdraw from our ideals and "goals" and be content like the cows until an asteroid obliterates this meaningless and insignificant speck of dust on which we coincidentally and accidentally live.
Since postmodernist ethics are basically nihilistic, I never could understand why “the absence of moral absolutes” means that we have to embrace multiculturalism, “equality,” and social liberalism. If they wanted to be consistent post-modernists, they would admit that there is no great moral imperative to promote multiculturalism or “equality” either.
Yes, an excellent point and a contradiction indeed, but one that they live because no one can live in a meaningless world. They want to have it both ways and try to use the reality of nature and the natural world to do it as their basis.
Don't postmodernists also reject science as an artificial, fake construct of western thought or something along those lines? If so, how do they intend to derive morality from observing nature?
There are some self-styled rationalists out there who think that we can use science to derive a system of ethics, but strangely, they always wind up with ethical systems (egalitarianism, socialism) that runs completely counter to the way the natural world actually works. A bunch of rats fighting over scraps don't seem to care very much about equality.
Most people have close friends and even immediate family members with different religious beliefs than their own. Are they supposed to prefer a complete stranger of the same faith to their own friends and family? Similarly, why should somebody prefer a foreigner of the same faith to a countryman who speaks the same language and shares the same culture and customs as he does?
Then I suppose all the statements about G-d being the Ultimate Authority for everyone is just empty ritualistic hooey?
I recommend you read the Torah. You will find in certain cases of capital punishment (when stoning is called for) that the family are called to be the first to execute sentence.
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