Posted on 02/16/2020 11:48:51 AM PST by Twotone
Before I tentatively dropped my ballot paper in the box, I feared that making the jump from being a Labour voter to being a Tory one was going to mess with my head far more than it actually has. I expected disorientation, a sense of not knowing my way about.
But, so far at least, the reverse is true. Indeed, some of the landmarks of this new ideological architecture are so familiar, it feels like something of a homecoming.
Among the most familiar and welcome of these landmarks is the presence of the Christian notion of original sin. Theorists of Conservativism don’t always use this language; they are more likely to speak of a suspicion of human perfectibility. But it amounts to pretty much the same thing. The Left believes itself to be participating in some grand project of human improvement, an ambitious endeavour that points towards a comprehensive moral transformation of society. Conservatives don’t believe in this because they have a much more heightened sense of human fallibility.
Original sin has developed a bad reputation. It sounds, to secular ears, like a disparagement of the human — overly associated with the church’s tedious obsession with sex. It is certainly true that St Augustine, the great theorist of original sin, was sex obsessed, and so he saw human brokenness through that particular lens. “God grant me continence – but not yet”, has to be one of the wittier intercessions to have been offered up to the divine by a saint of the church.
(Excerpt) Read more at unherd.com ...
Ping. Ideas covered in our previous book club and our book.
For marxist leftard loons, a thesis leads to an anti-thesis, which leads to a struggle, which leads to change, which produces a synthesis, which leads to progress. So leftards are happy with divisiveness and group warfare.
“Progress” leads to death camps—every time.
oh, please - you want an omelette you need to break a few eggs.
A lot of eggs!
JK
“The Left believes itself to be participating in some grand project of human improvement, an ambitious endeavour that points towards a comprehensive moral transformation of society. Conservatives don’t believe in this because they have a much more heightened sense of human fallibility.”
Leftists don’t like the realities of human nature and are constantly on the warpath to change it, resorting to brute force more often than not, and only succeeding in making life a living hell.
Conservatives accept the realities of human nature and try to make the best of it.
What a great read! Thanks for posting!
That’s it exactly. Leftists believe they can mould human nature to their liking - its all just a question of political will. But utopia is always a mirage on the distant horizon that can only be approached by crossing an ocean of blood.
In the end they never get any closer to utopia. They just spill a lot of blood and create hell on earth in the process.
You can’t change human nature. The best you can do is acknowledge it and try to channel some potentially negative impulses toward productive or at least non harmful ends.
That’s an interesting (and practical) way to put it.
I’ve always viewed human nature through the Biblical lens, original sin, as it’s stated above.
There is a common goal, I believe, to change, or improve human nature. Those who want to “participate” in utopia may be sincere about doing this. Those who want to be in charge of this change have no such illusions - they understand human nature and only want to take advantage of “the faithful”.
Secular methods often start with saying that people are basically “good”, and we just need to make sure that there’s nothing that will make people do bad things. If we eliminate all “want”, for instance, there will be no need to steal...
Other secular folks are more inclined to have a sort of “religion” that says we can encourage folks to behave - to appeal to their better natures, so to speak.
Christians, too, want human nature to be changed, but many who think they are Christians are not - Spanish Inquisitors, at the most horrible end of the spectrum, and Prosperity, or “feel-good” Preachers with a more peaceful, or naive, technique. The comment about those who crave control goes for these pretend Christians, too.
Christians who understand the teachings of Christ know that human nature cannot really be changed - it must be replaced, by the nature of Christ, which can only be done by admitting our sin, accepting His forgiveness, and putting Him in charge of our lives (”making Him Lord”).
Such totally opposite world-views are what causes all the trouble. People desperately want to be right, and Christ says they can’t be unless they do it His way. Those who do not like to believe God is in charge will fight very hard.
Ping!
It’s especially interesting the ones that don’t believe the 7 years are coming.
I’m wondering if they’ll be deceived all the way through or will some of them wake up to the horror, especially at the mid-point.
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