The Death of Reason
TimeWatch Editorial
December 17, 2015
Here is an inconvenient truth for you. No, not the well known book published in 2006, written by Al Gore. That book was written to inform the world of “The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About it.” This is another inconvenient truth, also written by Al Gore. This one, however, does not carry the same title, but is perhaps as inconvenient as the other “Truth.”
In May 2007, Former Vice President Gore published “The Assault on Reason: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About it.” Chapter 1 in that book is entitled: “The Politics of Fear.” The very first paragraph of that book says this:
“Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason. Both fear and reason are essential to human survival, but the relationship between them is unbalanced. Reason may sometimes dissipate fear, but fear frequently shuts down reason. As Edmund Burke wrote in England twenty years before the American Revolution, “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” Former Vice President Gore, “The Assault on Reason.”
For those who are panicked concerning the climatic changes taking place around us, there is by far a more insidious transformation that is already well on its way in our world. It is the systematic killing of reason. Bertrand Russell, is quoted as having said, “Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.” Bertrand Arthur William Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic and political activist. Robert Higgs, born 1 February 1944 is an American economic historian. His writings in economics and economic history have most often focused on the causes, means, and effects of government power and growth. Robert Higgs writes an article posted on “The Independent Institute” website entitled: Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power. Here is what he says:
“All animals experience fear—human beings, perhaps, most of all. Any animal incapable of fear would have been hard pressed to survive, regardless of its size, speed, or other attributes. Fear alerts us to dangers that threaten our well-being and sometimes our very lives. Sensing fear, we respond by running away, by hiding, or by preparing to ward off the danger. To disregard fear is to place ourselves in possibly mortal jeopardy. Telling people not to be afraid is giving them advice that they cannot take. Even the man, who acts heroically on the battlefield, if he is honest, admits that he is scared. “He would be a sort of madman or insensible person,” Aristotle wrote, “if he feared nothing, neither earthquakes nor the waves” (1938, 249). Our evolved physiological makeup disposes us to fear all sorts of actual and potential threats, however, even those that exist only in our imagination.” Robert Higgs; Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power.
Amidst the turmoil of uncertainty that surrounds us, nation against nation, political and religious organizational aggressiveness, economic and financial vulnerabilities, we find ourselves consumed with a subliminal fear, the deadly poison that saturates the soul of every living thing. Even the plants respond with shrinking production, as if they too can feel the strangulation. Robert Higgs expresses the role of Government in all this.
“The people who have the effrontery to rule us, who call themselves our government, understand this basic fact of human nature. They exploit it, and they cultivate it. Whether they compose a warfare state or a welfare state, they depend on it to secure popular submission, compliance with official dictates, and, on some occasions, affirmative cooperation with the state’s enterprises and adventures. Without popular fear, no government could endure for more than twenty-four hours.” Robert Higgs; Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power.
It is therefore obvious that we stand on the brink of fundamental changes. The world is being prepared for the sort of shift that will require absolute submission to the powers that be. It will mean that we must be prepared to withstand the pressures that will come. You can do this if you
“Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” Ephesians 6: 11-18
Cameron A. Bowen
