On The Enlightenment

The initial spark for this post came when I read this article on Reason.Com – in which a hero of the Left, the Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg, is said to show intolerance toward a New York cabbie’s religious views. The scene was set in 1989, and the Ayatollah Khomeini had just sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for the content of his book. (I believe the term of art is “fatwa.”) The cabbie, of course, was a Muslim.

The concluding catch-phrase in this article really hooked me - “You want to kill the Enlightenment, you’re going to have to come through me.” It also apparently captures a sentiment that is widespread throughout western society today, as evidenced by the huge response to Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.

What is it about western society that allows this sort of spontaneous, voluntary, decentralized, creative, and powerfully focused cultural event? One could argue the Age of Enlightenment is the wellspring that made it possible.

The Age of Enlightenment is a strictly western historical phenomenon – there is no direct parallel in eastern societies, and it shows. The Age of Enlightenment is a deep subject to tackle in and of itself. For this post, let’s use this working short-hand definition from the Wikipedia article:

In his famous essay "What is Enlightenment?" (1784), Immanuel Kant described it simply as freedom to use one's own intelligence.

I guess I’ll throw in this slightly lengthier shot at pinning it down, also from Wikipedia:

Dorinda Outram provides a good example of a standard, intellectual definition of the Enlightenment:


Enlightenment was a desire for human affairs to be guided by rationality rather than by faith, superstition, or revelation; a belief in the power of human reason to change society and liberate the individual from the restraints of custom or arbitrary authority; all backed up by a world view increasingly validated by science rather than by religion or tradition.

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The Scientific Method is of The Enlightenment. Subverting the Scientific Method to skew data toward an ideologically driven conclusion is antithetical to the Enlightenment – see “Climate Gate.”

The American Founding Fathers were children of the Enlightenment. They created the most perfect governing framework yet conceived; based on the inalienable rights of every individual, and designed specifically to limit the authoritarian power of government to infringe on those rights. Those of us now actively engaged in protecting the integrity of the American Founding are of the Enlightenment.

The ideals of our judicial system – symbolized by Lady Justice’s blindfold – are based on the concept of equal justice for all. This vision is of the Enlightenment. The contemporary American Left’s obsession with race, gender, and sexual politics is antithetical to the Enlightenment.

The most existentially dangerous enemy of the Enlightenment we face today may be Radical Islamic Jihadism. But coming in a very close second is the contemporary American Left - the enablers of this international murder cult.

You see, the American Left is afflicted with the mental disease known as Political Correctness (PC). The disease of PC can present with the symptom of moral relativism, preventing its host from recognizing evil when he or she sees it, and acting accordingly to defend oneself against it. The great peril of our day is that the PC-blinded American Left runs our government at precisely the time the Jihadi tide is rising.

PC is not of the Enlightenment at all. PC is irrational.

PC offers a rigid set of dogmatic rules to its adherents, which often drives them into fits of hypocrisy – as with this ideologically addled beatnick.









PC causes its victims to fear the utterance of scary words – as with this incomprehensible incompetent.








PC causes its victims to lose perspective on their priorities – as with this confused old man.







PC even causes its victims to forget they have a national identity – as with our Apoligizer-In-Chief.







Or the entire Democrat caucus for that matter …







We simply must clean House in November if the American republic is to be preserved and the Enlightenment is to be perpetuated.



Footnote

The ink was hardly dry on this post and this fresh evidence of Lefty PC madness surfaced. Is there a patriotic Democrat left anywhere in the nation?  Brussels?  AYKM?