Inquisition 21
 |
 |
|
|
| Log In
|
|
|
|
|
| Search Articles
|
|
|
|
|
| Comments
|
|
|
You don't have to,
but if you log in,
you can add comments.
|
| Page Referral
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What will be next?
|
|
|
|
What will the next absolutist doctrine be? Inappropriate behavouir?
The wider scope of absolutism
The wider scope of absolutism
The great 20th century epistemics philosopher J. Samuel Bois said, "We have gradually eliminated from the planet, our place of abode, practically all threats to our existence from lower forms of energy, physical or biological, and we are left with one overawing danger to our survival and happiness. This danger lies within us and within those of our kind. It comes from the fact that some human organizational units are bent on making their human-made self-image victorious over all other self-images at whatever cost to themselves and to the rest of humankind." The Art of Awareness.
Let us consider some manifestations of these victorious self-images:
Gross consumption of global resources by a few nations
Assumptions of global supremacy
Fundamentalist hatreds of other peoples with different religions
Rapacious national leaders putting their personal interests first
Corrupt politicians and administrators
The celebrity/wealth culture, including the worship of celebrities
Social and sexual absolutism.
A major contributing force to the acceptance of these imposed doctrines is nihilism/self-concentration. Even amongst the citizens who do not cheat and abuse power, there is a sense that it is not only useless to try to do good, but that in our absolutist culture it is dangerous, as one's motives can be misjudged, so one should keep one’s head down and accept. As a result, there is little evidence of good citizenship or good example, so there is less motivation to the have-nots to avoid crime, especially in the face of official corruption. An extreme form of nihilism/self-concentration can be seen in the fanaticism of Islamic fundamentalism - this world is worth nothing, so I give myself as martyr to a higher cause, that of the destruction of the non-believer.
So what part does absolutism play here? It legitimizes all of the above expressions of self-image, and provides targets for the re-direction of the hatreds and nihilism that underlie them. It provides platforms for the opportunists, and compliant masses for those manipulating power.
Here is a startling observation. In the West as we look with increasing dismay at the growth and at the real threat of religious fundamentalism, we allow our own hard-earned liberties to be undermined by the fundamentalists within our society. Who cannot be alarmed at the speed with which the socialistic ideology, modelled on, or seen at its most extreme in, Sweden has swept the western world, upholding certain rights of the state above those of the individual and the family, complete with social police and censors?
Who would have believed in the 1960s that by the 1980s many would fear the knock on the door by police and social workers and that by the year 2003, others would be fearful of what might be found on their PCs? That due process and other precious protections would be swept aside by the establishment of crimen exceptum and that judges and prosecutors would enforce the ideologies of social workers. In the UK, which some used to believe was the home of justice, we now listen to policemen boasting about the fear they are instilling in citizens over the possible contents of their PCs. As part of the stings they are operating, they promise therapy for those who come forward and confess. The therapy is from the same industry that led the child abduction raids on the homes of innocent families in the 1980s and 1990s.
We were all relieved when Salman Rushdie got protection in the West, glad that our democratic way of life would protect our writers. It no longer does so. In several countries, certain writings of a sexual nature, no matter what their literary or philosophic intent, are now criminalized. In matters of so-called ‘child pornography’ writers and scholars are not allowed to research or critically examine the work of the censors, some of whom work hand in hand with the police. How have we let this happen?
In an article on this site titled ‘Identifying and Dealing with Child Savers’, Ohio professor, Thomas D. Oellerich identifies the following attributes of the professional ‘child saver’ – proselytizer, validator, exaggerator (or advocate), trauma ideologist and therapy marketeer. The first three could apply to the Inquisition heretic identifier, the witch and the communist hunter, and to the Nazi, while the last two can be converted into whatever profitable activity results for the ‘savers’. What this means is that as our liberties are eroded through the search for, and destruction of, demons, the ‘savers’ are making a profit at the expense of their new victims.
What will be next?
The wider scope of absolutism
 |
|
|
