Let us start with my quote from Roy Rappaport: that "No society known to anthropology or history is devoid of what reasonable observers would agree is religion."
Actually let's go a bit further than that. Every society since the dawn of time, and especially ours, is drenched in religion.
Why? Because for humans, that self-consciously experience themselves as living for a purpose, there is always the question of what should be done. This question presents itself to every human every moment; that is why many humans dull their minds with drugs.
It follows from this that to suggest that ours is an era that is Beyond Religion, or for which God has Died, completely misunderstands the nature of humans and humanity.
Let's go further still and say this: Every human alive has a religion, a religion that explains for him, and especially her, the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.
So now let us discuss The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies
by Ryszard Legutko. I haven't yet read the book, only the review by Adrian Vermeule at First Things. For the Polish Legutko -- the chap too far-right for Middlebury College -- liberalism and communism are birds of the same feather.
There is always the next battle before us.
And, of course this "much to do," this next battle is a question of politics, of writing laws and regulations to hack progress out of the jungle, and a question of religion, of identifying saints and sinners and dispatching the latter to an auto-da-fé, real or metaphorical. And the whole thing is to be led by enlightened and compassionate activists free of the taint of Sin. That goes without saying.
The point is that all religion and all politics are about the existential fight against the forces of darkness, real and spiritual. And they always have been. Politics is concerned with the physical threat of the Commies, the capitalists, the racists, the sexists; religion is concerned with the spiritual threat of the Evil One that motivates the actions of evil humans.
The problem we face is that the current enthusiasts for the cults of liberalism and communism imagine themselves as something new in history, as a singular movement arising from the swamps of bigotry and superstition to lead the world to a Heaven on Earth. They do not understand that nothing has changed, that they are just the current crop of ambitious politicians and cult-creating religious leaders.
But let us try to think outside of the box on this. Let us propose that human society is based on the risk that something may come and destroy us all, and that this is perfectly natural and physical. If this threat materializes as from a human enemy mobilized into an army or a criminal gang, then we must rally under a political/military leader to defeat the foe and and prevent him from destroying our community from without. If this threat is from someone that wishes us ill but that represents something short of a physical danger, then naming and shaming will keep this Evil One from destroying our community from within.
OK, fine. But how do you know? How do you know if the enemy that the politicians are warning you against is real or just an excuse for them to increase their power? How do you know if the enemy that the moral crusaders are warning you against are real or just an excuse for them to name and shame people that think differently from themselves?
The answer is: you don't, not until it is too late. So all politics and all religion are battles against an existential peril that may or may not be real.
For instance, what about the Chinese? Is the Belt and Road initiative an existential threat to truth, justice and the American Way, that will destroy the world in 12 years unless we do something, or is it a stupid top-down excuse for political power that will self-destruct in 12 years or so?
For instance, what about feminists and gays? Are they a a moral/cultural movement that will destroy our market-based economy and Judeo-Christian culture and ordinary wiving and thriving in 12 years unless we do something, or are they foolish cults that will self-destruct anyway because of their shallow foolishness?
You tell me.
Or are all political and religious ideologies with their One True Ring a symbol of evil forged by some monstrous Sauron to gain dominion over the ordinary harmless Hobbits of the Shire?
Because if the meaning of life, the universe, and everything cannot be solved by a militant politics or a militant religion, then what?
Back to the drawing board.
Actually let's go a bit further than that. Every society since the dawn of time, and especially ours, is drenched in religion.
Why? Because for humans, that self-consciously experience themselves as living for a purpose, there is always the question of what should be done. This question presents itself to every human every moment; that is why many humans dull their minds with drugs.
It follows from this that to suggest that ours is an era that is Beyond Religion, or for which God has Died, completely misunderstands the nature of humans and humanity.
Let's go further still and say this: Every human alive has a religion, a religion that explains for him, and especially her, the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.
So now let us discuss The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies
by Ryszard Legutko. I haven't yet read the book, only the review by Adrian Vermeule at First Things. For the Polish Legutko -- the chap too far-right for Middlebury College -- liberalism and communism are birds of the same feather.
Twin children of the Enlightenment, raised in the same nursery of the Revolution, communism and liberalism have the same inner logic, the same intellectual structure, and the same dynamics over time—such is Legutko’s main thesis. Both embody the secularized soteriology of the Enlightenment, the narrative of Progress. The liberal and communist polities are both perpetually poised in the now and not-yet, between the emergence from the dim night of unreason and the final triumph.If you want to boil liberalism and communism down to their essence, we are talking about the perpetual situation, “We have made progress, but there is still much to do.” That is why the rights of women come up as soon as the workers get theirs. And that is why transgender rights arise as a burning issue the moment after the Supreme Court puts gay marriage comfortably to bed.
There is always the next battle before us.
And, of course this "much to do," this next battle is a question of politics, of writing laws and regulations to hack progress out of the jungle, and a question of religion, of identifying saints and sinners and dispatching the latter to an auto-da-fé, real or metaphorical. And the whole thing is to be led by enlightened and compassionate activists free of the taint of Sin. That goes without saying.
The point is that all religion and all politics are about the existential fight against the forces of darkness, real and spiritual. And they always have been. Politics is concerned with the physical threat of the Commies, the capitalists, the racists, the sexists; religion is concerned with the spiritual threat of the Evil One that motivates the actions of evil humans.
The problem we face is that the current enthusiasts for the cults of liberalism and communism imagine themselves as something new in history, as a singular movement arising from the swamps of bigotry and superstition to lead the world to a Heaven on Earth. They do not understand that nothing has changed, that they are just the current crop of ambitious politicians and cult-creating religious leaders.
But let us try to think outside of the box on this. Let us propose that human society is based on the risk that something may come and destroy us all, and that this is perfectly natural and physical. If this threat materializes as from a human enemy mobilized into an army or a criminal gang, then we must rally under a political/military leader to defeat the foe and and prevent him from destroying our community from without. If this threat is from someone that wishes us ill but that represents something short of a physical danger, then naming and shaming will keep this Evil One from destroying our community from within.
OK, fine. But how do you know? How do you know if the enemy that the politicians are warning you against is real or just an excuse for them to increase their power? How do you know if the enemy that the moral crusaders are warning you against are real or just an excuse for them to name and shame people that think differently from themselves?
The answer is: you don't, not until it is too late. So all politics and all religion are battles against an existential peril that may or may not be real.
For instance, what about the Chinese? Is the Belt and Road initiative an existential threat to truth, justice and the American Way, that will destroy the world in 12 years unless we do something, or is it a stupid top-down excuse for political power that will self-destruct in 12 years or so?
For instance, what about feminists and gays? Are they a a moral/cultural movement that will destroy our market-based economy and Judeo-Christian culture and ordinary wiving and thriving in 12 years unless we do something, or are they foolish cults that will self-destruct anyway because of their shallow foolishness?
You tell me.
Or are all political and religious ideologies with their One True Ring a symbol of evil forged by some monstrous Sauron to gain dominion over the ordinary harmless Hobbits of the Shire?
Because if the meaning of life, the universe, and everything cannot be solved by a militant politics or a militant religion, then what?
Back to the drawing board.
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