…and how he created the political Left: if you vote Democrat....you vote for the ideas Rousseau advanced.
First and foremost…Jean-Jacques Rosseau. And, if posts about Jesus belong in ‘Religion,’ then this one, about the godfather of communism, Liberalism, Progressivism, Nazism, etc., belongs in ‘Politics’!
1.“OVER the past two hundred years the influence of intellectuals has grown steadily. Indeed, the rise of the secular intellectual has been a key factor in shaping the modern world…in their earlier incarnations as priests, scribes and soothsayers, intellectuals have laid claim to guide society from the very beginning.”
So begins Paul Johnson’s “Intellectuals.”
2. Perhaps there are others can claim to be first, but the earlier ones were limited in the directions their guidance could take by both tradition, and by the authorities of the time, both the aristocracy, and the Church. They were restrained. Not so with Rousseau….to all of our detriment.
The French Revolution removed any checks on what they could say, or believe, and the first thing they did was revenge themselves on not just the aristocracy….but on any and all religion.
“With the decline of clerical power in the eighteenth century, a new kind of mentor emerged to fill the vacuum and capture the ear of society. The secular intellectual might be deist, sceptic or atheist. But he was just as ready as any pontiff or presbyter to tell mankind how to conduct its affairs.” Op.Cit.
3. Historian Johnson does not use the term ‘intellectual’ as a complement!
“For the first time in human history, and with growing confidence and audacity, men arose to assert that they could diagnose the ills of society and cure them with their own unaided intellects: more, that they could devise formulae whereby not merely the structure of society but the fundamental habits of human beings could be transformed for the better.”
In fact, he uses the term more closely aligned with the term ‘dictator.’ And correct he is!
4. One of our favs, Thomas Sowell, has a similar view.
In “Intellectuals and Society,” Thomas Sowell doesn’t mention Rousseau, but pointedly skewers ‘intellectuals.’ Sowell vigorously defends wisdom—practical reason—against an abstract rationalism that values ideas over the experience of actual human beings. Intellectuals, he argues, are particularly suspicious of the ties ordinary men and women feel to family, religion, and country. They look down upon “objective reality and objective criteria” in the social sciences, art, music, and philosophy. Their “systems” tend to be self-referential and lack accountability in the external world.
See An Independent Mind
He could have inserted Rousseau’s name!
Be very clear....to vote Democrat means to support a dictatorship.
5. An example of how the current crop of ‘intellectuals’ feel about the common man: “And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
6. The new freedom to pontificate produced not just Jean Jacques Rousseau, but all to the totalitarians that plague Western Civilization since, and now: communists, socialists, Progressives, Fascists, Nazis, and Liberals. All of whose methods of governance involve the synthesis of either banning or mandating.
There is no room for individualism, for liberty, for freedom. It took time, but became the 20th century, the century of slaughter.
Thank Rousseau, the first intellectual.
First and foremost…Jean-Jacques Rosseau. And, if posts about Jesus belong in ‘Religion,’ then this one, about the godfather of communism, Liberalism, Progressivism, Nazism, etc., belongs in ‘Politics’!
1.“OVER the past two hundred years the influence of intellectuals has grown steadily. Indeed, the rise of the secular intellectual has been a key factor in shaping the modern world…in their earlier incarnations as priests, scribes and soothsayers, intellectuals have laid claim to guide society from the very beginning.”
So begins Paul Johnson’s “Intellectuals.”
2. Perhaps there are others can claim to be first, but the earlier ones were limited in the directions their guidance could take by both tradition, and by the authorities of the time, both the aristocracy, and the Church. They were restrained. Not so with Rousseau….to all of our detriment.
The French Revolution removed any checks on what they could say, or believe, and the first thing they did was revenge themselves on not just the aristocracy….but on any and all religion.
“With the decline of clerical power in the eighteenth century, a new kind of mentor emerged to fill the vacuum and capture the ear of society. The secular intellectual might be deist, sceptic or atheist. But he was just as ready as any pontiff or presbyter to tell mankind how to conduct its affairs.” Op.Cit.
3. Historian Johnson does not use the term ‘intellectual’ as a complement!
“For the first time in human history, and with growing confidence and audacity, men arose to assert that they could diagnose the ills of society and cure them with their own unaided intellects: more, that they could devise formulae whereby not merely the structure of society but the fundamental habits of human beings could be transformed for the better.”
In fact, he uses the term more closely aligned with the term ‘dictator.’ And correct he is!
4. One of our favs, Thomas Sowell, has a similar view.
In “Intellectuals and Society,” Thomas Sowell doesn’t mention Rousseau, but pointedly skewers ‘intellectuals.’ Sowell vigorously defends wisdom—practical reason—against an abstract rationalism that values ideas over the experience of actual human beings. Intellectuals, he argues, are particularly suspicious of the ties ordinary men and women feel to family, religion, and country. They look down upon “objective reality and objective criteria” in the social sciences, art, music, and philosophy. Their “systems” tend to be self-referential and lack accountability in the external world.
See An Independent Mind
He could have inserted Rousseau’s name!
Be very clear....to vote Democrat means to support a dictatorship.
5. An example of how the current crop of ‘intellectuals’ feel about the common man: “And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
6. The new freedom to pontificate produced not just Jean Jacques Rousseau, but all to the totalitarians that plague Western Civilization since, and now: communists, socialists, Progressives, Fascists, Nazis, and Liberals. All of whose methods of governance involve the synthesis of either banning or mandating.
There is no room for individualism, for liberty, for freedom. It took time, but became the 20th century, the century of slaughter.
Thank Rousseau, the first intellectual.
