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“‘Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith but in doubt. It is when we are unsure that we are doubly sure." Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
Dead straight. Consider this in relation to "Islamism." It is a defensive reaction to the perceived threat of the West. So, for that matter, was Fascism in its day, with its emphasis on preserving national culture.
The same insight explains feminism. It popped up because the traditional role of women had suddenly become obsolete, thanks to the mechanization of household tasks. In the Fifties, almost for the first time, a man could contemplate living quite well, in terms of material comfort, without a wife. Before this, if unmarried, he would at least have probably had to resort to a boarding house. Hence the glorification of the single life by, among other cultural artifacts of the time, the "Playboy philosophy" and the James Bond films.
In the first wave of reaction to this rather sudden obsolescence, women had a lot more children, to fill up their time and to feel still needed. When this did not work out well, because the additional financial burden on the men hardly recommended marriage to them, women switched to the peculiar form of fanaticism we now call feminism.
Another example is Protestant revivalism. Again and again, we see fervent, extremely doctrinaire Protestant fundamentalist movements arise, and within a generation or two, they collapse into nearly pure secularism. Evangelical Methodism evolved, in Canada, into the United Church. Puritanism is now Congregationalism.
The militant New Atheism, similarly, may really signal a loss of confidence in scientism.
All perhaps promising for the long term, but in the meantime, there is likely to be hell to pay. Fanatics are not easy to deal with, and they do tend to be murderous.
Dead straight. Consider this in relation to "Islamism." It is a defensive reaction to the perceived threat of the West. So, for that matter, was Fascism in its day, with its emphasis on preserving national culture.
The same insight explains feminism. It popped up because the traditional role of women had suddenly become obsolete, thanks to the mechanization of household tasks. In the Fifties, almost for the first time, a man could contemplate living quite well, in terms of material comfort, without a wife. Before this, if unmarried, he would at least have probably had to resort to a boarding house. Hence the glorification of the single life by, among other cultural artifacts of the time, the "Playboy philosophy" and the James Bond films.
In the first wave of reaction to this rather sudden obsolescence, women had a lot more children, to fill up their time and to feel still needed. When this did not work out well, because the additional financial burden on the men hardly recommended marriage to them, women switched to the peculiar form of fanaticism we now call feminism.
Another example is Protestant revivalism. Again and again, we see fervent, extremely doctrinaire Protestant fundamentalist movements arise, and within a generation or two, they collapse into nearly pure secularism. Evangelical Methodism evolved, in Canada, into the United Church. Puritanism is now Congregationalism.
The militant New Atheism, similarly, may really signal a loss of confidence in scientism.
All perhaps promising for the long term, but in the meantime, there is likely to be hell to pay. Fanatics are not easy to deal with, and they do tend to be murderous.
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