Under Collectivism, You Find the Social Metaphysic
Why do the Leftists want to turn us into slaves?
This question is not merely rhetorical. We need to understand our enemies.
What causes a man to want to make every person a slave to every other?
The answer has several parts:
Under every Leftist subversion, you find the following motivations:
- Vision for Society: Collectivism
- Ethical Code: Pathological Altruism
- Epistemology (approach to truth): Second-Handedness
Under every wicked Leftist idea, the root cause is a disdain for truth. That disdain comes from self-doubt, which Leftists attempt to cure by appealing to the authority of “the group.”
This is the collectivism of the mind — what Ayn Rand called “The Social Metaphysic.”
To the Social Metaphysician, truth is what the collective says it is. Value is what is good for the collective.
If the collective changes its views, then truth has changed. If the collective requires you to pay a tax — or take a jab — or enlist in the armed forces to spread “Democracy,” then that is your duty.
The Chain of Corruption
How do these corrupt ideas work? And how can they be combatted?
FTNCI has devoted a fair amount of attention to the idea that, under the wickedness of most modern belief systems, you find pathological altruism. We have explained the results of such an ideology for churches and for society.
But pathological altruism rests on an Epistemology. Epistemology is the heart of the culture war. Those who want to make every man into a slave of every other are acting from the belief system they have chosen: The system in which their own mind is already enslaved to every other man.
Behind collectivism of the body, you always find collectivism of the mind — what Ayn Rand called the “social metaphysic” or “second-handedness.”
Rand explains:
A [second-hander] is one who regards the consciousness of other men as superior to his own and to the facts of reality. It is to a [second-hander] that the moral appraisal of himself by others is a primary concern which supersedes truth, facts, reason, logic. The disapproval of others is so shatteringly terrifying to him that nothing can withstand its impact within his consciousness; thus he would deny the evidence of his own eyes and invalidate his own consciousness for the sake of any stray charlatan’s moral sanction. It is only a [second-hander] who could conceive of such absurdity as hoping to win an intellectual argument by hinting: “But people won’t like you!”
The Social Metaphysic
The method of thought that creates radical collectivists like Karl Marx is the same as the same as the method that creates the collectivized thinkers dominating today’s Christian institutions.
Yes — The gross errors of Timothy Keller, Russell Moore, Ed Stetzer, David Platt, Albert Mohler, or Ed Litton are the results of different ways of applying the social metaphysic.
Many of these errors are discussed in our past material at our publication and video channel. (Start here and here.)
Independence of Mind
Early in her philosophical development, Ayn Rand explored the idea that Independence might be the chief virtue. Later, she came to see Independence as one among several other virtues that all are aspects of Rationality. In Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead, you find Independence and its opposites explored in depth.
Another starting point on this topic is Rand’s speech to the Westpoint graduates: “Philosophy: Who Needs It.” There, Rand names the common denominator in nearly every vicious philosophy: Self-doubt.
Rand explained:
As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation — or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind’s wings should have grown.
The Alternative
It is not necessary to live as a coward, nor to treat the average of the convictions of other people as your standard.
Reality — not the the word of man — is the final standard for what is true. Observation and reason are a man’s only means of grasping reality. Truth is gained by an act of choice — the choice that follows from taking personal responsibility for all of one’s thoughts.
No one can do a man’s thinking for him. No group can require him to value one thing over another — or to value the group and treat it as supreme.
Incidentally, once we grasp these ideas, we understand why even an ordinary child with an independent mind will find school images such as the following to be off-putting, especially when they are overwhelmingly prevalent.
Independent-minded children recognize social propaganda, even before they learn the term. Children rightly have certainty about basic truths and values. This is not some rare achievement available only to the few and the best educated.
All men have certainty within their grasp. Consider the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes: Truth is within reach. Truth is within reach for anyone with the honesty of a child who is willing to look at the crowd and say: “You’re wrong.”
PS — Thank you Michael Kissel at the Excogitate Podcast for bringing this specific point to my attention. Michael addresses similar topics. Please give him your support.
For more details on how the social metaphysic is affecting Christianity, see our latest videos:
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