Sunday, February 14, 2016

Instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it.

A couple of quotes from Arthur Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer lived 1788-1860 so the intellectual ossification he was struggling against was the Church. Today the intellectual ossification against which we struggle is failed totalitarian ideologies desperately trying to bring utopia to earth through coercive means. Currently most manifested in the social justice movement.
When the Church says that, in the dogmas of religion, reason is totally incompetent and blind, and its use to be reprehended, this really attests the fact that these dogmas are allegorical in their nature, and are not to be judged by the standard which reason, taking all things sensu proprio, can alone apply. Now the absurdities of a dogma are just the mark and sign of what is allegorical and mythical in it.
Most participants in the social justice movement are well intended but their intention is primarily an emotional energy. They feel that something should be different. This emotion gives tremendous energy to their efforts. However, noble though their goals might be, their means are almost always woefully uninformed, misguided, and destructive. Which brings me to a second Schopenhauer quote.
The bad thing about all religions is that, instead of being able to confess their allegorical nature, they have to conceal it.
Think of "Hide the decline" from the global warming debate, the repeated failures of Head Start to demonstrate lasting beneficial impact, the jargon of multiple professions intended to fog issues with magisterial command.

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