Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the foundational philosophy, principles or societal myth of a society, create the civilization and culture of a people. It is those foundational principles that determine if that civilization will be shaped in liberty, prosperity and fraternity, or if that culture will be tyrannical, impoverished and egotistic. Just like the foundation of a house determines the shape of the house that sets upon it. The destruction of the foundation of a civilization, as in a house, razes that artifice to the ground. Equally, if the foundational societal ethos is used as the foundation of another culture, the shape of that culture will reflect those foundational principles, no matter who the people are. This is so important it cannot be overstated or inculcated enough. The ruination of many a nation and civilization has been, and will always be, the destruction of the foundational philosophy of a society.
The Marxist, later turned anti socialist, Georges Sorel, came close to this in his theory of the Societal Myth. He stated that movements all have their societal myth, which if undermined destroy that movement, and in being created create a movement. He listed many in his various letters. The Roman societal myth, as stated by Sorel, was the marshal theory of “Glory” being the end all of a man’s life, and that glory in battle should be sought even at the risk of one’s life. When the Roman societal myth was destroyed, Romans turned from glory to selfish egoism, the fall of Rome followed. He explained the persistence of Catholicism as the “myth” that Satan is at perpetual war with Christianity and that since God was on the side of Christianity the Roman Catholic church would always be. These are societal myths as discussed by Sorel. In calling attention to those myths, he was consciously or unconsciously, trying to use the theory of a societal myth as a foundation for Marxism and the general strike. As I said, he came close, but fell short.
The foundational principles of a civilization are never myths however, they are truths, at least to the people that follow them. Moreover, if we look at the results of those foundational philosophies, through the eye of Pragmatism, we can glean those that have value from those that are destructive. American Pragmatism is based on the theory that the rightness of a philosophy can be determined by the fruits it bears. Those philosophies that create a system where people have liberty, prosperity and fraternity, by the measure of pragmatism can be called good, while those that create a situation of poverty, tyranny and egotism can be called bad. Because the lot of humanity under the first is elevated and under the second diminished. The first bears sweet fruit; the second, bitter.
Like a house must comport with the shape of it’s foundation, any civilization built upon a given philosophy, must comport with the tenets of that philosophy. So, if a society is built upon a philosophy that has resulted in liberty, prosperity and fraternity in the past, those new civilizations built upon the same foundation will result in the same outcomes. Exactly as those societies built upon a foundational ethos that has resulted in tyranny, poverty and slavery in the past, will do so in the future… no matter how much an idealist might want it not to be so. This shows that anyone constituting a new country, has a ready template of good philosophies upon which to build, or bad ones, the choice is available if not used.
The foundational principles of a culture, civilization and/or nation, determine the shape. Those who seek to destroy a civilization, to be replaced with another, have at their means a method of ruining a civilization, simply by destroying that foundational philosophy. Usually by a steady chipping away at it by perverting the minds of the children. As those children grow up and they believe the perversions they have been taught, further perversions, things that a generation before would have been unthinkable, become not only thinkable but taught to the next generation as fact. By these means a great civilization, or an evil one, can be wiped from the face of the Earth. All that is required is for a faction to gain control of the school system and higher education. Another way would be to import people who disagree with the foundational ethos. Once the population has been sufficiently replaced the foundation crumbles.
Today we see this happening. Western civilization, with it’s tolerance, liberty, prosperity and fraternity is being systematically destroyed by a faction, the new class, that has seized a monopoly on education. They seek, as their stated goal, to move the planet to a socialist utopia. They understand that unless the foundation is blown up, the edifice that stands on it will last, and so they have been undermining that foundation for generations. We see the crumbling of our civilization all around us. (Which is blamed on the foundation and not on the chipping away of it). They understand the means but not the results of their machinations. Some of them believe the edifice they plan on building will have more liberty, prosperity and fraternity than the one they are destroying. But in their ignorance, or willful blindness, they fail to understand that the shape of the civilization they are creating will follow the same shape of those that have been built upon that foundation before. They lack the pragmatic eye to see that if a foundation has always resulted in tyranny, poverty and slavery in the past, that is the only edifice that can possibly be built upon it.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
