by Bill Nugent
Article #243
In my recent article titled The Worst German Victory of World War II, I described how the philosophy that gave rise to nazism went on to become the dominant philosophy of the western democracies. In that article I showed that nazism was based on postmodern philosophy and that postmodernism is based on atheistic materialism and atheistic materialism is based on Darwinian evolution.
But how are the present day western democracies nazified? How dare I use the term “nazi” and “western democracy” in the same sentence! I will show in this article not only the fact that the postmodern philosophy that birthed nazism is the dominant philosophy of the west but the brutality and tyranny of nazism is also beginning to be seen in the west.
Let me give a brief review of the philosophy that birthed nazism in Germany and how that philosophy drives political culture today in the US and western Europe.
The three major philosophical systems of western civilization can be classified as the Christian, the modernist and thepostmodernist.
The Christian view of the source of absolute truth is that truth is given to us by God by revelation and is written in the Bible. Biblical truths include the 10 Commandments, the teachings of Jesus, the sacredness of human life and the dignity of man. (“Absolute truth” is defined as morals that are unchanging and apply to all people in all cultures.)
The modernist view is that absolute truth can be discovered by human reason and logic without reliance on divine revelation. Modernism, since it arose in post-renaissance Europe, is nevertheless influenced by Christian concepts of justice and morality. Modernism is also dependant on natural law as a starting point for its reasoning. For instance, modernists rejected homosexuality on natural law principles because in nature, two people of the same sex cannot produce natural offspring.
Modernism is rational, empirical (dependant on what the senses can perceive), logical, idealistic, optimistic, believes in the perfectibility of man and is what I call “Christian flavored.” By “Christian flavored” I mean that modernism borrowed most of its moral concepts from Christianity. All of the founders of modernism from Descartes to Hume were raised in Christian homes in Christian societies and were taught at an early age to think Christianly. Even the Enlightenment philosophers of eighteenth century France championed Christian concepts of egalitarianism and social justice. They were proud secularists, yet they thought in Christian categories.
The postmodernist view is that absolute truth does not exist and no transcendant moral principles exist. Truth, if there is any, is simply made up by the will of each person. This is radical existentialism and moral relativism. Nazism is a form of postmodernism in which the leaders invented their own set of truths. Since the Nazi leaders invented their own truths and the rest of Germany did not initially embrace those truths, the Nazis had to impose those truths by force. Here we have the postmodern paradox: everyone is radically free to invent their own truths yet to avoid social chaos an elite group arises and forces its truths on people through totalitarian government.
Postmodernism is irrational, emotional, sophistic, barbaric, pessimistic, existentialistic, radically individualistic and is what I call “occult flavored.” Postmodernism is so scattered and atomized that most commentators define it only in terms of linguistic analysis and deconstructionism but that’s only the putrid eruption of the postmodern sore. Once a person embraces moral relativism there is no real search for truth. Linguistic analysis and deconstructionism are merely ways of tinkering with language and words which are just the tools of knowledge.
The founders of postmodernism, though raised in Christian homes, made a sharp disconnect from Christianity. Most notable among them was Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) who’s writings contain instances of open blasphemy. I have often said that postmodernism, because of its denial of objective morality, is simply a return to the premodern and prechristian brutality of pagan Europe. The Nazis led Germany into the barbarism of its pagan past.
Postmodernism by its very prefix, “post” indicates that it comes after modernism. Western man has exhausted modernism and now seeks to move on into the new thing, the postmodern. Of course our sophisticated universities of 2011 don’t stoop to the crude nationalism and racism of 1930’s Germany. Nevertheless, by dehumanizing all people, the postmodernists who dominate western civilization have allowed themselves to choose new victims.
The anti-zionist opponents of Israel sometimes describe Jews as“the sons of apes and monkeys.” We rightly decry that as anti-Semitism and forbid such an ethnic slur. However, for a college professor to say “All human beings are descendants of apes and monkeys” is regarded merely as a simple statement affirming Darwinian evolution. Yet both statements are dehumanizing. Darwinism, because of its denial of the sacredness of human life, is the taproot of postmodernism.
Darwinian evolution is the dehumanization of all people and this is called Darwinian reductionism. Hitler, in his book, Mein Kampf relied heavily on Darwinian principles and often quoted Darwin to make his case for Aryanism and fascism. Hitler dehumanized all people and in doing so justified in his own mind, the slaughter of those subsets of humanity that he particularly despised.
Let’s look at the present day nazism of the western democracies. It’s common knowledge that postmodernism is the dominant philosophical and cultural thought system in most universities in Europe and the United States. Postmodernism, since it is emotional rather than rational, has rejected persuasive rhetoric. This is why guest lecturers who promote Christian or even modernist ideas at universities are roundly shouted down by hecklers. Christian speakers suffer anti-religious bias. Modernists suffer from anti-intellectual backlash.
Brutality is also in full bloom. The holocaust of the west is not against Jews but is against the unborn. Abortion is the newly accepted form of mass murder. Over a million preborn children are murdered by abortion in the US alone each year. Abortion was unthinkable in America of the 1940’s as we fought against Hitler’s armies.
The pro-life movement has gone to great lengths to prove that fetuses are genetically unique human beings. Fetuses have a beating heart very early in development. It has been proved that fetuses feel pain. Biology textbooks maintain that the life of any organism begins at conception. Polls show that most people in the US agree that fetuses are human. Many abortion supporters grudgingly admit that fetuses are human. Yet polls also show that many of the people who believe that fetuses are human also think that it’s OK for fetuses to be killed by abortion!
The western embrace of postmodernism doesn’t stop at abortion. We see postmodernism in the creeping totalitarianism and anti-democratic forces in governments on both sides of the Atlantic. You may recall from your college textbooks that ancient Greece repudiated its experiment with democracy after about 30 years. When democracy ended in ancient Greece, power was shifted to the philosopher kings.
The west has its philosopher kings in the form of unelected judges that overturn sensible laws and even overturn voter referenda. Judges were traditionally confined to decision making within the strict construct of the law. In the past, political policy decisions were solidly in the hands of the legislative and executive branches. Fascism was no flash in the pan. We now see neofascism in the form of dictatorial judges.
The laws that banned abortion in the US were thrown out by the Supreme Court in 1973. The flimsy reasoning of the court was taken from “emanations and penumbras” of the 14th amendment of the US constitution. In a similar outrageous exercise of judicial usurpation, homosexual marriage was legalized in several states by judges. Those of you reading this article whose political views are left of center should also be concerned. The courts have also legislated from the bench in ways that displease political liberals.
The daisy chain of Darwinian evolution, atheistic materialism, modernism, postmodernism and fascism can only be broken when we return to God as truthgiver. The Bible teaches that all human life is sacred because all human beings are created in the image of God. This means that all people deserve respect and have certain inalienable rights and must have the personal freedom to exercise those rights. The American concept of freedom comes straight out of the Bible.
Jesus Christ came in fulfillment of over 300 predictive prophecies written in the Old Testament hundreds of years before His birth. No other figure in all of history can make this claim. Christ’s fulfillment of the messianic prophecies proves that He is the promised Messiah of Israel who came to teach us great truths, live a life of perfect holiness and then die to atone for our sins. He purchased our forgiveness by His suffering on our behalf. Therefore we receive forgiveness of sins when we repent of our sins and ask God for forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Christ.