A fine read, thanks. Several very solid truths well expressed, and as always seems to be the case where this subject is concerned one potentially lethal (for democracy) ommission. No one ever points out that the difference between democratic self rule and an externally controlled despotic consensus is the average amount of “internal authority of self” found within the electorate. When people have been made dependent on some external (to themselves) point of authority to give them emotional permission to hold an opinion that person is no longer able to participate as a fully functional citizen of a democracy… with no opinion of their own they have no wisdom of their own to contribute to the decisions being made.
To illuminate my reasons for such a sweeping assertion? Contemplate the founding father’s prohibition of mixing church and state… church, religion, the original and still massively powerful vendor of emotional permissions (usually but not always in the form of some “certification of social/moral acceptability”)… and then with the former thought still in clear focus contemplate the fact that religion now has a serious challenger for that deep power, one the founding fathers could not prepare against… Empire Accademia’s Kingdom of Psychology did not yet exist when they wrote th e constitution of the new nation!!! Observe how the tendrils and tentacles of Psychology operating through the public schools have every bit as much reach and influence as the offerings of Religion on the same subjects ever did operating from a pulpit over congregation!!! Look again at the state of America’s democracy with this new power player within your contemplations. I believe you’ll find a great many things are no longer. the confusing mystery they once were.
May 18, 2024 @ 9:21 am
A fine read, thanks. Several very solid truths well expressed, and as always seems to be the case where this subject is concerned one potentially lethal (for democracy) ommission. No one ever points out that the difference between democratic self rule and an externally controlled despotic consensus is the average amount of “internal authority of self” found within the electorate. When people have been made dependent on some external (to themselves) point of authority to give them emotional permission to hold an opinion that person is no longer able to participate as a fully functional citizen of a democracy… with no opinion of their own they have no wisdom of their own to contribute to the decisions being made.
To illuminate my reasons for such a sweeping assertion? Contemplate the founding father’s prohibition of mixing church and state… church, religion, the original and still massively powerful vendor of emotional permissions (usually but not always in the form of some “certification of social/moral acceptability”)… and then with the former thought still in clear focus contemplate the fact that religion now has a serious challenger for that deep power, one the founding fathers could not prepare against… Empire Accademia’s Kingdom of Psychology did not yet exist when they wrote th e constitution of the new nation!!! Observe how the tendrils and tentacles of Psychology operating through the public schools have every bit as much reach and influence as the offerings of Religion on the same subjects ever did operating from a pulpit over congregation!!! Look again at the state of America’s democracy with this new power player within your contemplations. I believe you’ll find a great many things are no longer. the confusing mystery they once were.