CS Lewis (eg in The Abolition of Man, 1943) and Alasdair MacIntyre (e.g. in After Virtue, 1981) showed clearly that modern 'ethics' is merely emotivism; i.e. it goes no deeper than emotions. As in the phrases "That's just your opinion", or "Everything is relative".
This must be the case for secular-modernity; since when there is no God (and when that God is not Good) then there is only individual human psychology.
What was not so evident to Lewis and MacIntyre as to us in 2021 was that, in practice - and in a bureaucratic-media-dominated global totalitarianism; this means that 'morality' is merely a product of currently-dominant power and propaganda.
In other words; whoever can most effectively and widely manipulate emotions, is able to define today's morality.
And tomorrow's morality will be... whatever power and propaganda say it is.
And that is All there is to modern morality.
In a world where transcendental purpose and meaning are declared and assumed absent; morality is no deeper nor more lasting than the current status of manipulated emotions.
5 comments:
Spot on insight, as usual...emotionalism has taken over rationality, the foundation of Western culture, which has sadly crumbled into the mess we are witnessing today. Critical thinking used to be a valued skill, but now someone can't question the status quo without accusations of being a horrible person. "How could you doubt the peck/mass shootings/antiracism/whatever the latest propaganda is when people are DYING? You're so SELFISH."
On another subject...I'm curious to know your thoughts about relocating from urban areas, which a lot of "preppers" have been doing in America as of late. Part of me wants to leave California early next year, but another part of me thinks I shouldn't bother because the Satanic agenda is taking over worldwide.
If there is no God, then man is the Supreme Being, but this could mean two things.
It could mean that I am the Supreme Being, in which case (inter alia) I make my own morality.
Or it could mean that man as a society, via the actions of the group's elites, is the Supreme Being.
In which case the leaders make up morality, as we see these days.
What we have now is somewhat better than the collective solipsism of Every Man a God, but not much. Especially because the perfidy of the elites encourages individuals, as a defensive strategy, to think of themselves as little Sovereigns.
@TtL - I have previously written on this subject.
https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-prepper-delusion.html
Of course, this is a generalization - therefore sometimes wrong even if true; especially, it does not apply to spiritually-motivated moves and life changes.
@Alan - Well, every Man is "a" god, and also (at the same time) we live in 'the' God's creation.
Modern Man denies both. He refuses to behave as a god; because he refuses to take spiritual responsibility for himself and refuses think from his true and divine self; but instead passively absorbs his thinking and morality from external sources. And he also refuses to believe in the reality of God and that we dwell in His creation.
Are there any books or thoughts on why pre modern man say medieval peasants didn't go up to each other and say "that's just your opinion?" Clearly at the same time Christendom existed the Aztecs existed on other side of the world has moral relativism always been here?
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