Our Great U.S. Culture War Series, No.3a; In the last installment of the series, we outlined America’s Biblical Worldview. Understanding that Worldview is essential to understanding America. In this piece we link the past and present for different Enlightenments, Revolutions, and Worldviews.
Different Enlightenments, Different Revolutions, Different Worldviews
From 1610 to 1793, there were different Enlightenments in France, England, Scotland, and America. We, as Virginians and Americans, share ideas held in common today that were first recorded in those Enlightenments. We disagree about ideologies today that were birthed back then. The ideas and arguments are still alive and contending today. Knowing the origins of today’s political fights isn’t an arcane history exam. It’s important to see the source and follow the history of an idea to figure its worth today. A concept without context is an empty slogan, which can be a dangerous incitement.
Consequently, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” didn’t blossom into a new garden of Eden. That stirring slogan led directly to the bloody guillotine of The Terror. Conversely, the militant “Don’t Tread on Me” and “United We Stand, Divided We Fall” led to our peaceful Rule of Law.
The French Enlightenment
The French Enlightenment focused on an “Ideology of Reason.” Reason became an ideology of human secularism. Human Secularism evolved into a pagan religion predicated on rejecting all known gods of existing religions. It substituted the small god of “Self” as the focus of worship. The Supreme Court recognized Human Secularism as a religion in the decision to ban public school prayer. There’s an endowed chair of Human Secularism at Harvard Divinity School. Human Secularists hate being called “pagan.” They hate being told they have religion. They hate the practicing Christians and Jews who believe in their own religion.
Jean Jacques Rousseau developed the Concept of the General Will. This “will” of the people determines what government should do. This will is more important than the will of any individual or their rights. In fact, the individual has no rights greater than the General Will. So, if it is necessary for the greater good that a person die, then that individual has no right of self-defense.
Consequently, when regimes which are wed and worshipful to Human Secularism determine that certain classes of persons have to be eliminated from society, that’s when the killing begins. Human Secularists have murdered more people than any religion, empire, country, or tribe in the history of the world. They are Human Secularist Totalitarians.
When Democrats say education is too important to be under parental control, they are parroting Rousseau’s claim that education is too important to leave it to fathers.
When Karens claim the “science” should rule, they mimic what Voltaire said about reason should rule.
When professional Black race pimps demand reparations or Greens want to destroy American energy, order people into urban areas, and change your freedom of movement to stop climate change, they argue a variation of Turgot’s claim that the Poor have rights on the abundance of the Rich.
When Covidians announce the unvaxxed should die for resisting the General Will to get a shot and mask up, they are living the altered language of the brave new world Diderot edited into the Encyclopedie.
Alternatively, the French Enlightenment offered the gems of Constitutional Government with Condorcet and the Separation of Powers with Montesquieu.
Finally, the French Enlightenment had an anti-clerical, which meant anti-Roman Catholic in France, attitude. In the 19th Century, Human Secularists hijacked interpreting all of the Enlightenment in this anti-Church, anti-Faith, anti-Christian narrative. They are categorically wrong.
Great Britain’s Enlightenment
The Enlightenment in England and Scotland included a few atheists and agnostics, but was overwhelmingly Protestant Christian in thought. England’s and Scotland’s Enlightenment was about the “Sociology of Virtue.” Sir Isaac Newton set the stage by acknowledging that God is always and everywhere. Consequently, if there is a unseen sovereign Creator, then everything is discoverable. The combination of Jewish mysticism (a spiritual monotheism) and Greek rational empiricism fuels the Enlightenment energy for advancing an explosion in knowledge. The Protestant Reformation frees intellectual inquiry from the church’s restraints.
John Locke is the one philosopher to read if only one could be read. His work on Natural rights and the consent of the governed is at the heart of the American Revolution and, subsequently, the first consensus American worldview and culture.
Adam Smith is still relevant today for establishing perfect liberty is found in laissez-faire economy.
Conservative ideas espoused today are the direct descendants of English and Scottish thought. Edward Gibbons offered rationalist history, not the hagiography found from the first Greek historians on to today’s anti-all-things-Confederate jihadists.
Edmund Burke’s writings on the Natural Law make “stand your ground self-defense” and “your home is your castle” laws valid today.
William Godwin’s individualism is distinct from the Left’s group rights and protected classes of persons.
Furthermore, Joseph Priestly wrote about rational Christianity, freedom of speech and worship, as well as education. Mary Wollenstonecraft advocated social equality for women. Frances Hutcheson’s ethical theory included inner senses of morality and honor. All of these themes are ingrained in the minds, and second nature in the habits, of freedom-loving Conservatives. Finally, David Hume’s utilitarianism made majority rule understandable and workable.
With few exceptions, these Enlightenment ideas aged well. They kept their currency. They’re applicable today.
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