By Kelly O'Connell ——Bio and Archives--December 8, 2022
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"No one is obliged to take part in a spiritual crisis of society; Contra, everyone is obliged to avoid this folly & live a life of order." ~ Eric Voegelin
Woke Misery: Why does life today seem so oppressive? For one, our woke conversation 'rules' constantly threaten all communications with censorship. No leftist idea may be contradicted. For if the leftists in power are defied, both the violator and her rebel ideas must be publicly rebuked as her status in life is attacked with public calumny as careers and social lives are totally undermined. Therefore, all rejection of leftist public positions are a moral outrage and intellectual failure, condemned by all decent humans.
Only One Acceptable Belief: Odd is the idea there's only one acceptable opinion on any important subject. This is an intellectual deformity. Yet this is the modern left's chief moral claim. For, this leads to the notion that such publicly announced claims are established, as if eternally, as an intellectual version of a single-sided coin or—one-hand clapping. Add to this the fact that a good many issues have recently seen public reversal in revealed posture. For example, consider online pornography or abortion.
Tyrannical Law: This reveals that this theory of ethics is really a political posture since it cannot contemplate any other outcome, even in theory. Further, this approach is not just anti-rule of law, but operates as its law as simple tyranny, benefiting a political party as a secular religion, aka Political Religion.
Political Religion: This is a phenomenon where political elements of a movement morph to obscure the deep religious nature of the belief system. Eric Voegelin explored this in Die Politischen Religionen, aka The Political Religions (1938). See Political Religions: A Concept & Limitations:
"The concept of 'political religions' was developed by Eric Voegelin. Communism, Fascism & National Socialism are brought into a universal‐historical relationship. These ideologies are produced by secularization in those European nations 'developed late as nation‐states'. No longer part of the Christian tradition, they seek to achieve political cohesion through mass ideologies of class or race, economics or blood. The striving towards a political order with a quasi‐religious dimension, relates modern totalitarian regimes to political‐religious cultural models traced back to ancient Greece & Egypt. Modern dictatorships are grounded in a subjective religious world, a collective world of race, class or the state elevating them to a 'Realissimum' and so deifying them. The divine is sought & found, closely tied to their own 'myth of salvation'."
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Woke Rules: In our new "woke rules" we apprehend notions from far-leftism, via Democratic Socialists, forming a new theory of law boiling down elements of both modern and ancient legal theory. Here are cobbled primitive notions of a universal law covering all human conduct—echoing Stoic legal philosophy.
Marxist Law? Such a position is wholly consistent with a Marxist concept of law, which is itself an utter contradiction. For not even murder is outlawed in this philosophy. This nihilism is explained in A Guide to Marxism, by P. H. Vigor:
"The 'Relativity View of Ethics'. In any discussion involving ethics or morality, the fundamental for a Marxist is there is no such thing as an absolute Right or Wrong. So, Right and Wrong are relative for a Marxist: a thing which is wrong at one time, and in one set of circumstances, will be right in another. In dealing with Marxists, one cannot settle an argument by reference to ethical principles. By saying for instance, that the consequences of a particular policy would be murder, and you cannot commit murder. Because, from a Marxist standpoint, you can can commit murder in certain circumstances."
Stoic Law: Ancient Greek Stoic lawwas described as a universal nomos, identical with the rules embedded in the universe. Technically, it's a simplistic combination of physics and ethics. Stoic universal law joined Christian legal principles, updated to create Western natural law. See Columbia Univ on Human Rights:
"The concept of natural law originated with the Greeks and received its most important formulation in Stoicism, who believed the fundamental moral principles underlying all legal systems of different nations were reducible to the dictates of Greek natural law. The Stoics, Cicero and their jurists successor did not perceive natural law as a higher law invalidating and justifying disobedience to man-made laws that did not measure up, but as a standard for making, developing and interpreting law: law should be made and developed so it correspond to nature. "Later the church christianized Roman ideas, rooted natural law in divine authority, and gave it the quality of highest law. Christian philosophers such as St. Thomas Aquinas perpetuated this idea, asserting that natural law was common to all peoples, Christian and non-Christian alike, while adding that revealed law gave Christians an additional guide for their actions."
Natural Law: Yet today many Christian elements of this natural law theory have been siphoned off, leaving behind a simple set of 'universal' rules, ever evolving as society confronts various evils. For example, the Bill of Rights code is highly influenced by biblical law refracted through the British common law. But, consider now that "Due Process," a biblical norm, has been jettisoned from Woke Law.
John Milton Free Speech: As to our traditional defense of free speech, John Milton's Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr. John Milton for Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England, stands as the first explicit defense of freedom of speech or press. The pamphlet argues men must be exposed to both good and bad ideas to learn to know the difference. Here are some gathered excerpts:
"No man can be so stupid to deny that all men naturally were born free, being the image and resemblance of God himself. Those with their freedom lost, all virtue lose. Nations grow corrupt, love bondage more than liberty. The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil liberty. "Give me liberty to know, utter, & argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. Truth—Let her and falsehood grapple. Who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter? Truth needs no policies or stratagems make her victorious. "There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies—his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds firmly established. If then it be profitable for him to read, why should it not at least be tolerable and free for his adversary to write…it follows then, that all controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the more true; which must needs conduce much to the general confirmation of an implicit truth.."
Monstrous Theory: So, what the far left and the Democrat Party have created is a monstrous new theory of politics and law. They propose a 'republican democracy' that is wholly representative, yet allows no free speech! But how is that "representative"? It allows no dissent or public challenge to any accepted ideas—no matter how novel. But this idea is dead in the womb. For how could any society exchange ideas regarding forming the best culture and state, when the ruling elites outlaw free speech? And any who dare defy will be struck with public outlawry?
Universal Woke Law: There is no such thing as a "Universal Woke Law" since wokism contains many previously unpopular or even illegal activities that were forced onto the general public by activists. Therefore, each item of wokism must be approached individually and then separate communities can decide their own position. For example, when Roe v Wade was overturned, it's now a state-by-state issue.
How 'Wokeness' Is a Product of Marxism:
Prof James Lindsay: "Wokeness is a fusion of the critical theory school of neo-Marxism, which is a form of identity politics, and radical activism that has a very particular worldview that separates the world into liberationists versus oppressors or oppressed versus oppressors. It marries that with postmodern theory, which holds that "all applications of truth are actually applications of politics by other means. The goal of postmodernists who were part of that movement was to "deconstruct the very meanings of things."
True Republicanism: The Constitution of the United States is the premier summary of Republican government, which states in Article IV, Section 4:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government But what does this mean? 7 Principles of the Constitution, guidelines of the Founding Fathers:
- Popular sovereignty, meaning rule by the people
- Republicanism, meaning the right to vote for representatives
- Federalism: power shared between the national and state governments
- Separation of powers into branches that make, enforce or interpret laws
- Balance of Power—controls (checks) can be made on the other branches
- Limited government—everyone is bound by the US Constitution
- Individual rights—personal freedoms are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights
Marxist Verbal Monomaniac Tyranny: Democracy, while necessary, is simple majority opinion – not enough to build a great nation. Republicanism is the best means to achieve a just and efficient land, because it protects freedom and encourages participation of all in society. Further, via the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Rule of Law, it seeks to protect each American. Contra, Marxism builds tyrannies that kill all freedom and then murders citizens. So we must all fight against such craziness as if our very lives depended upon it.
Dostoyevsky: As to the development of our American Left's "Only One Idea is Allowed"—Recall, as Dostoyevsky pointed out in Crime and Punishment, that any ideology which reduces everything to one element is a monomania, indicating psychosis.
America, the Pitiful: America is falling due to a lack of genuine education, teaching kids history, logic, and common sense. But the collapse of religion affects every other trend. If people no longer worry about who God is, or how to follow Him faithfully, then no one will be able to muster enough will to have a passion for justice anymore. But, recalling Rev 2:4–Let's Return to Our First Love! Fight the Madness. Resist the evil psychosis of leftism, And always, Keep the faith!
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Kelly O’Connell is an author and attorney. He was born on the West Coast, raised in Las Vegas, and matriculated from the University of Oregon. After laboring for the Reformed Church in Galway, Ireland, he returned to America and attended law school in Virginia, where he earned a JD and a Master’s degree in Government. He spent a stint working as a researcher and writer of academic articles at a Miami law school, focusing on ancient law and society. He has also been employed as a university Speech & Debate professor. He then returned West and worked as an assistant district attorney. Kelly is now is a private practitioner with a small law practice in New Mexico.