DE-MYSTIFYING THE IDOL OF STATE
“Modern intellectuals have preached that the State should be strong… and give this assertion the characteristic of preaching, of a moral teaching.”[1]
The salience of the lines above is increased when one notes that by “intellectuals” Benda meant those groups today considered (rather arrogantly) ‘thought-leaders’: academics, journalists, artists and literary bureaucrats. The dominant tendency of modern times is marked by these groups preaching “the cult of the powerful State”[2] that will heal all the problems of individuals by ministering, as a new priesthood, to “society.” This is all done in the name of “democracy,” even critics use the term uncritically in attempting to remain in the ‘mainstream’ of ‘discourse.’
The public vocabulary is so filled with lies, clichés and slogans that the need for accidental quote marks is almost constant. In the era teaching “that all arguments are equally defensible,” that there is no truth, only opinions, -- except for the opinions of the dominant tendency which are beyond truths, which are dogmas – the reduction of language and thought, broadcast by the harlots of the elites through the distraction machine of disinformation disarms resistance to the mystique of the State before it can be conceptualized or articulated.
But this process has been pushed too far for American stomachs and habits of work, mores and expectation. The basic, simple principles focused by the tea parties (which had their original home in Boston, hard as it may be to believe today) combined with the arrogance of power in its ugliness when exposed fully may hinder the march toward a future of global fascism when “discipline” takes on “a religious function.”[3]
One of the most oversimplified and misunderstood intellectuals of early modern times was a fierce critic of the growing mystique, sanctimony and power of the State which he termed, “the new Idol.” “State, what is that” he asked with outraged scorn. “State is the name of the coldest of all cold monsters” he wrote. “It tells lies…’I, the State, am the people.’”[4] The term “democracy” used by most as a bludgeon or, thoughtlessly as a term of socio-political purity literally means “rule by the people” but historically has meant the management and manipulation of society by an oligarchy, often headed by a charismatic charlatan in the name of “the people.”
As to cold and lethal lies, the State used contrived economic crises to create a “Welfare State” that in recent years has grown an increasingly blatant, ‘in your face’ tyranny typified by the collaboration and dual control of people by corporations and government.
“It is annihilators who set traps for the many and call them “State” as in the innumerable headlines and announcements about “State funding” or “government programs” that begin by looting and beggaring the people who ostensibly are helped after the State helps itself to the lion’s share of the takings. Political activism like the tea party shows that “where there is still a people, it does not understand the State and hates it … as a sin against customs and rights.”[5]
The ‘intellectuals’ who serve the State (and they know mostly are becoming “centrists,” backing and filling to sandbag humans in the months to come). It is easy to recognize them. “They preach adoration for the contingent and scorn for the eternal”[6] because they deify themselves. “’On earth there is nothing greater than I’—roars the monster. “The ordering finger of God am I.”[7] The means by which it claims divine power, wisdom and compassion are familiar. The minions of the State promote, staff and demand monies for pseudo-sciences which “permit a tone of calm inhumanity” to become the idiom of culture and a disguise “for systems of arbitrary authority.”
In short, modern “democracy” thinly disguises Caesarism. Republican democracy rooted in the Constitution is a defense against Caesarism and all the lies by which it extends its power. “The State tells lies in all the tongues of good and evil; whatever it says it lies” because its language, dogmas and assumptions are corrupt; “and whatever it has it has stolen.”[8]
This new idol, like a god of ancient Canaan, “will give you everything if you adore it,” its minions and apologists promise: “free gas and houses with no down payment,” etc. As the state of the economy, the destruction of our productive capacity, resulting joblessness and the collapse of the housing market and access to mortgages shows the therapeutic State is “a hellish artifice,” a Trojan Horse” of society “clattering in the finery of divine honors.” Like our ‘great leaders’ “it praises itself as life” but does “great service to all preachers of death.” The trajectory of society under the godhead of the State is “the slow suicide of all life.”[9]
One hopes that all who recognize these truths and patterns continue their efforts because “only where the State ends, there beings the human being who is not superfluous…Where the State ends, there is the rainbow”[10] of the Divine promise and of human promise and free possibility, life abundant and mutual respect rather than coerced and anxious obeisance. Americans only need beware in the less bad times to come of being given the new messiah of a jin-doll.
Eugene Narrett is the author of Culture of Terror: the Collapse of America
Footnotes:
© 2010 Eugene Narrett - All Rights Reserved
Eugene Narrett received his BA, MA and PhD from Columbia University in NYC. His writings on American politics and culture and on the Middle East and geopolitics have been widely published. These include four books, the most recent being WW III: the War on the Jews and the Rise of the World Security State (2007) which examines the historical roots and purposes of the war on terror as a late stage in the undoing of the West. His previous book, Israel and the Endtimes (2006) lays the basis for these questions.
Dr. Narrett has appeared on scores of radio programs, both major networks like WABC, Radio America, Eagle Forum Radio and Westwood Communications, as well as regional and local stations. He has been honored for his essays on art and literature and on behalf of the pro-life movement.
Since receiving his doctorate in 1978, Dr. Narrett has been teaching literature and art and creating interdisciplinary courses in the Humanities. He lectures on a variety of topics relating to western civilization, geopolitics and the multi-faceted war on the family that is a striking feature of the postmodern west.
See his web site, www.israelendtimes.com for information on booking a lecture and for contact information.
Website: IsraelEndTimes.com
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