Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Socialists Right and Left- Same Difference

In yesterday's post I used the expression 'national corporate socialism' to describe the mentality that drives the coalition of leftist and corporate interests now working together to promote the government takeover of control and costs in the health sector of the U.S. economy. This expression naturally calls to mind and invites comparison with the 'national socialism' from which Adolf Hitler's Nazi party took its name. The major difference between the two lies in the fact that both the leftists of the Obama faction, and the big business interests working with them appear to believe that scientific materialism is an acceptable basis for dealing with human affairs. They accept approaches based on the premise that on the whole human beings are material objects, essentially no different than rocks, hammers or electrons.

Because the enormous evils the Nazis perpetrated so consistently involved dehumanizing the people they sought to exterminate, we tend to forget that the core of the Nazi ideology involved the concept of the 'volk', which derived its existential meaning from the occult and mystic qualities of the blood. According to the Nazis, the essential traits that distinguish one race from another reside in the blood, establishing the hierarchy of inferior and superior beings. According to the Nazis, it was from its blood that the Aryan nation derived its unique role in humanity's journey toward perfection. Unlike the scientific materialists, who ultimately rejected all vestiges of Immanuel Kant's effort to take account of the mysterious, non-material aspect of man's consciousness of being, Hitler embraced Schopenhauer's exaltation of the will as the locus and expression of that mystery. Essential to the will is the goal, which makes it possible for man to become what Nietzsche called an "arrow of longing", aimed toward a moment of perfection comprehensible in action, but inexpressible in purely material terms.

The possibility of total commitment that arises from this exaltation of the will sweeps aside the boundaries implied by objective reality, and with them the limits upon human will that arise in good conscience as we deal with individuals whose existence demands respect for those boundaries. The commitment to reach for unbounded perfection informed by merely human will plunged the German people into a vast sea of evil, stained red with the blood of the victim millions they sacrificed on the altar of self-worship. But despite their disregard for humanity in others, the Nazis acknowledged in themselves the truth of its subjective being, the indefinable something that elevates humanity above the flotsam and jetsam of the materialistic universe.

To do evil the Nazis dehumanized others, whom they then sacrificed for the possibility of self-willed human perfection they idolized in themselves. The scientific materialists who now seek to supplant constitutional self-government in the United States act on an understanding that denies the relevance of man's subjective perception of existence. They pretend that science has demystified existing things, among which they include human beings. Where the Nazis exalted human will, these national socialists exalt human knowledge in its scientific form. Where the Nazis denied the boundaries on human will implied by objective reality, the contemporary national socialists deny the boundaries on human action implied by the subjective perception of meaning we derive from our experience of willing. The result: the new national socialists exempt no one from the dehumanizing paradigm of scientific understanding. In principle, therefore, they dehumanize not this or that group of human beings, but the whole of humanity.

In some of my speeches over the years, I have made bold to predict that because we are discarding the moral principles that allow us to recognize and acknowledge the evil that we do, evils will be done in the twenty-first century that make the holocausts of the twentieth look like a dress rehearsal. As Americans consider the struggle now taking place, I hope a saving remnant will look beyond the details of the particular issues we debate, and reflect on the general import of the choices involved. For I believe that the American people could have a special role to play in the human journey. However, it is not a role determined by materialistic and impersonal accident, nor set up by the committed force of human will. The great principle of our beginning allots to us the task of acknowledging the true source and mainstay of both objective reality and the subjective meaning our will ascribes to it. That source is the being-in-itself whose goodwill determined and daily renews the possibility of both, the Creator God whose authority our Founders respected as the basis for human rights and justice. Their respect for God's will distinguishes them decisively from both the 'right wing' national socialists of old, and those of the left with whom we now contend. I believe it is imperative for true Americans to join together now to preserve the work that reflects their wisdom, uniting for God, for Liberty and the Constitution in order to preserve both conscience and humanity.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am at once gratified and alarmed at the basic error you make in distinguishing between the morality of scientific materialism and Nietzschean racism.

I do not believe that you have ever seriously tried looking at the world through a materialistic viewpoint. This is probably for the best, only very wicked people ever try it anyway. If you had, you would then understand that the general premise that humans are mere objects cannot be successfully applied to oneself. The closest possible approach is a determined belief that one is not responsible for one's own actions, but an expressed disbelief in the self does not follow and cannot be entertained as a sincere belief. It is not a mere logical impossibility, but a fundamental experiential contradiction.

Thus, the scientific materialist does not disbelieve in all humanity, but only all humanity aside from himself. Thus, the morality of the scientific materialist is not different in kind from that of the Nietzchean racist, only in degree.

This is important because scientific materialists would often like to suggest (they cannot claim outright) that the abnegation of humanity, once applied to the self, leads to a form of perfect altruism. It is difficult to dispute this logically, since in logic, if an impossible premise is granted, then literally any conclusion can be reached. If the abnegation of the self could be attained, then we could travel back in time, or become identical with the universe, or be purple lollipops. All these conclusions can be reached easily enough once you grant that it is possible for a person to intelligently believe not to be a person.

Of course, once I see scientific materialists transcending the limitations of time and space, I'll be forced to reevaluate the possibility of it. But I don't see that happening any time soon.

Once we reject the claim that the scientific materialist has access to some form of perfect altruism, we must see that this morality is merely that of the Nietzschean racist taken to the absolute extreme of seeing value in only one existence, that of the particular self of the individual scientific materialist. But of course, we cannot know that any particular scientific materialist actually goes to that extreme. If someone claims to believe what is experientially impossible for anyone to believe, we can have no confidence he is telling the truth about beliefs that are possible but unlikely.

Thus it is likely that most scientific materialists are more extreme than Nietzschean racists but are not actual solipsists. So, even the difference in degree of their morality has been reduced accordingly. All the same, that difference in morality is still significant and you are right to note it. The very flexibility of the scientific materialist's morality removes any pragmatic limitations on the evil it can endorse.

gilbertabrett said...

In Dr. Keyes' last paragraph, he notes the evils to be committed on humanity in the 21st century and how they will make the last century's holocausts look mild. Some people believe that the coming vaccinations will help with that. And they say how funny that it coincides with "health care" legislation. We are in for some rude awakenings in this country... Christians better start wearing their knees out...

Anonymous said...

Brothers and sisters in Christ. We knew what we were getting into when we signed up: persecution, tribulation, and to be hated by all men. Jesus warned us.

But Jesus also promised us eternal life and the crown of life for all who wait for His Coming and endure to the end.

And He gave us His Holy Spirit.

If the early church did it, surely we can too!

To live is gain and to die is to be with the Lord.

Keep your treasurers in heaven.

I'm signed up for the persecution and the tribulation, et al.

I'm IN.

Keep fighting the good fight and don't be too disheartened with the evil all around us. There never was a real republican party nor any of that, that was all an illusion of satan. this is satan's world kingdom on earth.

Remember, everything they come at us with is not directed to us -- it's directed at God Himself. They are fighting God, not us.

All creation groans for the day when the sons of God will be revealed and we can put on incorruption right along with us! Romans 8

Fight on in the spirit and keep the armor on and don't pay attention to the flaming arrows as we run the narrow course in truth and honor and victory.

Remember: Jesus Christ has already overcome the world. All they can do is kill the body but not the soul. And they are the ones we should be sad over for they are going to spend etermity in the fires of hell. But those who's names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life will not.

This is a good time to let go of materialism and hold onto what is good and right. They have hijacked the U.S. Constitution.

Can't starve a fasting man
Can't rob or steal from someone who owns nothing
Can't humiliate a person who doesn't care about prestige

--Francesco

Anonymous said...

We are believers in the one True God Jehovah.

Let's drop the political mumbo jumbo and get down to the common demoninator.

There's only 2 kinds of people in the world, those whose names are in the Lamb's Book of Life, and those whose names are not.

We don't know who all those are yet, as not all have come into the fold yet, but we can be sure God will not ask what party or political side we're on.

It's simple as that.

tz said...

I wish I could still believe in your defense of liberty. But I can't. War is more destructive than even economic devastation. Yet we are still in Iraq. Yes, over the non-existent weapons of mass destruction. With warrantless wiretaps and detention without trial. Torture. Dehumanization of Arabs, Muslims, whomever - you had no more care for their humanity than the Late Dr. Tiller had for the unborn. Every evil was unopposed, and often cheered. And we never got Osama bin Laden.

Was not the war to benefit Lockheed, Haliburton, and Blackwater? To get Real-ID and the rest via the Patriot Act? Meanwhile Goldman Sachs, AIG, and the rest of Wall Street were arming their financial weapons of mass destruction - derivatives - which are still cratering the economy. Where were you? Cheering for our sit and bleed policy in Iraq?

And I don't remember you calling for free speech when people opposed the escalating war on the thinnest of evidence - which the Pope opposed - were silenced and threatened worse than anything over the Obama Joker posters. Some are being called racist, but others were called traitor not for supporting anything threatening this country from without, but pointing out that we were destroying liberty from within.

You cannot love both war and liberty. During the Bush terms you loved war and I cannot name a single anti-liberty policy I can remember you opposing. I think you may have been annoyed that we all watched as Terri Schiavo was tortured to death slowly over two weeks while the brave armchair warriors were powerless to do anything but sign a paper. But only annoyed. Not like with Obama.

Well all those Bush-era laws are still there, ready to come down on you and me instead of the islamofacist towelheads you don't care about.

The only difference between Bush and Obama is that you are being targeted instead of you doing the targeting. You are being called the most slanderous names, instead of slandering those who knew that war always kills liberty.

On Alex Jones, he points out that the Village Voice depicted Bush as a Vampire. And I remember all kinds of horrible things saying the Village Voice had no right to publish, they should be arrested, we shouldn't say bad things in a time of war, they support terrorists... Or just remember the Dixie Chicks. Or even Ron Paul who was consistent throughout.

I will believe you when and if you ever defend freedom for freedom's sake - in the case of someone you completely disagree with.

I see to the right "The enemy of my enemy is ?". Jesus said that even evil people know how to give good things to those they love - but we should love our enemies. I can only think he meant in in a case like this. Or the good samaritan. That principle must come before persons. Laws before men, both divine and human.

The same way people support Fox News now is the way you supported everything Bush did - as long as it was coated with "but its war". I don't know why - you are smart enough to know that the greater threat to liberty comes from government itself. That these laws had little to do with getting Bin Laden in his cave in Pakistan. I don't know why you were singing with the big government chorus, but I don't believe you really changed your tune.

You are just another corrupt politician supporting the team depending on which way the wind is blowing and letting liberty die - as long as a republican is the executioner. You just don't like it when democrats do it.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for another brilliant post, Dr. Keyes.

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