If the 17th and 18th centuries were considered the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, can we now be in anything other than The Illogical Age?
The Age of Enlightenment was based on the theory that if men were left free to use their reason, that there would be a utopia. Now, we believe the opposite. If you use reason you are someone who must be silenced, shouted down, discredited and reviled.
The Age of Reason believed that there were universal truths in humanity as there are in science. Now we believe that everything is a gray area and should be dependent on the individual's personal situation.
Our founding documents, Common Sense, The Declaration of Independence and even our Constitution were written with the philosophy that man should use his reason and, if he does so, will be able to govern himself. With every entitlement program created, with every behavior modification tax imposed and with every increase in government power we have taken another step away from reason.
The enlightenment has been steadily dimming, but with the huge progressive push, the lights are all but extinguished on the age of reason. Where is the reason in anything that is done now? The vast majority of what is done is the opposite of reason and logic -- flies in the face of it in fact.
Most recently we have climategate. The man made climate change data has come under serious question, but the raw data on which the assumptions were based have been destroyed. What real scientist ever destroys data? That's illogical. In the face of that, knowing that the climate crisis may be man made but not in the way originally thought, are supporters using their reason to address the issue? Of course not. They deny the facts, abandon their reason and cling to their ideology. The powers that be are going ahead with a treaty that will potentially cost us each thousands per year in order to address a problem that may not, probably does not, even exist. Where's the reason in that?
The enlightenment encouraged people to abandon blind faith and think, but now we encourage the abandonment of thought for blind faith. There is no REASONABLE rationale for the progressive movement, especially since everything it has tried has failed and everything it is attempting to try on a large scale has already failed on a small one. REASON would lead you to deduce that the progressive ideals are inherently flawed and we should return to what has been proven to work.
Unfortunately, in this Illogical Age, reason is in short supply.
Sunday verse
2 hours ago
I can't argue with a single point above. Not all of us live in the Illogical Age, however. Only the citizens of the U.S., perhaps Japan and 'Old Europe,' as Rumsfeld put it.
ReplyDeleteThe leaders of the People's Republic of China are not inclined to go down that path. They are cold, calculating logical guys. Ask them if they are inclined to take a step back in their progress they've achieved over the last 25 years or so and sign onto this Copenhagen idiocy in order to save the planet. Ha, not a chance in hell. They know the planet is going to be fine, whatever we humans do to it, for better or for worse.
NOTE: I've been to China, and the smog there is pretty bad, but they will in time do something about it. Right now is not the time, though, as they value prosperity more than a pristine environment. Just like we in the U.S. did at our industrial awakening.
In their own time (not ours) they will get around to it.
I've told people that I was born with a handicap and instead of assisting me in overcoming it my parents fostered it, crippling me forever from functioning in contemporary American society. My handicap? Logic and Reason.
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