Dr. Birzer, you write: "...the nineteenth century bred the narrowest thought of all—from men such as Georg W.F. Hegel, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, and Sigmund Freud." and, "During the 1960s, the New Left—more culturally than economically Marxist—began a concerted effort to destroy the foundations of Western Civilization..."
True, but I contend, and I think a proper study will confirm, that those Europeans were not nearly as influential on the nacent American left as one Ralph Waldo Emerson. He helped create that brand of Frogpondian Unitarian American, both sanctimonious and with proletarian pretensions, which gave birth to the New Left in the United States; a strain entirely different than the more Marxian, labor oriented Left in the UK. It was from that anastomosing stink creek the Port Huron Statement was written; yes, of course, Marx was an influence.
Emerson was the American Nietzsche and far more read by the American public. His essay, "Self-Reliance" is a masterpiece of so called, "can-do" American spirit, or so it seems at first. But Emerson's ideas are exactly what Sowell would call "the unconstrained vision." In fact, his vision is the ultimate unconstrained vision. No wonder Poe and Melville couldn't stand him.
Emerson was a PBS subscriber before there was a PBS.
A good synopsis of the current soup in which we boil. That whole Nominalism/Realism thingummy from the 13th century seems to have led to a retreat to power as the common denominator (as Guardini indicates in his great book "End of the Modern World") by which the world can be changed. If we only will it enough and exert our will over others we can make the roads straight, the trains run on time, the blind to walk and the lame to see & all will love us and despair. Thanks be to HG Wells and the Fabians, amirite?
Dr. Birzer, you write: "...the nineteenth century bred the narrowest thought of all—from men such as Georg W.F. Hegel, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, and Sigmund Freud." and, "During the 1960s, the New Left—more culturally than economically Marxist—began a concerted effort to destroy the foundations of Western Civilization..."
True, but I contend, and I think a proper study will confirm, that those Europeans were not nearly as influential on the nacent American left as one Ralph Waldo Emerson. He helped create that brand of Frogpondian Unitarian American, both sanctimonious and with proletarian pretensions, which gave birth to the New Left in the United States; a strain entirely different than the more Marxian, labor oriented Left in the UK. It was from that anastomosing stink creek the Port Huron Statement was written; yes, of course, Marx was an influence.
Emerson was the American Nietzsche and far more read by the American public. His essay, "Self-Reliance" is a masterpiece of so called, "can-do" American spirit, or so it seems at first. But Emerson's ideas are exactly what Sowell would call "the unconstrained vision." In fact, his vision is the ultimate unconstrained vision. No wonder Poe and Melville couldn't stand him.
Emerson was a PBS subscriber before there was a PBS.
A good synopsis of the current soup in which we boil. That whole Nominalism/Realism thingummy from the 13th century seems to have led to a retreat to power as the common denominator (as Guardini indicates in his great book "End of the Modern World") by which the world can be changed. If we only will it enough and exert our will over others we can make the roads straight, the trains run on time, the blind to walk and the lame to see & all will love us and despair. Thanks be to HG Wells and the Fabians, amirite?
Thank you for this post Amigo,
Grace and peace to you...