Delusional revolution
In this article I endeavor to present the reality of 21 century which the collected ideologies of the past centuries since man started to reason have worked to produce man who is his worst threat to his himself. In an acknowledged state of confusion that reigns now he denies his true condition and instead of being honest with himself continues to delude himself while getting mired into self destructiveness that seems only to increase by day. It has been termed as “delusional revolution after the agrarian and the industrial revolutions before it” -Robert Jensen.
Self degradation
While the Aristotelian and platonic philosophies awakened man to one of the finest gifts of God, the capacity to reason, the same have been used to alienate man from himself and so become source of self degradation that is uncalled for; it is generally acknowledged that the medieval enlightenment, dominant Christian values and the late entrance of the eastern mysticism has played a great role in shaping the current worldviews basically new age movement. So much confusion that now it is possible to find someone subscribing to several worldviews without being aware of actually their source or even why he subscribes to them.
I have heard barrack Obama postulate the importance of helping everyone realize his potential just like Hillary Rodham the US secretary of state. Now without being aware that this is a new age idea it will appear very innocent and genuine intent.
“Me first philosophy”
It is now acknowledged that the stretching of the rights has become harmful and an obsession with “me first” philosophy of life is proving more harmful to the society at large going by the occurrences. Take for instance the abortion debate, it is interesting how we wish away the murder of millions of human beings still in their mothers womb yet we incarcerate those who kill others afterwards. When an Indian cabinet minister termed homosexuality as a disease, he was roundly condemned. In a similar vein last year the Church of England met to review their stand on homosexuality with a view to allowing gay bishops to be ordained. When youths in Britain decided to do their thing the society was aghast at the unprecedented levels of violence that the minors decided to visit on their communities.
Humanocentric philosophies
Yet all these are scattered incidences that are a by product of humanocentric ideologies which as is naturally true have enthroned man and effectively locked God from the affairs of man. We can mention the cult of reason which aimed to perfect man by attaining truth and liberty by exercising human reason. Nieztche the 19th century philosopher went to the extreme of declaring God as dead his pet topics were on existentialism, postmodernism and the will power. The warped philosophy stipulates that “Instead of meekly worshiping fictional gods, or blindly dismissing the ideals they represent, we should seek to become godlike ourselves. The body is weak, but the mind can be forever. People may die, but they can be preserved and resurrected. This world may in many ways resemble hell, but we can create heaven on earth. The universe may be a place of chaos and entropy, but we can fill it with order and intelligence. Guided by reason and empowered by technology, we can bend reality to our will, and make the impossible possible.” The vigilant citizen.
Culture of physics
Bertrand Russell a modern British atheist declared that his whole religion was to do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter. He liked mathematics because it is not human & has nothing in particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe. Another fellow called Moor declared “In the beginning was matter, and matter begat the devil, and the devil begat God”. At the end death first of God and then of the devil left matter alone as in the beginning. Algorithm expert Kevin Slavin has warned that the "maths that computers use to decide stuff" was infiltrating every aspect of our lives. Now the culture of physics rule from stock trading, to being our memory bank in terms of search engines. In my bible study BURU NPC Bible Study where we are currently studying the tabernacle series we have been forced to “Google” some stuff for clarification. Mark that Google is now a word in the oxford dictionary.
Re-invented religion
In trying to block God from affairs of man societies like the Mont Pelerin Society have gone ahead to detest creeds which they allege threaten the freedom of man and expression. Yet it is the New age movement which has indulged humanity into occultism, astrology, esotericism and collectivism characterized by individual approach to spiritual practices and philosophies. Of course modern Paganism is a reinvented religion, whose members seek the divine in nature. It is an eclectic piecing of different worldviews which results in a terrible confusion in today’s society. One Mr Jameson while speaking to BBC says of renewal of paganism "We've come to a time, after thousands of years of dogmatic religion... for human beings to take hold of their spirit and become free. Free themselves of all the dogma, of all the rules and regulations, and let the conscience grow on its own,"
Neoliberalism a threat to civilization
The culture of greed bred, matured and justified by capitalism leaves a world of 6 Billion people controlled by an elite of 6000 people according to David Rothkopf. I believe that while the shinning lights of ancient Greek were the Platos and Aristotles of this world, the beginning centuries of Anno Domini were characterized by pious souls beginning with apostles and later church fathers whose lives rightly continue to speak thousands of years later-for the same period is also characterized by some of the beastly Roman emperors; the Caligula, Nero and others-the 21st century belongs to the politician and the entrepreneur not at all the scientist of the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries or even great reformers of medievalism or even the great statesmen of the 20th centuries. The world is divided into two the bourgeois and the proletariat whether in NY city J’burg, Brasilia, Sidney, Hong Kong, Moscow or in Tehran. Thanks to globalization. While David Tepper a hedge fund manager can make $ 4,000,000,000 in a year a domestic worker n Nairobi will make in the same time $ 632.What an injustice! Right now money is the medium of interaction between men and the materialistic trend worships the Matter-God, whatever his name might be. Max Weber indicts the capitalist mentality as an "iron cage" without "spirit”. There is a feeling that the great professional vocations- lawyers, journalists, academics, doctors - have been co-opted and corrupted by bottom line thinking. Some commentators feel that Neoliberalism is a threat to civilization and rightly so.
Alienating man from himself
And so we’ve killed the Human being. The human being is alienated from the truth and the truth is alienated from the human being. If then the result of paganism is alienation, atheism itself must be active alienation, the alienation of humanity, the activity of alienating man from himself. This is the actual death of man for man minus God is dead. His work is trying to make him a machine. The machine is working for him as he makes least decisions the machine makes most for him. It is the software that is working for us. Bill Gates is on record saying that the future of IT is that you’ll be able to dress up and stand before the computer and the machine will tell you that you don’t match please go and change. Our obsession with the silicon gadget is making us anti-social. I will be in a place packed with people, at home or elsewhere and will be pre-occupied with face book, twitter or another social network. It is a virtual world everything, every answer can be found online. The overriding heartlessness is a result of active de-humanization. A proactive subscription to the matter-god, not particularly a new idea, but a re-invention of atheistic worldview.
No comments:
Post a Comment