Listen to our most recent Podcast on destructive philosophies of our present time.
This episode points out that a philosophical split lies at the basis of whether Americans can hope for greater freedom, or can expect ever-greater erosion of our God-give rights
Transcript:
Good morning. I’m Frank Kaufmann, president of the Settlement Project.
I’m writing a book on the current ideology working most vigorously to undermine the fundamental values and culture of the United States of America, its freedoms and liberties, its guarantees of equality and equal and fair justice for all, freedom of speech, indeed the entire Bill of Rights. There is a movement, not just a philosophical movement, but an effective legislative and cultural work that is successfully, systematically removing the guarantees of God given, unalienable rights guaranteed all American citizens. These are being eroded by a committed community in the United States. This community includes basically all institutions–media, tech, and elected officials, willing directly to undermine and remove the rights guaranteed Americans in our Constitution.
The book I’m writing criticizes what I’ve dubbed postmodern critical theory. Hopefully, it’ll be out soon, but I want to get some of the thoughts out in advance. In a certain way, there’s not a moment to lose.
We examine three revolutions from recent times. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Bolshevik Revolution.
The book argues that the current assault on America has elements of Marxism, growing primarily growing out of the efforts of the Maoist, Neo-Marxist government of China. A lot of people argue that China is a mixed economy, but the truth is that essential elements of Marxism working to undermine America and destroy its foundations are coming out of China. They arise, adhere to, and are faithful to the earlier period of Marxism perpetrated by Mao. This still exists today and is being intensified today under the regime of Xi.
The more important thing is that the current ideological force that is working to undermine and destroy American culture and American civil and civic life starts with an assault on the Bill of Rights. It is clever and manipulative. It is an evil being perpetrated against us.
My purpose is to look at the philosophical underpinnings of this movement. I won’t be able to get into this in too much detail until the book is written and published. In the book we will offer a systematic explanation of the design and the corrosive force of what we’ve dubbed, postmodern critical theory. For now, I’ll just introduce little by little, some of the key elements that can be useful in our thinking.
Here is the core point: On the right side, moral, constitutional conservatives understand that the human being is an intentionally created entity. Conservatives understand human being as created with the design of a loving God or loving divine force that seeks our positive welfare. This is why created reality exists. We are meant to experience love, joy, delight, creativity, and bonds of care and affection for one another. This is why family is ubiquitous. All this comes from affirming an internal and inherent design to being human.
Since the time of the Enlightenment philosophers what has come to replace the understanding of internal character given at the moment of our original design with a view that is fundamentally different. Rather than understanding ourselves to be created with an inherent divine purpose, the Left side seeks to bring about positive human welfare by looking outside the human being for the cause of disturbance, dysfunction, or disorder.
On the right side, the moral, conservative side, God fearing side, we tend to understand our responsibility to build a better world as lying within each person. We must exercise piety, reverence, and an orientation towards our transcendent origins, to be in touch with our destiny as human beings. All this is meant to be the path through which we can build outwards, from good selves to good families, from good societies to good nations.
On the left side, the fundamental point of orientation where problems lie is not in myself, but in structures, systems, societies. The core philosophical direction and understanding is that systems have brought misfortune, and the experience of alienation and oppression to me. I am not the origin of any difficulties. I am the victim. Philosophies of the left require that human beings understand themselves as victims. Once that is established, what must happen then? What happens is an Elite Core presents itself as morally, and fundamentally superior to all others, and as such uniquely capable of repairing and redesigning these societies that oppress people. This elite seeks ever greater power and ultimately create tyrannies, fascism, and in the end genocide in the effort to rid society of those whom they decide cause oppression.
There is much more to say on this, which I will be covering in future podcasts.
Thanks for listening to this preliminary introduction of this basic split. Remember, it is simply this: Do I have any responsibility for the disorder of things? Should I work on myself? Fix myself to help make a better world? Or do all the problems in the world lie outside of myself? All my difficulties are the fault of others, say whites or males. Other people are the cause of suffering in the world. And we (who know better than everyone) must be the lords who design systems to delimit those oppressors?
This lust for enough power to be the ones doing the “delimiting” is always where society degenerates to where an elite power-hungry force eventually turns to brutal control, and ultimately genocide.
Thank you for listening so far. I’ll be back again soon.
