The Enlightenment

A few interesting things happened in the 1700s in Europe, chief among them an historic era called The Enlightenment.As the name suggests, the period was marked by a lot of new and revolutionary thought, like science based on actual observation rather than dreaming and speculation. Eventually, this translated into revolutionary activity: both the American and the French Revolutions took place near the end of the century. Both were the result of ideas promoted by people like Voltaire, John Locke, eventually Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.

What was the big idea? That all people, simply by virtue of being human, had certain in-born capabilities, including the ability to think for themselves and make their own choices. These guys took it one step further to claim that since humans could do this, it was imperative that they do. In fact, they claimed that no one -- not kings, nor religious leaders, neighbors, nobility -- could deny human beings the "right" to make their own decisions. The whole hairy concept became cast in stone (or at least in parchment) in the Declaration of Independence.

I believe it was Ben Franklin who commented at the time, "We've given the world a republic, it they can keep it."

Can we keep it?

I'm seriously worried about that. My chief worry is that so few people seem to value individual rights and freedom anymore. They wanna be rich, or famous, or at least get on "American Idol." Or they want an absolute guarantee of job security, or income security, or free health care, or heaven only knows what else. And if individuals can't provide these things by and for themselves, the trendy thing nowadays to claim that it's the government's job to get it for them.

Freedom doesn't work that way. On those terms, freedom is not even a possibility.That's what I want to discuss here -- The End of Englightenment. The end of reason. Or more generally, the collapse of human civilization.

OK. Enough of this.