tinyurl.com/as59y -> davidbrin.blogspot.com/2005/11/ideas-for-rescuing-modernity-part-1.html
Saturday, November 26, 2005 Ideas For Rescuing Modernity - part 1 I keep intending to get around to that series - "Twelve Central Questions about Theology in an Age of Science." But the issues are only getting worse and the peril for our civilization more evident. Take the "Nehemia Scudder" scenario, that is meaningful to science fiction f ans, though woefully unfamiliar to everybody else. The thing that ought to be frightening us far more than Osama bin Laden. pattern shown by more than a hundred members of the United States Congress, appo inting young cadets to the US Military Academies according to one criter ion above all others -- their depth of religious zealotry. This infusion of young officers who believe in a coming apocalypse is discreetly worr isome at West Point and Annapolis, but it has already had newsworthy eff ects at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. A town that is also now known as a main locus and training center for fanatics bent on domin ating American civilization. One other thing has triggered this latest smasm (or rant) on my part. A r ecent "call for new ideas" from a liberal activist group. One of the few to actually ask for fresh notions, instead of relying on failed nostrum s of the past. Only be warned, what follows may come across as more partisan than previous articles. Oh, I have plenty of sharp criticism ai med at the left. But the main focus is the long road that American conse rvatism has taken, to reach its present state. Ideas For Rescuing Modernity There is an old military maxim, that only defeat teaches new skills. When youve been vanquished and driven into the wilderness, its time for re flection and re-evaluation, perhaps even a willingness to ponder fresh i deas. The notion -- offering a $100,000 p rize for ideas that might help bring about a Democratic Party victory -- is in part a grudging tribute to successful Republicans who, over the c ourse of several patient decades, reversed their fortunes from political impotence to mastery over nearly all American levers of power. Republicans began their own long journey of re-appraisal in the wake of B arry Goldwaters crushing defeat in 1964, then intensified their efforts after the debacle of Watergate. William F Buckley, during the 1964 cam paign, recognized the dominance of liberalism at that time. He urged tha t conservatives see themselves as well-planted seeds of hope, which wil l flower on a great November day in the future, if there is a future. A nd there were many other centers of patient determination on the right. For example, at the University of Chicago, followers of the emigre plato nist, Leo Strauss, busily networked while looking far ahead, toward an e ra when America might be transformed into a true imperium, led by an ari stocracy of reason. Not even glory days under Ronald Reagan slaked this increasingly adversar ial hunger for ever-greater influence over the direction of American lif e For example, the lesson learned from the Iran-Contra scandal was not that open accountability is a good and desirable corrective force in Ame rican life. No, it was that genuine power must encompass all branches of government. When the opposing party controls even one house of Congress , their investigative committees and subpoenas can prove irksome, impude nt. Accountability is best when it can be served in only one direction. Elements of this prolonged campaign spanned a broad front, ranging from h onest disputation and cogent criticism all the way to tactics that were downright disreputable... from endowing vigorous new conservative think tanks, dedicated to exploring and explaining fresh ideas, all the way to blatant and spectacularly successful endeavors in manipulating the elec toral process. Indeed, some conservative policy moves must be acknowledged as good for America. Take the bipartisan consensus to reform Welfare, with great success, in the early nineties. It does not hurt liberals to concede th at conservatism can offer good ideas, from time to time. Indeed, nothing could better help to improve liberal credibility. Equally impressive has been the GOPs adept willingness to take advantage of liberal mistakes. For example, it was never necessary for the left t o alienate members of the military, or the nations churches, demonizing groups that had once been allies in the battle for desegregation and ci vil rights. Nor was it somehow required that rural America be written of f from the Democratic Agenda. Even worse, a growing battery of left-wing ideological litmus tests -- eg excluding anyone who sincerely disagre es with abortion -- fostered an ever narrowing definition of liberalism. Anyone who failed to measure up in even one category might face ejectio n from the movement. These self-indulgences were gifts that conservatives felt happy to exploi t next time... the insanely self-defeating left-wing attitude toward coalit ion-building...
interview with Gary Hart where he demonstrates that we have the beginnings of a theocracy. Given his background as a Senator, Presidential candidate, and an Evangelical Christian, he is qualified to speak about it, I think. Some interesting observations that parallel what we have been talking about, though he falls into the Left/Right dichotomy.
Contemplating the controlling concept of power, what difference do the players make? Aren't they just distractions as part of the landscape of power? Why is it necessary to beat anyone over the head to get something done?
Woozle - (and the following words speak to you, as well, jomama) - you describe the old dichotomy between Hobbes and Rousseau. One said that hierarchies are necessary in order to control an essentially evil human nature. Locke and the Enlightenment began pondering a sidestep out of this dismal dichotomy. Any rational and reasonable person sees that human nature contains BOTH angels and devils. Without laws, the devils in us go wild (Lord of the Flies) in anarchy. Yet hierarchies inherently let a few at the top feel liberated to bedevil all of us. Lockes heirs proposed we avoid BOTH of these pitfalls by instituting special TYPES of laws, that liberate the creative angels of our nature - including competitive (but fair) angels - while making it harder for our devils to succeed. What we have learned is that REDUCING HIERARCHIES can be a good design principle for this machinery. Keeping accountability open and reciprocal, rather than top-down. Both modernists and their enemies know that a time of crisis is coming. Either we are going to get a whole lot better fast or things are going to go to hell.
I keep intending to get around to that series - "Twelve Central Questions about Theology in an Age of Science. When Scudder is raised, then I think we have, in a sense.
I had forgotten the name Nehemia Scudder, but not the scenario in the Long stories. The big problem we have here is that it took 30-40 years for Conservatives to get where they are today, and will take at least half that time for any meaningful Liberal return. If we're lucky, the criminal behaviors of the BushCorp will undo Conservatives, but I suspect that it will only knock them back a pace. Plus, whatever happens to the Conservatives, their Supreme Court will be with us for decades. Hardest to overcome, perhaps, may turn out to be the vilification of the word "liberal".
I've been here for a couple of months and I have to say, each time we dive into politics I get a big "bleah" taste in my mouth. Most of us here (especially those under 26 years of age or so) recognize the desparate need to liberalize certain areas of society. Tried-and-true methods, for example, of rearing happy children? Certain institutional ways of doing things which have, in the main, created the diamond? Daveawayfromhome pointed that out, but still couches the fight in terms I reject. I guess if I had two maxims to offer, they would be 1) The Democrats have poison pills in their platform, too, and 2) The best way to defeat the poison in the Republican platform is to coopt its more left-ish constituency. But the absolute best would be to coopt most of the center in some kind of third paradigm, which takes...
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