Have We Evolved Into a Parallel Brave New World and 1984?

re: Have We Evolved Into a Parallel Brave New World and 1984?

ElizabethHope — 6/12/2020 9:05:07 PM

Has anyone heard of Alexis de Toqueville? He wrote a book called "Democracy in America" in 1835. Based on his travels throughout the young country, he wanted to examine the fledgling experiment in modern democracy and recorded his observations. He made some sociological observations and predictions that are simply stunning to read today because many still hold water.

One of his astute insights is that Christianity, particularly that of the Puritan flavor, pioneered this form of government. Puritan churches were democratic and self-governing.

Moreover, Tocqueville argues, religion “is much more necessary” in a “republic” than in a “monarchy,” and “in democratic republics more than all others.” It is safe to give the people power to rule only if they believe that there are moral limits on their power that they must respect and if their belief in such limits is sustained by their belief in religion.

He doesn't advocate a theocracy either. Put another way, the union of church and state actually makes some men—even those disposed to be believers—into political enemies of religion. This danger, he held, is especially acute in a democracy.

Tocqueville believes that the American Founders, in setting up a separation of church and state, had actually struck upon an arrangement that would both protect religious liberty and help religion to flourish. He contends that religion is so powerful in America precisely because of the separation of church and state.

These last sentences I copied from this article:

www.heritage.org/.../tocqueville-christianity-and-american-democracy

Toqueville posits that democracy requires a collective consensus on morality in order to best function. Otherwise it can disintegrate into chaos and disorder. Christianity in particular protects citizens from the tyranny of the majority.

re: Have We Evolved Into a Parallel Brave New World and 1984?

WL4816 — 6/12/2020 4:59:49 PM

When Marx said that religion is the opiate of the people, he meant that it functions as a substitute for a mind-altering drug by providing people with a spiritual (i.e. psychological) means of escaping from the suffering and uncertainties of the real world. Religious faith provides believers with a comforting sense of certainty and security, especially important during times of precariousness. During the Dark Ages, for example, life was so precarious for the majority (most people were serfs) that theology was the only subject allowed for intellectual discourse. Religion thus served the ruling elite as a means of social control, without the use of tangible force, as it is intended to do during our era. Theology is perhaps the most enduring holdover from the Dark Ages, and Marx understood the profound implications of that in regard to maintaining the subservient condition of the working class.

re: Have We Evolved Into a Parallel Brave New World and 1984?

CMS_72 — 6/12/2020 2:34:57 PM

the devil will judge the evil and there is no mercy

re: Have We Evolved Into a Parallel Brave New World and 1984?

mar938444 — 6/12/2020 12:22:14 PM

Brave New World looks real to me. We live with more laws, regulations, and now even directives and willingly obey. In some places even straws are forbidden. And so many people have indulged in excessive drinking, drugs (including marijuana), and excessive sex with regular hookups a new norm that’s led to abortions on demand. Yes, we’ve been dumbed down as a whole.

re: Have We Evolved Into a Parallel Brave New World and 1984?

veggiesenior — 6/11/2020 11:57:12 AM

As a senior, I've been watching as America has gradually lived with eroded freedoms. Anyone who has not noticed or even considered this fact must be living under a rock, or is plain stupid. Yep - "1984" has been with us for quite some time now. We are knee deep in it. We are up to our chests in socialism, which is considered the precursor to communism. Kids in schools started being brainwashed a few decades ago & that continued right through college. Most people didn't seem to notice. The Marxist libs had plenty of money then to influence school boards to allow the infiltration through what the teachers taught & the books supplied by them. This money source continues today. I'll not mention who I think is backing all this. What Stalin & Kruschev did in Russia (eliminate that country's history & re-write it) has been happening here, with another current push today as I write this. Even the conservative party I usually support seems to only "talk the talk" & is rolling over, playing dead & not willing to "walk the walk" to show how much they really believe in our Bill of Rights & Constitution. Control of mankind is certainly not new, but it amazes me that mankind still doesn't get it. God help us - the revenge is His!