For the study of WESTERN CIVILIZATION

 A Modern Mythos
Max A Forsythe 

 

OUTLINE
Personal Observations
Specific Quotations
Holy Scripture

SECTION 2:
MAIN IDEAS OF THE 20TH CENTURY

A. The Conservative Analysis.

The following information has been in my notes for more than twenty years. The original source escapes me at this late date. However, long experience in the public sector has confirmed the domination of these six concepts as the American Mythos!

E.F. SCHUMACHER

"Shall we tell our children that one thing is as good as another - here a bit of knowledge of physics, and there a bit of knowledge of literature? If we do so, the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, because that normally is the time it takes from the birth of an idea to its full maturity when it fills the minds of a new generation and makes them think by it."

Evolution: The generally accepted view that higher life forms have evolved from lower life forms. This theory reduces man to just another of the animal life forms.

This is the essential myth for our thoroughly modern era, from it all the others flow. The "proof" for these theories remains to be unverified by any scientific means comprehensible to honest and common men.

Competition: The view that the various life forms have had to compete for food and space and that the less adaptive forms disappeared.

Carnegie, Rockefeller and Marx were all indebted to Darwin's theory. Of course, this "law of the jungle" so inapropriately applied to economics and every other sphere of life is the most true element in the whole scheme - because it does explain why species become extinct.

Marxist Materialism: The view that if something cannot be known by the human senses, then it cannot and does not exist.

For Marx the great ideas (so well articulated by Philospher Mortimer Adler) are so many phantasmagoria (idle dreams of the mind).

Freudian analysis: The view that psychology adequately defines how the mind and body work together consciously and un-consciously.

While there are indeed seven theories of how the mind and body function as a persona, the Freudian psychology has become the official view.

Relativism: This is the denial of all moral absolutes for human activities. Applied to law and order issues, this concept undermines the justice of guilt and punishment.

This is the most pernicious concept of the whole bunch, those who accept this idea are almost immune to learning any of the Christian doctrines concerning personal sin or even any potential need for being saved from themselves.

Positivism: This is the idea that all change is for the better and society must change and grow to prove it is evolving.

B. A Liberal Analysis.

Some years ago I became acquainted with the writings of Alvin Toffler. His three wave theory of economic development includes:

The Hunter/Gatherer Culture
1st Wave: Agricultural Revolution
2nd Wave: Industrial Revolution
3rd Wave: Electronic Revolution

Whether we agree with it or not, change is in the wind and as the old industrial culture comes under stress there may be opportunities to reoder or lives and perhaps even the culture.

Alvin Toffler

"Indust-reality was the overarching set of ideas and assumptions with which the children of industrialism were taught to understand their world."

 

Is this why the public school monopoly is being defended to the last tax dollar?

War with nature: Here Toffler argues that mankind has either battled with nature for domination or sought to live in harmony with nature instead.

In this theme we can see both the law of the jungle and the mental anguish of dealing with the jungle apparent.

Importance of evolution: Mankind is viewed as the pinnacle of evolution and as the "greatest ape" around, he can do whatever he darn well pleases.

Evolutionary "science" has been well applied not only in a biological context, but also has been applied to social, economic and political schemes as well.

The Progress Principle: Evolutionary improvement is inevitable and all dynamic changes are for the better.

Why is it that everytime we hear this, personal peace, security, freedom or property is about to be swallowed up by corporate socialism or governmen mandate?

C. Toffler's Hidden Code.

"As industrialism pushed across the planet, its unique hidden design became visible. It consisted of a set of six interrelated principles that programmed the behavior of millions." Third Wave

Alvin Toffler

"Second wave civilization ... drastically altered the way human beings came to perceive the world around them and how they behaved in their daily lives."

Standarization: "Whatever their other disagreements, advanced Second Wave thinkers shared the conviction that standardization was efficient. " Third Wave

Standardization included not only production line products, but systemized procedures, accounting practices, hiring procedures, pay scales, money systems, prices and even educational policies.

Specialization: "A second great principle ran through all Second Wave societies: specialization. For the more the Second Wave eliminated diversity in language, leisure, and life-style, the more it needed diversity in the sphere of work." Third Wave

Specialization reduced the jack-of-all-trades yeomen farmer or tradesman whose average knowledge included 130 or more labor intensive production skills - to a production line employee who was allowed only a few processes to accomplish. While the economic benefits have been great indeed - the perceived value of each person is a mute point.

Synchronization: Time Equals Money. "Second Wave societies ... moved to the beat of the machine." "Nine-to-five formed the formed the temporal frame for millions of workers." Third Wave

Even as early as the Greek poet Homer, there were weaving and rowing songs which assited groups of workers to co-ordinate their exertions. However, rural work is hardly ever done and the leisure of pacing the day to get as much done as possible was once the rule rather than the exception.

Concentration: "The Second wave .. concentrated population, stripping the countryside of people and relocating them in giant urban centers." Third Wave

In addition concentration also occurred in capitalization, small factories gave way to larger and markets to super markets in practically every endeavor as every sphere of the market was analyzed and organized for maximum profit.

Maximization: "'Big' became synonymous with 'efficient,' and maximization became the fifth key principle." Third Wave

Macrophilia led to the Gross National Product measure of a society's worth. Schools of a hundred grew to campuses inhabited by thousands. WalMarts replaced whole villages.

Centralization: "The shift from a basically decentralized First Wave economy, with each locality largely responsible for producing its own necessities, to the integrated national economies of the Second Wave led to totally new methods for centralizing power."Third Wave

The Agraian decentralized Confederation of 1781 gave way to a more commercial friendly Constitution in 1787, but with important limitations on the central power of government not fully realized until the Lincoln administration.


 

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