The Root of all Evil . . .
Philosophy is a form of
speculation. It involves building
castles of thought in the air called theories, which like all forms of
construction require a solid foundation, if they are not to collapse into
chaos. The problem is that there is an
absence of such solid foundations, of facts about life or the world that cannot
be ultimately challenged. Which is why,
like a sort of intellectual Robot Wars, most philosophy involves the tearing
down of other people’s theories, at the same time as one futilely seeks to
advance and protect one’s own particular darlings.
Philosophers, and
especially secular philosophers, have been seeking for centuries for solid
ground on which to build an unshakeable theory of existence—which would in turn
be more than a theory, but a true description of things—and failing to find it.
Yet if enough
minds—influential minds and others—conspire, it can be possible to create a
simulacrum of what such a solid foundation might look like, so long as one
agrees to not examine it too closely.
And such a simulacrum, such an illusion, exists in the world at present,
and to all intents and purposes rules it.
What unites the
mainstream worlds of modern philosophy and science, together with Marxism,
liberalism, humanism, the arts, academia etc.
etc., is the shared contention that there
is nothing outside of material existence—no hidden hand behind the world, no
innate purpose, no meaning.
Of course, this is
nothing more than a bald assertion. It’s
just a statement that cannot be proved or disproved and has power to convince
only to the extent that enough talking heads are seen to collude in it. Much as with religion, it represents an
article of faith. It is from the same
stable as those theories that insist that nothing is needed to explain the
universe other than mathematics.
Yet it is the glue that
holds together the disparate coalition of -isms and disciplines mentioned
above, who otherwise would be at one another’s throats. It is also the foundation stone for all the
various changes that subtly and not so subtly are undermining society and throwing
it into chaos.
This will be the ongoing
subject of the next handful of postings.
