It's been curious to see over the last 9 months how few people really seem to care about freedom. That may be because they are so used to it they don't recognise its gradual erosion but it may also be because they don't care as long as they are personally comfortable. That's a very short-term attitude because a reduction of freedom will certainly affect their degree of personal comfort soon enough.
Closely allied to a concern for freedom is a concern for truth. I have noticed that the very same individuals who will not stand up for freedom are often quite happy to ignore truth. The two things clearly go together as is obvious once you think about what they are. You cannot have truth without freedom and nor can you have freedom without truth. Not to value one means you don't value the other.
So many people are spiritually irresponsible. This means that they perceive everything in terms of its impact on their own selves. They are the centre of their world. But a spiritual person sees God as the centre of the world, not himself, and God is the source of both freedom and truth. He is at once their ultimate origin and their only guarantor. Our loss of religious faith has brought in its train a loss of concern for truth because inevitably without religion we become unable to understand there even is such a thing as truth which exists beyond ourselves and our petty material interests. And when we forego truth we submit to power, the power of whatever group happens to dominate at the moment, and then we also forego freedom.
If you value freedom you must value truth, and if you value these things which are as essential for man's spiritual well-being as food and drink are for his body, then you must look to God, a divine being, as their only possible source. There is no freedom in the material world and without truth there is no meaning. Those who are prepared to sacrifice freedom and truth for expedience are basically nihilists and consequently will only find death. This is because freedom is what defines a human being. No other life form in this world has freedom. It is the mark of a spiritual being and its loss leads to the destruction of the spiritual aspect of human nature. If you are prepared to forego freedom, as so many people do seem prepared to do now, you are foregoing your very humanity.
7 comments:
Since I worked in universities - and I was active in English Literature and Social Policy, as well as various branches of medical and biological science - I was aware from the middle 1980s that the 'cutting edge' of postmodern philosophy was pushing an analysis that Power defined Truth - and that there was no objectivity to Truth. The most influential advocate was Michel Foucault.
At the time, this was put forward as being a radical critique of Power - i.e. the Establishment - but of course it was actually the opposite - which was presumably why such an obviously incoherent notion (pushed by incoherent people) was given such eminence.
What it means is that because Truth is defined by Power, and there can be no other Truth; then theose with Power will define Truth by right. In the sense that what is inevitable is right.
I found that whenever I was close to Power, this was the 'morality' that was being implicitly expressed. Truth was necessarily whatever Power dictated, and it was merely childish to make a fuss about it. One had best get on the side of those with Power, and please them, so that one could have some ability to define Truth to one's own advantage.
Anyone who resisted was simply harming themselves and all those around them - so they were hated. Being right about something (i.e. speaking truth 'as if' it was an objective value - based on true facts and honest argument) was meaningless, but was evil because it 'must be' either childish, insane or actually aiming to harm other people.
In fact people will not even listen to truth-based arguments - in an inversion of the way that a real Christian would probably refuse to sit and listen to someone justifying some despicable sin like torturing children for enjoyment. The reaction was similar - with an element of 'fear of contamination' about it.
There seemed to be no situation at any level in the system from top to bottom (and I had experience as 'high' as 'advising' Boris, and working with two people who became Chief Medical Officers of the UK...) where it was judged 'appropriate' to focus on truth, reality, nor even the long-term.
Even 15 years ago; nobody, anywhere, was even *trying* to be truthful. And things have only got worse - much worse.
If I try to speak to people about certain things that are not accepted by the current "Power" I find they just won't listen. I am usually interrupted and shouted down. It's rather like when a child sticks its fingers in its ears and screams to avoid hearing something it doesn't want to hear. Needless to say I don't do that anymore. Or hardly ever!
Who are the Israelites of today?
Are they ready for an Exodus?
You'll have to develop that a bit. Do you mean Christians who will have to leave regular society?
The question in light of your post is who can see the truth? And who cares about freedom?
When the Israelites left Egypt and the rule of the Pharaoh they had to journey to the promised land.
Moses asked for his people to be let go. He did not ask for Pharaoh to change the laws of the nation. The one true God facilitated their departure in a dramatic way by sending plagues.
Excellent post. "Our loss of religious faith has brought in its train a loss of concern for truth because inevitably without religion we become unable to understand there even is such a thing as truth which exists beyond ourselves and our petty material interests. And when we forego truth we submit to power, the power of whatever group happens to dominate at the moment, and then we also forego freedom."
I also think that any effective resistance can only be mounted by those who care about Truth. The two political wings (the Left and the fake Right) in most Western countries are superficially different, but equally grounded in materialism and denial of Truth ("niceism" holds sway over both). The political right in the West was doomed the minute it jettisoned this understanding. Solzhenitsyn: "But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.' "
The Solzhenitsyn quote is often made but it really does sum it all up.
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