TURMOIL IN THE UKRAINE / RUSSIA AGGRESSION

[rothschild]

Tiki, would you care to elaborate on the situationality of Western humanism?

What I see now, that is the current antithesis of humanism; the silencing of speech and thought . . . especially when it comes to the other tenets of humanistic philosophy . . . you know the ones.  

Science, "progressive ideas" . . . and democracy. 

Have you read Rousseau's Political Economy? A short read that I highly recommend, it's a beautifully succinct summarization of the causes underlying the collapse of Western society.

To my mind, egalitarianism and elitism are mutually exclusive, just as meritocracy and elitism are, though you might not think so. A specious proposition which we never managed to rise above. Keep the masses ignorant so they can be managed like livestock and aristocracy is maintained in perpetuity, for as long as it doesn't devour itself.

You can't have an enlightened society without an enlightened people. Progressivism assumed the captaincy of government to be concerned with enlightenment. If it was it would have made philosophy the foundation of public education. Instead it went with the Prussian model, and the results have been precisely what you'd expect. If progressivism had instead manifested as a grassroots movement the outcome might have been different, but elitist institutions produce an elitist intelligentsia, thus the vanguard approach was ensured at the outset.

It is rare that human beings serve interests other than their own, and rarer still among those who wield power. To be ignorant of history and philosophy is to be blind, thus our mistakes are continuously repeated, never to be learned from. If a slave believes itself to be free it will never consider the possibility of escape, much less attempt it. It will equate slavery/dependency with freedom, and if they encounter someone who articulates a more accurate conception of freedom the response will be cognitive dissonance.

You referenced comedy, which can transcend social consciousness over time. Art, coupled with necessity, could loosen the bonds of enslavement, and perhaps they are. There are people in this world who do embody genuine egalitarianism, who could provide legitimate leadership if circumstances were to allow; the appreciation of this possibility, however, requires acknowledging that what we think we know might have no basis in reality. Looked at in the context of human potential, I see that as less far-fetched than most would think. The question, I think, is whether or not the dam bursts.