Wednesday, October 07, 2009

The Political Oedipus Complex: Dreams From My Father's Murder

I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.... I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. --Abraham Lincoln

Talk about a non-Darwinian sentiment! First, the absurd proposition -- indefensible on any scientific basis -- that all men are created equal (or even created). And then, the vow that he would prefer biological death -- indefensible on any Darwinian basis -- to abandoning this spiritual principle. But only because of a relative handful such great souls -- often mysteriously appearing in the right place at the right time -- has the nation survived in the form it has. Call it transnatural election.

It's hard to believe that there are actually mature adults who say they would prefer to live in a nation governed by Darwinian rather than Judeo-Christian principles. But one inevitable problem among the irreligious is that in rejecting religion, they detach themselves from the accumulated wisdom of so many generations. Wisdom, unlike scientific knowledge, is not subject to change, since it is very likely that the proposed change has already been tried and found wanting.

After all, this is how wisdom is won in the first place: through painful experience. But sometimes people just need to feel the sting themselves before acquiring the wisdom. Which in turn is why, no matter how much you warn them, each generation of young adolts with skulls full of mush will be attracted to leftism. For many it will be a mere flirtation, while for others it becomes a developmental arrest -- just a lifelong adolescent rebellion against reality and common sense.

America's founders were not just intelligent, but wise. Thankfully, they didn't just possess "scientific" knowledge, but had genuine insight into human nature. There is no contemporary psychology class they could have taken to acquire such wisdom. Rather, as touched on yesterday, this wisdom was founded upon a fruitful encounter between political philosophy and Judeo-Christian theology. The attempt to reconcile such seemingly different domains creates a kind of arc, or synaptic gap, where the creative insight occurs.

A real scientist will be animated by a similar tension of one sort or another. But the middlebrow, worker-bee type scientific mind is often devoid of this type of dynamic tension. This is the reason for the intellectual deadness of our trolls, or of Charles the Queeg at LGF. If science explains everything, then it also explains the explainer, and renders him a kind of banal automaton. Here you can see how an ideology can become a mind parasite -- or more likely, appropriated by a mind parasite that already exists inside and is looking for a cloak. The whole process forecloses genuine thought and creativity.

In other words, scientism or metaphysical Darwinism are "ready made" or predigested ideologies for certain types of mind parasites. One can cheaply purchase -- for it requires no struggle with intellection -- each of these cultural attitudes "off the rack," hence the dreary conformity of Charles and his soulless army of robotic clones. Not to mention the palpable vacuity of his "art." Not all great artists are theists; however, any thoughtful person capable of creating artistic beauty will have difficulty reconciling it with any form of atheism. When the spirit comes through you, you know it. If you wish to remain an atheist thereafter, it will have to be in spite of yourself -- similar to being highly intelligent but not believing in truth, or being highly moral but not believing in virtue.

In Living Constitution, Dying Faith, Watson devotes a chapter to the philosophy of the Founders, which provides the starkest contrast imaginable to contemporary left-statism. The former is grounded in timeless and absolute spiritual principles, while the latter is ultimately rooted the soiled soil of vulgar Darwinism and philosophical pragmatism, in which truth is simply "what works" (what works for the leftist's ambitions, I might add).

Here again, these ideas were both debated and resolved by the wisdom of the founders. We shouldn't be having to do it all over again with Obama, but the deterioration of our educational system has resulted in people being systematically brainwashed into denying America's spiritual provenance.

In fact, thanks to liberals, it is against the law to even discuss it in a publicly funded school. For the extremists of the ACLU, the Declaration of Independence must be unconstitutional. Let's just note in passing that dullards such as Queeg are hysterical about the possibility of "intelligent design" being discussed in the classroom, which only misses the essential point by about as wide a margin as possible. America is in danger, but not from religious Americans.

The idea that truth was contingent or time-bound would have been rejected out of hand by the Founders. Nevertheless, "job one" of the left is to subvert truth in order to ultimately replace it with power (for it is either one or the other). As Watson explains, the Founders "had a principled understanding of natural rights, which were not to be culturally determined or time-bound or subject to infinite incremental growth, but applicable to all men everywhere and final."

Please note that for the Founders, no further evolution is possible, the reason being that in arriving at his own freedom, man has arrived at the absolute. What you do with it is up to you.

Nevertheless, the Founders hardly denied the role of evolution in another sense, that of historical and personal movement toward this timeless ideal. Thus, they saw American history as a "working out of principles that pointed toward the ultimate, trans-historical truth." These men were full-blooded, dues-paying Raccoons, in that "Historical change was not understood by the Founders to be an unending series of evolutionary improvements to principles, institutions, or modes of political life, but as a series of movements toward the principles of constitutional liberty that, once worked out, would fix the ends and constrain the means of government."

This is precisely how I view evolution as applied to the human plane, as a "working out of principles pointing toward the ultimate trans-historical truth" and "a series of movements toward the principle of liberty." Of course, this is liberty understood in its most glorious and fully realized form, which is none other than conformity to the Principle itself, whether it be in the mode of the saint, sage, genius, warrior, or true artist of sound, image, or word. The end is fixed; but the modes of reaching and expressing it are diverse, like white light refracted through a prism.

Being that the Founders were both Christian and Christianized men, they were fully aware of the fact that we inhabit a logoistic cosmos in which the word is embodied in flesh, form in matter. As a result, the universal is only found in the particular. In practical terms, it means that America has "a 'creedal' or universal side, and a 'cultural' or particular side, but the two sides [are] expressions of the same truth" (Watson).

And this is why it is absurd to think that America could ever be a fully secular nation, because if that were to take place, it would undercut the very universal principles that undergird and animate it.

For a radical secularist or Darwinian fundamentalist, there can ultimately be nothing universal except for blind nothingness. I realize this may sound polemical to some, but it's actually a banality. Just try asking a Darwinist why slavery is wrong, with recourse only to Darwinian principles. Does this mean that Darwinists are pro-slavery? Hardly. It just means that they have no universal and timelessly true argument against it -- just as they have no argument against infanticide, or government theft, or racial quotas, or death panels, or euthanasia, or the designated hitter, or anything else that is plainly wrong.

The philosophy of the Founders prevailed through the 19th century, but began to be undermined by the left by the early 20th. Slowly, as described by Watson, it was displaced by "the dogma of historical progress on which rested the combined forces of social Darwinism, pragmatism, twentieth-century progressivism, and modern liberalism." I'm not sure that we need to go into all of the gory details, since most of you already know them so well. The noxious doctrine of multiculturalism must be the absolute nadir of this line of thought -- the idea that truth and morality are completely time- and culture-bound.

No. "The Founders rarely doubted the centrality of the Christian religion and Christian morality to the success of the American experiment. [Cue trolls to present us with the tiresome list of exceptions.] They believed that reason and revelation were true guides to human affairs, and that they pointed in the same direction on questions of natural rights and moral conduct" (Watson).

Suffice it to say that they did not point to Obama, except as a deplorable counter-example. You might say that his reationary ideology is one of those historically recurring patricidal Dreams of Murdering Our Fathers.

To be continued....

34 comments:

Joan of Argghh! said...

I've never actually witnessed a flensing, but Vanderleun seems to have perfected the process.

That's gonna leave a mark.

julie said...

The attempt to reconcile such seemingly different domains creates a kind of arc, or synaptic gap, where the creative insight occurs.

The space between the notes...

Gagdad Bob said...

Via American Digest, the religion of Reagan vs. Obama.

Rick said...

Great post, Bob. Love the opening quote. Never seen it.
I ordered the Watson book as soon as I came to the link. Hey, it’s my birthday month.
$16. What a country.
BTW, some interesting ones on-deck in the sidebar...

Rick said...

By the BTW, how is it you can read that Lincoln quote and know that he means it.
Unlike, oh, I don’t know..

Gagdad Bob said...

The quote was lifted straight from Bartlett's (it's actually much longer), as I had intended to get into Lincoln's political philosophy today. But at this rate it won't happen until Friday....

julie said...

Speaking of the religion of other presidents vs. Obama...

Rick said...

You know, I thought that Allan Combs sounded familiar. At first I thought he was... you know. Then I see its Paragon Publishing. Wait a minute.
Bob, I guess you know him personally..?

Gagdad Bob said...

Not exactly. But I did very much enjoy one of his previous books, called The Radiance of Being, which came out in 1995. I remember thinking at the time, "my God, this man and I are being sucked into the same attractor!" I'm curious to find out where he is today.

Rick said...

Ah.
This sounds familiar too:
"California Institute of Integral Studies" but I can't place it.

Rick said...

He's got a website.

Gagdad Bob said...

I might add that today we may well occupy very different spaces in the attractor. I really won't know until I read the book.

Rick said...

Uncle Leo says there's an email address there if you want to say hello.

Gagdad Bob said...

I can't really contact too many of the tenured, given my politics... or rather, theirs.

Rick said...

I understand.
But Uncle Leo says, You can't say hello?
I'm kidding.
He didn't say that.

hoarhey said...

Bob said,

"....which provides the starkest contrast imaginable to contemporary left-statism. The former is grounded in timeless and absolute spiritual principles, while the latter is ultimately rooted in a kind of soiled soil of vulgar Darwinism and philosophical pragmatism, in which truth is simply "what works" (what works for the leftist's ambitions, I might add)."

A pointed question which can be asked of libs would be "which do you consider to be the more wise and visionary human beings, Washington, Jefferson and Madison, or Obama and Clinton?" (take your pick) the answers are revealing and sometimes can actually make a borderline libtard's brain engage.
It separates the truly hopeless from the merely hapless.

julie said...

In light of consciousness, etc., this is somewhat interesting.

If they ever develop it to the point where actual thoughts - as opposed to simple sensory information - can be transmitted, will mind parasites get a free ride?

Stephen Macdonald said...

julie:

That sort of "communication" is no different in principle than written or oral communication. It in no way involves the direct experience of one person's thoughts by another person. Such a thing is not possible using technology because thoughts and feelings transcend the material world.

Rick said...

"will mind parasites get a free ride?"

"That sort of "communication" is no different in principle than written or oral communication."

So Julie, the answer to your question is yes.

Rick said...

“One can cheaply purchase -- for it requires no struggle with intellection -- each of these cultural attitudes "off the rack," hence the dreary conformity of Charles and his soulless army of robotic clones. Not to mention the palpable vacuity of his "art."”

What’s the point of making art in Charles’ world? (or of wasting his sex/food money on a camera, no less)
Maybe he’s making fun of us...?

mushroom said...

NB says: Such a thing is not possible using technology because thoughts and feelings transcend the material world.

I'm not so sure "thoughts and feelings" are not a material manifestation of a spiritual reality. I know you're addressing the non-material part, it's just an interesting, uh, thought.

ximeze said...

Ricky -
Larry G. believes it & he knows Billie quite well, from back in the Underground days.

L Grathwohl says:
Wow!! I believe it! Bill isn't someone who appreciates being ignored or being in the background for very long. Good job to Anne and to you Jim for getting this story out.
October 6, 2:47 PM

Stephen Macdonald said...

mushroom:

They are of course inextricably bound up with the material substrate of the brain in a manner quite mysterious. The phenomenon of a thought requires both the material brain and the (Bob, feel free to step in any time, PLEASE) transcendent higher components.

My main point is that no purely empirical/materialistic approach will ever enable us to do a true Vulcan mind-meld. The apparatus in Julie's link is simply bypassing the arm/hand/pen to get encoded information from mind to mind. Still encoded information about a thought, not the thought-in-itself.

Stephen Macdonald said...

Increasingly radical Salon.com is defending good ol' domestic terrorist Bill Ayers (who after all "only" murdered a few people) from those nasty conservative bloggers (the real enemies of America).

It's hard to take the Left undiluted. They are everything Bob says they are, and they are increasingly open about it.

Rick said...

Ximeze,
Hey, I’m just saying it’s possible to pass parasites via a book.
Ya can pick up anything these days..

wv: apbulsin (I'm telling you, ya can't make this stuff up)

Rick said...

RE the Examiner article about “Dreams..”

“Anne Leary of Back Yard Conservative was passing through Washington, DC’s Reagan National Airport yesterday, and was surprised to come across Bill Ayers at Starbucks..”

Ayers + DC’s Reagan National Airport. Am I the only one creeped out by this?..

julie said...

Ricky - no, but then anyone not creeped out by Ayers in general probably either doesn't know anything about him or thinks Polanski should get a pass, too.

Going back to psychic powers, teach your kid telepathy this Christmas.

I have to wonder if either of those wouldn't be a handy tool for teaching focus and concentration in general. Why didn't they have this stuff when I was a kid?

ximeze said...

Ricky -
Have to agree re mind parasites via written material. Van could give us a litany of infectious books. We could start with the Koran...

However, that Larry Grathwohl crack was more about Billie's & the lovely Bernadine's criminal history starting with the SDS & WU and going forward (which I've been following for close to 2 decades) than the mind parasite thingie. Under his cover of Distinguished Education Specialist, Billie has been a very busy boy on multiple fronts - all of them infectious.

Jack Cashill has been working his analysis of the authorship of 'Dreams' for a least the last year (multiple columns on AT starting Oct '08). Christopher Andersen's Obama bio & this blogger's account (your AoS linky) are confirmations of Cashill's conclusion.

Grathwohl, who infiltrated Billie's bombing clubs for the FBI back in the day, seems to be confirming it too.

Anonymous said...

Should racism be a learned tradition, then perhaps it was learned from the lesson of genesis 6:2. Should that be the case then it's unlikely that the descendants of Adam will be hybridating with the descendants of monkeys any day soon.

julie said...

?
Hybridating??

Sounds like an online dating site for the zoo crowd.

Rick said...

I hear ya, Ximeze. I just haven’t followed it that much.
I have to say, I can’t believe such a narcissist would let anybody write his own book. But then again, that would be like work, so…
Maybe it went something like:
“Bill, this draft is good n’all,
*cigarette drag*
but you need tuh make me awesomer.”

ximeze said...

Yeah, but he's all hat and no cattle.

Couldn't do it after years of trying, with more than one contract & advance from publishers. With another deadline approaching (can you say default & possible required return of advanced $$$) Mo gave Obie's family notes & taped interviews to Billie - that's been established.

Obie has that vibe of being scared as sh*t he'll be found out - not just about this, but all the other things he's hiding. My bet is that Billie knows all.

Kepler Sings said...

It becomes clear to me through such writing and the writing of others that progressiveism is becoming known and illuminated. I think it has survived because it remained cloaked in the confusion of scientism, and moral relativity.

Yet now it is being exposed, its philosophical roots identified,(Darwinism) its operating principles displayed (ACORN) and its failed history certain (communism).

I have written before and maintain that the 3 frogs in the book of Revelation, one coming from the mouth of the Dragon (Satan) one coming from the mouth of the Beast (Human Government) and one coming from the mouth of the false prophet (Human Psychology of the Freud school) are living things in the plane of spirit, but are doctrines of demons here on earth.

Atheistic government rests upon the foundation of Darwinism. Darwinism is Satanic thinking (Nobody created me!) Marx wrote to Darwin and wanted to dedicate Communist Manifesto to his "soul brother."

Once established you can then breakdown the human mind via Freud and get it to accept sin (mind parasites) as normal for human existence, in fact just feed the little beasties according to Freud.

It looks like we are losing, and will, just before so much light breaks through that these deceptions can no longer be sustained, much like global warming will be laughed at in 20 years. "What comes to the light is no longer darkness."

Anna said...

Kepler Sings said:

'Atheistic government rests upon the foundation of Darwinism. Darwinism is Satanic thinking (Nobody created me!) Marx wrote to Darwin and wanted to dedicate Communist Manifesto to his "soul brother."

Once established you can then breakdown the human mind via Freud and get it to accept sin (mind parasites) as normal for human existence, in fact just feed the little beasties according to Freud.'


Interesting that you mention an evil, unholy trinity with counterparts in the Trinity. Darwin - father/creator/origins; Marx - son/king/rule; Freud - mind/spirit. [Maybe this 'unholy trinity' has been mentioned at the OC before. Not sure.]

An inversion of the Truth that brings freedom - the lie that brings bondage. The first (Darwin) justifying murder, the second (Marx) theft, the third (Freud) sin. Together they wreak (total) havoc.

And it is all rooted in matter - the flesh. For Marx, the earth is the inverted Christ; Das Kapital a written gospel. For Freud the worms underneath (sins of the flesh) are 'real', 'true'. Darwin's fleshly survival an inversion of denying the flesh in the name of Spirit. It is Hades. One can recognize a counterfeit false-kingdom/dominion with a mocking/parallel structure of a deeper inter-working, mutually darkening (on earth) dynamic.


2 Thess. 2:6-12

6And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.


Rev. 16:13 & 14

13Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

See also Matthew 16.

Vs. 17 & 18; 24 - 27 specifically.

17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[c] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it.[e] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[g] loosed in heaven."

...

24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life[h] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.


wv: dismak

Evil dismak(es) the Good.

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