Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000399B
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00:05 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:06 Before the break, 00:08 we were deep in the weeds of describing and discussing 00:13 the English and the French enlightenment leaders, 00:17 and trying to help our readers see in this an explanation 00:22 as to why the England and then the United States 00:26 went to different direction from France 00:28 and other parts of Europe at the time of Revolution. 00:31 Yes, it's very important to understand 00:33 that 19th century background 00:35 if we want to understand where we are today 00:37 because as I said in the previous segment 00:40 while the America and Britain were experiencing 00:44 a religious awakening, 00:46 in Europe, they were having all these philosophies, 00:48 secular philosophies, secular religions actually 00:51 if we want to be precise, 00:52 it is those secular religions or philosophies 00:56 that came to America after the Second World War 00:59 and dominated the American universities. 01:01 Now why did they come to America after the war? 01:04 After the war? 01:07 Good question. 01:09 America has always, again, 01:11 it had that great Christian influence. 01:14 American philosophy was not big in building systems, 01:17 you know, big philosophies. 01:20 And there was also a large Christian influence, 01:24 so they were really attracted to this very powerful and deep, 01:28 you know, anybody who read the Germans, 01:30 they are very, very deep. 01:32 And so those really fascinating Heidegger 01:35 and Friedrich Nietzschehe, he speaks about those things. 01:38 And basically, Nietzschehe... I think... 01:40 Good question, I think, I get my point. 01:43 Nietzschehe basically is the guy 01:44 who said God is dead. 01:46 Yeah. 01:47 So you cannot have the rule of the experts. 01:50 You cannot have the intellectuals dominant 01:53 if God is there. 01:55 So in a way, they attracted to that. 01:57 And that's my personal view. 01:58 They attracted to the theories of Heidegger and Nietzschehe 02:01 because Nietzschehe basically says, "God is dead. 02:04 We human beings, we have got to be God." 02:06 Yeah. With a Superman. 02:07 Yes, so during this... 02:09 After the Second World War, 02:11 we have all this social engineering 02:13 and who is engineering the society, 02:15 is the academics, the intellectuals, 02:17 basically, they have taken the place of who? 02:19 The place of God. 02:21 And so to me, those theories are very attractive, 02:24 and that's why, even French philosophers, 02:26 that's why they supported this totalitarian regimes. 02:29 Many, many, they support Marxism. 02:31 Why do they like Marxism? 02:32 Because Marxism, 02:34 it's a religion of the intellectuals. 02:36 I'll tell you why I asked you the question. 02:38 Maybe... 02:40 I don't know whether I answered it. 02:41 Because it's a sad reality that after America 02:46 as a liberal democracy entered the war in Europe late, 02:52 there's a whole story why late, you know, people like to say, 02:56 "The greatest generation that defeated Hitler." 02:58 Well, they did, but it's sort of crazy 03:01 that America stayed out of it 03:02 and actually was very sympathetic to Germany 03:04 through much of the war. 03:06 And we only entered when Japan forced our hand. 03:09 But when the war was over, 03:11 when the Nazi excesses came to light, 03:15 they were not really known before then, 03:19 amazingly, the US government, at least parts of it, 03:23 brought many of the... 03:25 even the medical experts had been experimenting on inmates, 03:29 brought them across. 03:31 They brought the scientists across. 03:33 And Wernher von Braun, demonstrably, 03:37 a war criminal, has became one of the great heroes 03:40 of American space endeavors. 03:42 So there was a lot going on where we sort of absolved. 03:47 We thought the best but with it, 03:49 perhaps the worst of what was going on in Germany. 03:51 So why at that same time 03:53 did we take their philosophical thought? 03:56 Yes, you know, the German universities, 03:58 we've got to recognize one thing. 03:59 They were the leading universities in the world. 04:02 You know, they led in the sciences and the like. 04:05 They were the cutting-edge in the sciences 04:08 and in the philosophy also. 04:10 And so many of them, of course, they ran. 04:12 They ran away from Hitler. 04:14 We had a lot of this that came over here. 04:16 Yeah. That could be that simple. 04:18 So they came also with their problems, of course, 04:22 you cannot separate your thoughts, 04:25 your philosophy from your background. 04:28 And it was influenced by the problems 04:29 that were first in Germany 04:31 which were different from the problems in America. 04:34 In America, religion and politics 04:36 were not really at war. 04:37 That's why people did not have a problem, 04:39 for example, with prayer in schools before the 60s 04:43 because it has always been like that. 04:45 But there was the culture war, 04:47 you know, with Bismarck and some wars, 04:52 theological-political conflicts in France, 04:55 basically, they imported those problems into America. 04:58 Yeah, now you answered it. 05:00 It was clearly the exodus of the academics 05:02 at the same time that came here. 05:04 And actually, you can see the decomposition 05:07 of American culture begins actually in the '70s. 05:11 That's where we actually had... 05:12 It's mid '60s, '66. 05:15 Yes, '66, I know that you like '66, '66, for me, 05:20 I think that the last '60s was so much the sowing time 05:23 in the universities. 05:24 But really, the whole thing 05:26 about identity, feminism, and all that, 05:28 it actually permeates the broader culture 05:31 in the '70s. 05:33 And today, we're actually... 05:34 If it was sowing time, I would say that America, right now, 05:37 is harvesting that radical liberalism, 05:41 the radical individualism. 05:43 And we should know that 05:45 the idea of an individual your liberty, 05:48 we get that from the Bible. 05:50 All the other religions... 05:51 I once mentioned to somebody, and people are not aware that 05:53 when we speak of the individual as separate from the group... 05:57 In my African tradition, 05:59 it's not the individual who is important. 06:01 It is the group. That's right. 06:03 And in all societies, they've always believed, 06:06 they have always operated in this group identity. 06:09 And we're having the same thing, tribalism. 06:12 The idea of the individual, 06:13 it first comes with early Christianity within the gospel. 06:16 Yes, Christianity. 06:17 That's not as obvious in the Old Testament, I think. 06:18 Yes, yes, but in the New Testament... 06:20 The dignity of the individual is there, but still the... 06:23 There was a story of the Jewish people 06:26 and of the believers as a group. 06:30 Yes, Christ comes and says that, 06:32 "I did not come to bring peace, 06:33 to separate the men from His wife and children." 06:36 And so it is from that idea. 06:39 They were told to leave everything 06:40 when He called the disciples, 06:42 they were called to leave everything, their family, 06:44 and to stand as individuals. 06:45 You're talking about, it comes with Christianity 06:47 or say even it's says in the Old Testament 06:49 because the prophets were lonely men. 06:51 They were individuals against the group. 06:54 So the idea of an individual is not just ending alone. 06:57 This is most important. 06:58 Whether in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, 07:00 individual is not standing alone. 07:02 As Kierkegaard says is that, "An individual before God." 07:07 So it was not a radical liberalism 07:09 where you just do what you want. 07:12 The radical individualism, 07:14 it's not just an individual without any laws. 07:17 And so what has happened with this radical thought 07:20 that we have in the American universities 07:22 that assess the individual who is a God-like figure 07:25 that comes from nature 07:27 within the Newton, Locke tradition 07:30 is an individual and the God. 07:32 And so what we're having today, we've got to ask ourselves, 07:36 "How do we solve these problems of radical individualism?" 07:39 And to me, I don't think they can be solved by legislation. 07:44 I think... 07:45 Let me throw something wild in it. 07:47 The time is running out. 07:48 I know you're very partial to Dostoyevsky. 07:51 Yes. 07:52 I'm trying to think of which of his work... 07:54 There's one where this guy 07:56 that became fixated on understanding God 08:00 or understanding freedom. 08:01 And he believed that 08:03 the ultimate act was to commit suicide. 08:05 Thereby, he would become God 08:06 because he was such an opposition to God. 08:08 Yes, that was in the Demons. 08:10 His book, in the Demons. 08:11 So that basically, he actually shows some of his characters, 08:16 for example, Shatov, he believed in God, 08:18 but the other one did not believe in God. 08:19 And he believed that if he kills himself 08:22 in order to serve the... 08:23 In that act, he becomes God. 08:25 He becomes God, but he was actually an imitation of Christ 08:27 because you remember, Christ dies to save mankind. 08:30 And he believes that if he commits suicide, 08:33 in terms of the Russian ideology, 08:36 he'll be able to serve humankind. 08:39 But I think, I want to return... 08:41 We're in a sort of a cultural suicide right now, I think. 08:44 Yes. Yes, yes. 08:45 So sometimes, elements of our society 08:47 are so determined 08:48 to shake loose from an acknowledgment of God 08:52 that it's almost on a suicidal path 08:55 thinking that this cuts us loose, 08:57 but it's a dead-end road. 08:59 That's my point. Yes, yes. 09:00 I think that part, we should recognize. 09:01 I think you're very, very right, 09:03 but I think one of the things that 09:04 we need to recognize is that 09:06 the problems that we're facing today, they're not new. 09:10 The 19th century... 09:11 Well, nothing new under the sun. 09:12 Yes. 09:14 They faced the same problem, the same crisis of modernity, 09:16 the same crisis of liberalism, how do you reconcile 09:19 individual liberty with society? 09:22 Those problems were there in the 19th century. 09:24 There were different solutions. 09:26 The nature represented 09:28 a whole different solution to those problems. 09:31 And to me, the solutions that have been given by nature 09:34 are the ones that have been adopted 09:36 by the American universities, the American intellectuals. 09:42 And I think what is needed today 09:43 is to ask ourselves as Christians, 09:45 "Is this the right response to our civilizational crisis?" 09:49 And I don't think that the solution, 09:52 according to many Christians, is through legislation. 09:55 The problem runs much deeper than that. 09:58 I believe what is needed is a religious revival 10:01 just as there was a religious revival 10:03 in the 19th century, 10:04 we need a genuine religious revival. 10:07 That's the only one I believe that can solve 10:10 the fraying of the religious of the social fabric, 10:13 the fraying of our societies. 10:15 The only solution I believe is a genuine religious revival. 10:21 Without it, we're doomed. 10:26 The casual visitor to Washington, DC, 10:28 after doing the rounds of a few of the monuments 10:31 and noticing the Masonic influence 10:36 in design and layout might be tempted to think 10:40 that it was most influenced by masonry. 10:43 And of course, that's an undeniable thing. 10:46 But as we illustrated, on the back of Liberty once 10:48 with a picture of John Locke 10:50 shining like the sun down on the American experiment, 10:54 the ideas of Locke and other 10:56 Christian-influenced English philosophers had much, 11:00 if not most, to do with the logic and founding 11:04 and framework of the American republic. 11:08 I think it is a providential development of history 11:12 that the truth of Christian faith 11:15 and the sensibilities that go with that 11:18 had so informed a new republic. 11:21 And even today, with all of the secularism, the globalism, 11:26 the constraints that we have, Christianity shines through. 11:31 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2018-08-29