Social Philosophy: The Messianic nature of current politics

Jonah Goldberg writes:
[Eric] Voegelin argued that progressivism, like other political religions, manifested itself as a form of gnosticism. In both its ancient and modern forms, gnosticism has two core assumptions. First, it condemns the existing world as broken and alienating, plagued by evil forces preventing a complete and happy restoration of man's spiritual and material life. In other words…the world is a place of broken souls. But the gnostic promise, to borrow a phrase from John Edwards, is that “it doesn't have to be this way." Enter the second core assumption: Gnostic political religions promise (in Russell Kirk’s words) “a mode of deliverance or salvation from the prison of the world for man through a secret gnosis.” That is, with just the right mixture of abracadabra words and prestidigitatory politics we can create a “kingdom of heaven on earth" ¬not coincidentally, a phrase invoked by Bolsheviks, progressives, fascists, and every other variety of utopian collectivist. This effort to lasso the hereafter and pull it down to the here-and-now was dubbed by Voegelin "immanentizing the eschaton."

What is this gnosis, this secret knowledge that can usher in a perfect world? That varies. For the Marxists, the secret lay in the intricacies of "scientific socialism." With just the right manipulation of material or historical forces we could-ta-da!-create a land where each lives according to his need. For the Marxist, Voegelin quipped, "Christ the Redeemer is replaced by the steam engine as the promise of the realm to come." For the progressives, the trick was giving ourselves over to the social planners and gnostic "ideologists of Christ."

A group called Bring Us Change…know little to nothing about the intellectual precursors of their political religion. And that is a major theme of Voegelin's argument. Utopian desires are part of the human condition, and the craving to create a heaven on earth is the inevitable consequence of a godless society. "Totalitarianism, defined as the existential rule of Gnostic activists, is the end form of progressive civilization," Voegelin insisted. Indeed, the story of totalitarianism is the story of men trying to replace the allegedly discredited old God with one of their own creation. “When God is invisible behind the world," Voegelin writes, "the contents of the world will become new gods; when the symbols of transcendent religiosity are banned, new symbols develop from the inner-worldly language of science to take their place." This purely political "'science" becomes, in effect, the new faith dedicated to the "redivinization of society." Which explains liberals' oddly passionate reactions when faced with conservative disagreement. Those who take the slogan "If you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem" as a spiritual imperative (whether they see it as spiritual or not) are inclined to take disagreement or apathy not as dissent, but as heresy.

Moreover, when God is no longer the measure of man, man--or mankind--becomes the object of worship. (It shouldn't surprise us that Herbert Croly, the indispensable intellectual of modern liberalism, was literally baptized into Auguste Comte's "Religion of Humanity," in which great scientists and statesmen were designated "saints.") When there is no power other than "people power," worship of people power becomes the new faith. Members of the movement worship themselves. Or, in Voegelin's words, they "build the corpus mysticum of the collectivity and bind the members to form the oneness of the body." Or again, in Barack Obama's words, we quite become the ones we've been waiting for. There is where progressivism meets populism. Populism, after all, is ultimately a form of narcissism in which an individual's self-regard and self-pity are multiplied by the population of the mob. My grievances become our grievances, and the satisfaction of grievance is the only true measure of what is right. As Willie Stark says to the masses in All the King's Men, “Your will is my strength, and your need is my justice." In a rightly ordered society, such sentiments are better directed toward God than toward a throng of angry supplicants.

---Excerpts from “The Limits of Hope” by Jonah Goldberg

Literature: Poetry: Interstellar Wars

For I dipt into the future, far as
human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all
the wonder that would be;
Saw the heavens fill with
commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight
dropping down with costly bales;
Heard the heavens fill with shouting,
and there rain’d a ghastly dew
From the nations’ airy navies
grappling in the central blue;
Far along the world-wide whisper of
the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples
plunging thro’ the thunder-storm;
Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer,
and the battle-flags were furl’d
In the Parliament of man, the
Federation of the world.
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
Locksley Hall (1842)

W: LP: LG: FD: C & P

Friday our Literary Group met again and we covered Part Two of Crime & Punishment. For these first two parts, at least, our host has noted a chiastic structure of the scenes in each part. We also talked about the symbolism used such as the blood covering Raskolnikov's clothing after the scene where Marmeladov dies from injuries sustained from a carriage accident. Another thing I noticed in the story is how Raskolnikov rejects grace or mercy extended to him, but wants to extend mercy to some others (like giving his money to Marmeladov's widow).
Is Raskolnikov trying to perform some work of penance or expiation? Or is this incidental to the story?

Good Friday Translation

Grant us rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon us.
Hymns shall become thee, O God in Zion, and to thee shall new vows be paid in Jerusalem.
Hear thou my prayer, 0 Lord God; unto thee shall all flesh come.
Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, you who takes away the sins of the world, grant to us, O Lord eternal rest.
Let light eternal shine upon us, O Lord God, forever with your blessed servants, for you are gracious, Lord;
Grant to us, Lord, eternal rest; let light perpetual shine upon us.

Hail true body born of the Virgin Mary:
Truly suffered, sacrificed on the cross for man,
Whose pierced side flowed with true blood.
Be to us food (now and) in the trial of death.

In paradise be thou received of angel hosts,
Thy coming attended by all the blessed martyr throng,
Thy pathway guided into the holy city, Jerusalem,
May the chorus of angels there receive thee; and with Lazarus, once a beggar, now comforted, be thine eternal rest.

Christ, we do all adore thee, and we do praise thee forever, for on the holy cross hast thou the world from sin redeemed. Christ, we do all adore thee!

Good Friday

Requiem aeternam dona nobis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat nobis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion, et tibi redetur votum in Jerusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet.
Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison.

Agnus Dei. qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis, requiem.
Lux aeterna luceat nobis, Domine cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, qui a pius, es;
Requiem aeternam dona nobis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat nobis.

Ave verum corpus, natum Ex Maria Virgine;
Vere passum, immolatum In cruce pro homine,
Cujus latus perforatum Vero fluxit sanguine.
Esto nobis praegustatum In mortis examine.

In paradisum deducant angeli;
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et percucant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem.

Adoramus te Christe, et benedicimus tibi,
quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

ORP: YM & PKD

Reading Philip K. Dick is like looking at frames from a movie strung out in plotline sequences. In this case, the pictures are from different films that have been edited together. And yet, although different, the scenes still make sense to the meta-story. This strangeness is entertaining and you get what the Pink Floyd song calls, “the warm thrill of confusion and space cadet glow.” The sensual experience of these stories is mental, you get to dream and think and contemplate.

By contrast, in Yukio Mishima’s story, “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea”, this experience is more visual and tactile. Since I don’t know Japanese, I don’t know if this effect is a product of the translator or can be seen in the original text. I haven’t finished reading the story yet, so I’ll make another entry later to include any new thoughts on the story.

One common thread through all these different types of literature I am currently reading is that one can often use characters in a story to explore what one is thinking, feeling, yearning, and wondering about. Some would say that in the end, writing and getting published is merely about entertainment. If this is true, at least let us expand the reader’s mind and insert ideas in with the entertainment.

Personal Update

"And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."


For a few days now, I have had a little opportunity to think of the implications of reaching the age of 45. I had hoped to retire from my trade at the age of 56 so that I might for few years try to redeem the time and accomplish something. Today I awoke to the news that certain powers that be are busily undermining the trust which holds the wealth to pay my pension and there is a chance that the early retirement option may be eliminated. I will now have to work until 65 and statistics show that most electricians only live another two years or less after retiring at this age. It's like being under a prison sentence that is long but will some day end, and then to awaken to the slam of the gavel and the pronouncement of a life sentence. There will be no parole and I will come to the end of my life and I will have accomplished nothing.

"Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines..."

ORP: YM & General

Today I began reading a collection of three novels by Yukio Mishima (in translation of course); these include the following titles: "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea", "The Temple Of The Golden Pavilion", & "Confessions Of A Mask". I just started the first of these novels, so I don't quite know what to make of them yet.

I am also continuing to read Boulding's translation of Augustine's Confessions and Dostoevsky (q.v.) to Janie.

Like everyone, I suppose, I wish I had more time for these pursuits (Literature, writing, etc.).

VALIS

enigmatic comment (but not to PKD fans)

ORP: PKD & General

At another time I'll try to give a more cogent commentary on specific works, but for now I'll just mention that I'm almost done reading four novels by Philip K. Dick. They are: "The Man In The High Tower", "The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch", "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", and "Ubik". This author's strange thinking has influenced me more than I realized. I had, years ago, read the first of these four novels and some other works by this author. Now in rereading the one and reading some new novels, I have realized that some of my ways of thinking and writing parallel this author.

Edit (20080317):
Completed these four novels on Saturday. I won't have time write anything about these works, so I am just internalizing some of the hallmarks of PKD's writing, to wit: realistic characterization, perceptive reality, psycho-philosophical ruminations, etc.

So now that I am making a conscious effort to analyze what I am reading, it will be interesting what will start happening as I begin again to write stories.

Neue Ansicht
Novo Visum

W: LP: LG: FD: C & P

This post will get edited several times as I think about tonight's discussion of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (C&P), so stay tuned...

So far, my observations of the character, Raskolnikov, as he commits the murder are that what we are looking at is the true nature of fallen humanity.

As Philip K. Dick in his novel "The man in the High Tower", has the character, Tagomi, contemplate (and I quote):
There is evil! It's actual, like cement.
I can't believe it. I can't stand it. Evil is not a view...It's an ingredient in us. In the world. Poured over us, filtering into our bodies, minds, hearts, into the pavement itself...We're blind moles. Creeping through the soil, feeling with our snoots. We know nothing. I perceived this...now I don't know where to go. Screech with fear, only. Run away. Pitiful.

And as the translators of C&P write in their forward:

Evil is the final ambiguity. Reason cannot accept it; rationalizing ideologies deny its existence. No one calls it by name, and this silence weighs heavily on the novel, because the world of C&P is saturated with evil, so much so that it becomes palpable. It is the dense element through which Raskolnikov moves without recognition.

Raskolnikov's internal sickness is our sickness. Without Christ...

W: LP: LG: FD: C & P

I just started reading Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (with the same translators of the version of Notes From Underground recently studied). I am up to page 106 (I'm going a little slower as I am reading the story out loud to Janie) and this Friday evening we will begin our discussions at our literary group meeting. More to come...

Neue Ansicht
Novo Visum

{|

Song Lyrics: I Won't Wake Up by Planet P Project

I Won't Wake Up by Planet P Project

Cold sleepin' in Zero-G
There's nothin' else here that I can see
I get this feelin' that I'm not alone
It's in the air, I feel it in my bones

Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound
Don't make a sound

There's nothin' else here, the instruments say
If I don't open my eyes will it go away

Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound

Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound

There´s nothin' out here, that's what they all say
If I don't open my eyes, will it go away

Oh I won't wake up
And I won't turn around
I won't open my eyes
And I won't make a sound
Oh I won't wake up
No I won' wake up
No I won' wake up
(end of song)

For me the song is a cool vignette of Cthulhu in space (see HP Lovecraft). Imagine you're on a multiple decade journey between the stars and its supposed to be just empty space before you. Only there's something there. [Mechanical laughter...]

]