Endarkenment

[Kathianne]

Read this the other day, thought it interesting. Seeing more and more references to it.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-endarkenment

[revelarts]

Read this the other day, thought it interesting. Seeing more and more references to it.


https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-endarkenment


interesting
"...Can the lights be turned on again? That, I would think, is an important question, though it rarely gets asked.

Many insist that the blackout is temporary. All it takes is to put Trump in prison—then we’ll be back to normal. Or maybe if we can use really good words to explain the benefits of reason and science, light will be restored to the twenty-first century. That seems to be Steven Pinker’s premise in Enlightenment Now, where he goes on at length about “how journalists, intellectuals, and other thoughtful people . . . might avoid contributing to the widespread heedlessness of the gifts of the Enlightenment.”..."


ummm Steven Pinker thinks it's hard to even come up with good legal reasons why infanticide should be against the law. Looking for hope there is a pretty low bar.

"...It’s too late, I fear. Trump was a late-stage symptom, not the cause of death. Appeals to utility and self-interest have always failed because they lack spiritual substance. Elite voices like Pinker’s grate on the ears of the deplorable class. Humanism, torn from any transcendental framework, is thin gruel at best—and irrational at worst. The Enlightenment is over. We should turn our minds to what comes next.

...The Endarkenment isn’t a total eclipse—yet. It isn’t a Dark Age. We aren’t quite ready to surrender 2,500 years of Western civilization to the barbarians. That fight continues, though the outcome is uncertain....

...The Enlightenment’s dismissal of the rabble is simply no longer viable. The deplorables, with all their anger, must somehow be brought inside the tent. The means are up for debate; the will, at present, is nonexistent.

The most radical departure from Enlightenment ideals will concern the manner in which we address the problem of meaning. Criticism is necessary for modernity. Meaning and moral aspiration are necessary for humanity. A balance must be struck that lifts us out of pure randomness and materialism to a credible—and shared—higher purpose. The famine of meaning can be fatal. The rise of totalitarianism and, to a lesser extent, the “established church” of identity and climate doom today are examples of the political deformations that occur when the balance breaks: the hunger will be satisfied in some way.

None of this entails the embrace of angels, or even necessarily of religion. Any good empiricist will admit that the richest human lives are lived symbolically, even mythically, and that a society intent on denying this on principle will shrivel. The road back to life and light will be harrowing. We will encounter many points of failure, many opportunities to slide off into the abyss. Can it be done at all? In my optimistic moods, I can believe that we’re due for a second coming of historian Karl Jaspers’s “Axial Age”: prophets and philosophers who conceive a dramatically updated spiritual vision, with the rational and the sacred, truth and meaning, reconciled in the righteous life."

So his optimistic HOPE is that SOMEONE will come up with some UPDATED "spiritual" vision that a majority can embraces as foundational principals to hang a shared reality, meaning & purpose.
New Prophets & philosophers with updated Spirituality... but Not Religion.

uh Dude.
Maybe the problem is the we've abandoned the OLD prophets and spirituality.

[revelarts]

Read this the other day, thought it interesting. Seeing more and more references to it.

https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-endarkenment

What this guy deals with in this article is one of the main themes of the Christain Philosopher & theologian Dr Francis Schaeffer... back in the 1970s he predicted where we are now.

The article touches on many of the same historical & philosophical points and figures.
dr Schaeffer created a mini series documentary to address it. as well as articles and books.
heres the miniseries called
"How should we then Live?"

yes i know its 4 hours... skip through a see if anything interest you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IB3Qqj5M2k


Book Version link (https://www.amazon.com/Should-Then-fiftieth-Schaeffer-Dennis/dp/B004E6QB54/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2XK2XB3C4NTM4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YivyCumBAfAKKkx-yyxZrjTLbldJ8cRN5xS4USxJObDm-C-dOmvNejdN7tHOvVeUCP7w6uK-nW9x-eUhEUZiUrllPNjIKlDXgrNgWm1j95ls9wjkEfGmUZs7JMQCOjm-FM9n8dqCgiyvXNY9pZI3RmXGsDPO31rpRcOS9mfm7uWB4QuQ3x oELdF6Gjho6hTRyEBbErAm1xBevRs7UnwuEnEFaUeED04a_Sj_ 6SpKVN0.DsJWs7mIZwVvDHdqK7IG-axbKJLZrAYZ5CZKUuJtDrU&dib_tag=se&keywords=how+should+we+then+live+by+francis+schaef fer&qid=1730678370&sprefix=how+should%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-5)


edit:
Online Library Book Version
https://archive.org/details/howshouldwethenl0000scha

Tubi
https://tubitv.com/series/300007041/how-should-we-then-live