tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904219782540965444.post1710071299973172656..comments2024-03-14T04:06:54.124-04:00Comments on GENKAKU-AGAIN (adam fisher): twerp tantrumgenkakuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12135705172119950326noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4904219782540965444.post-12125158236809703602016-03-08T13:53:04.075-05:002016-03-08T13:53:04.075-05:00I say we blame Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Voltaire, D...I say we blame Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Voltaire, Diderot, d'Alembert and the many more who contributed to the Encyclopedie, building upon the thinkers of yore, and living in a catholic France that had skipped the reformation, were fomenting the enlightenment. It was an age that stirred to lift humanity from being dominated by religious superstition into the science and reason and secular governance. <br /><br />Then along came Rousseau who decried the immorality (that has always been with mankind) and blamed cities and civilization for depriving us of the uplifting experience of living naturally with nature and morally with god. (a most severe Calvinist god) This was justified because he felt it, and as feelings are beyond reason, they must be sent by god. Being beyond reason, his feelings couldn't and were not held up to the light of reason and explored for what sane people call contradictions and hypocrisy. Belief was above and beyond the reach of man's faculties. His friends among the philosophes all thought him mad and ties were cut.<br /><br />Perhaps the greatest of the philosophes who were the great thinkers of the time and promoted reason was Voltaire, who took a most unamerican view that only an enlightened monarch could protect the people and the nation from the stupidity and short sightedness of the human experience. He felt that the common man lacked the facility for reasoned problem solving. And here came Rousseau saying reason was useless and feeling was king. And the enlightenment fell to the romantic movement. And the optimism of god inspired feelings felt that the American and French revolutions could only end well.<br /><br />Fundamentalists and tea partiers are certain the emails the Koch brothers construct for them must be correct because a baby jesus swaddled in the flag feels so good. And so any attempt to actually problem solve is shouted down by those who unintentionally do the bidding of the upper classes. So here we are, shouting for revolution with the certainty and determination of the brown shirts. We the rabble hold certain truths to be self evident. It's a lovely idea, but all things being equal isn't the universe we live in really. <br /><br />Well, ol'buddha man certainly felt that we couldn't people proof anything. We are locked in a universe that embodies change. Particles collide increasing one thing and lessening another. I don't know if particles feel pain, but we do. <br />And so maybe we should take some care to consider and not lunge confidently toward uncertainties supported only by an unexamined optimism. But Rousseau was a huge influence on modern times, and here we are, holding onto our self evident truths without applying the scientific method to them.<br /><br />Yes we're stuck with feelings and modern psychologists try to help us deal with them intelligently. Science is working on it, as on other things, with reason applied. My dog has feelings, but i can see that he does think as well. And i've observed that his reason, has rescued him from predicaments his feelings put him into. I strive to emulate him in this way. That i have feelings proves that, well... i have feelings. And if my feelings in their vast array represent directions from god, then this god is as mad as Rousseau. <br />olcharliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00309255390011851502noreply@blogger.com