From Convulsion and Paralysis
Leonard Peikoff – The Ominous Parallels - 1993
The American people may oppose the nation’s present course, but by themselves the people cannot change it. They may oppose the taxes and the bureaucrats, but these are merely consequences, which cannot be significantly cut back so long as their source is untouched. (Emphasis mine. Noumenon) The people may curse “big government” in general – but to no avail if the pressure groups among them, following the logic of a mixed economy, continue to be fruitful and to multiply. The people may “swing to the right,” but it is futile, if the leaders of the right are swinging to their own brand of statism.
The country may throw the rascals out, but it means nothing if the next administration is made of neo-rascals from the other party. To change a nation’s basic course requires more than a mood of popular discontent. It requires the definition of new direction for the country to take. Above all, it requires a theoretical justification for this direction, one which would convince people that the course being urged is practical and moral.
Moral considerations alone might not be sufficient to move men, if they believe the course being urged is impractical; practical considerations alone will not move men, if they believe the course is immoral. The union of the two, however, is irresistible.
By its nature, changing the course of a nation is a task that can be achieved only by men who deal with the field of ideas. In the long run the people of a country have no alternative: they end up following the lead of the intellectuals. The intellectuals cannot escape ideas, either. They may become anti-ideological skeptics, who offer the country for guidance only subjective feelings and short-range pragmatism (describes the current political landscape all too well. Noumenon); but it is the ideas – ultimately, the basic ideas – they still accept, explicitly or otherwise, which determine the content of their feelings and of their pragmatism.
In the long run, intellectuals, too, have no alternative: they end up following the lead of the philosophers. If there is no new philosophy to guide and rally the better men among them, the intellectuals will follow one that is old and bankrupt. If there are no living ideas, they will follow dying ones and take the country with them…
There is a yawning chasm of intellectual poverty regarding, especially, freedom and government.
We are stuck with a domination of 19th century romantic idealism promulgated by Marx, Freud, Darwin, Dewey and others that has yet to be supplanted by anything deeper and more satisfying.
Like it or not liberals have the intellectual high ground, low and vulgar though it is. Until there comes along a voice of deep, penetrating systematic thought we will remain stuck.
There is a plethora of intelligent commentarians with well reasoned ideas and a deep fcommitment to the dignity of freedom and individualism.
Until we have a Weltenschaung that systematically replaces the old ideals of the 19th century, of collectivism and its vile spawn, with an in depth analysis of the requirements for individual liberty we will not begin to win the raging wars that engulf us.
WELL PUT.
This why the Saul Alinsky Marxists dominate our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
Conservatives must set up tuition-free alternatives and work to shut down the existing K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
Unfortunately, it is likely too late. Our opportunity to do that has probably been lost.
BTTT