Dear tpaine, for Voegelin -- taking a page from Plato -- the authentic "authority figures" in society are never the same people as the people who wield political power.
Who said they were? Not I. -- The fact remains that his essay is a sham if based on such an obvious truism.
Bona fide "authority figures" are philosophers, not politicians. Plato, for one, said the polis (the "state," or government) is an organic community, a common culture formed in the crucible of "the human condition," extended into the forms of public life, for the welfare of the polity and the individuals who comprise it. A lot has changed since then. The political class these days who so bedevil and impede us in the exercise of basic human freedoms, are the very same who refuse to pay homage to the conditio humana, to the basic human condition as explicated by ancient (and modern) experiential understandings of human existence. The political class hates personal liberty as an affront to its own authority and privilege. This is not a modern development -- it has always been so, throughout history....
Nice lecture. Why do you think it applies to my point above?
The Framers certainly knew this. They tried to protect us, their "progeny," from such an outcome. They used the language of the classical and Christian thinkers to defend us against just such an outcome. But hardly anybody seems to realize that, these days.
Least of all you -- unfortunately, who seemingly has the most to gain from getting this problem "right," given your love for Liberty....
Amazing jump in your 'logic' betty. -- You're lecturing me on the obvious, when suddenly you flat out declare that I don't 'realize' some imaginary point. - Weird. - Just what is this problem you claim I can't get "right"?
The denizens of Second Reality simply hate First Reality; not only do they themselves not want to "live there"; but if given the power to do so, they would prohibit anybody else from "living there."
Meaningless generalizations as these 'realities' you discuss are not established. You & V. believe they exist. - I don't. I see only one reality about us.
There is a simple formula involved here. It's called the Will to Power. And the Will to Power is the creature of Second Reality. It has no source in First Reality -- which is constituted by and in God. (I just know you'll hate me for saying that; but if you don't want to be "bedevilled" by the Devil himself, then please tell me: where do you think you can you go for relief from His Pestilence?)
Now, now betty, why would I 'hate' you for stating your beliefs?
For in First Reality, the only power that really counts, from "the alpha to the omega" is God's. And what powers we humans have derive from God. IMHO. So go figure.
Indeed, -- and as your last few statements mean little or nothing to me, -- I won't even try to 'figure'.
- Thanks
Then you will have no cause for complaint, tpaine, when the "Progressive Left" or some other more "advanced" afficianado of Second Reality strips you of your liberties by tampering with the "law." The secret of Second Reality is that its denizens really do believe that they have the power to establish "laws" that are binding on everyone, regardless of whether "everyone" (or anyone) likes it or not. We call this: Compulsion. Coersion, Tyranny.
God's law, in contrast, is never so complicated, convoluted, or "anti-individual." It is the model of simplicity itself, which says the dignity of the human person, being sacred, may not be violated by any man. Man may do whatever his free will gives scope to -- subject to judgment in due course. Not man's judgment; but God's judgment.
And I have a fairly confident feeling at this point in my spiritual development that God tends to judge man precisely in terms of the kinds of judgments that man renders against his neighbor....
Of course, you do not believe in God. And so this entire conversation is not merely superfluous, but utterly devoid of meaning to you.... (If I had to guess....)