The new world order - but is it new? The continuing war on the enlightenment. By:Centinel

The new world order - but is it new? By:Centinel

The continuing war on the enlightenment.

By:Centinel

First let’s lay down some ground work via history.
Anyone who studies the American revolution realizes that the founding fathers had the enlightenment on their minds when they wrote the constitution. As we have written, America’s founding was unique. Unique people with unique circumstances in a moment in time. It may be an event never again realized.  To decipher the ongoing war on the enlightenment, you have to understand the timeline. Most scholars agree that the Enlightenment was a result of the Thirty Years’ War. This war lasted from 1618 to 1648. It compelled writers to pen harsh criticisms of nationalism and warfare. Many of the first Enlightenment minds went against tradition and proposed better solutions which caused a snowball effect. Small advances triggered larger ones. These thinkers revised the scientific method and set the stage for scientific discovery, such as Isaac Newton's discoveries in physics. What emerged was a new system for observing the world. Scientists faced scorn and skepticism from the religious community, who felt threatened by science and its attempts to explain matters of faith. After all, in many European countries the church was the control mechanism for the state.  The first major Enlightenment figure in England was Thomas Hobbes with the book Leviathan (1651). Through social thinking, Hobbes felt that by nature, people were self-serving and preoccupied with the gathering of a limited number of resources. To keep balance, Hobbes postulated, it was essential to have a single intimidating ruler. John Locke came into the picture half a century later, promoting the opposite type of government. A representative government, with his book Two Treatises of Government (1690).

Before the turn of the century, in 1688, English Protestants helped overthrow the Catholic king James II and installed the Protestant monarchs, William and Mary. In the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, the English government ratified a new Bill of Rights. It granted personal freedoms and certain constitutional requirements of the Crown to seek the consent of the people, as represented by Parliament. The Bill of Rights preceded by the Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. The Bill of Rights 1689 was one of the inspirations for the United States Bill of Rights. What killed the Enlightenment was the French Revolution (1789 - 1799). Begun with the best intentions by French citizens inspired by Enlightenment thought, the revolution attempted to install orderly representative assemblies. It degraded into chaos and violence. Many people cited the Enlightenment-induced breakdown of norms as the root cause of the instability. They saw the violence as proof that the masses could not be trusted to govern themselves. Still, the discoveries and theories of the Enlightenment philosophers continued to influence Western society for centuries.
Enlightenment thinkers believed that it was possible to improve humans and human society.
This was in direct contrast to Medieval thinking where human beings were considered corrupt, sinful, and of little value. The American and French Revolutions were inspired by Enlightenment ideals and marked the peak of its influence and the beginning of its decline. The Enlightenment fell victim to competing ideas from several sources. Romanticism was more appealing to less-educated common folk. It pulled them away from the empirical, scientific ideas of Enlightenment philosophers.
Similarly, the theories of skepticism came into direct conflict with the reason-based assertions of the Enlightenment and gained a following of its own.

If you look at the founding of America, the founders gave us a unique form of self-government. Many thinkers at the time did not believe it would work. Jefferson on one side believed in self - governance, thinking that the people through self-governance were key to keeping the government in check. Alexander Hamilton believed that government could not survive without a powerful central state guided by a well-born elite capable of controlling men’s violent passions.

Fast forward to today and we still have the same battle ongoing. Although we hear Jefferson quoted on just about every conservative blog and speech, we live in a Hamiltonian world. Listen to the politicians and it is easy to see which side they land on. Do they want the government to solve the problems or do they want the government to get out of the way and let lots of free people acting in their self-interest to rebuild the country? Currently, many Hamiltonians do not believe people are capable of making their own decisions. Think about that when you see a politician on TV promising to save us. Notice how Washington seems to think that they are the elite that needs to make decisions for us, and also that many politicians who quote Jefferson propose Hamiltonian solutions.


Technology moving as it is now, the war on the enlightenment is at a cross road. On one side, we have the statists, those who want central control, where everything revolves (the Old World Order).  On the other side, we have communication through the Internet, allowing virtual tools and ideas given to anyone who wishes to use them. Lots of minds working on ideas, solving problems, manufacturing and delivering said ideas, acting in their self-interest, all happening at a pace that a central controlling authority could never keep tabs on. In other words - decentralization of ideas, manufacturing and delivery methods. At a time when enlightenment thinking, self-governance, is needed most, we have political movements in America fighting to centralize and manage, control. 
These two principles are two opposite poles, and it is this conflict that determines the course of this country to this day. At America’s founding, Europe held onto its monarchies until the French revolution, America embraced republicanism. Many of the millenniums do not want to play the traditional roles of a cog in the machine. Localization allows them to practice enlightenment thinking or what is today called Libertarianism. Many cannot let go of the teachings of their liberal college professors, wanting the government to provide. We are to the point when the centrists cannot sustain their Utopian ideals of a government provided minimum sustenance. Those quick to think and act realizing localization will be the future -will be the ones to do best. There has been a war against the enlightenment while the enlightenment was forming. It is happening today still.

The reality of the “New World Order” that everyone fears, is the old world order re-asserting itself, the present day war on the Enlightenment. The term New World order has been hijacked. A new world order is the form of government our founding fathers gave to us in the constitution. The  politicians dream of the world where the U.N controls everything and we all use a centrally-controlled currency is nothing but old ideas rehashed that deprive men of their liberties. Just the same old thing on a larger scale. The old world order. Utopian dreams of no countries, no borders, just one world where everyone sings Kumbaya and with no wars or hungry people. Sounds good, but it does not take into consideration that there may be a considerable number of people that do not want to take part in somebody else’s Utopian dream. This is where things become dangerous. A central authority must have force to do its will. Something the socialist professors conveniently leave out when espousing the virtues of central authority (socialism). America became a country that gave rights to people that no other country had done. A self-governing society has to have a moral compass to function. Churches and community kept America together until the past 30 years or so. As government encroaches on the family and community, and as personal responsibility fades, central authority has to enforce and create laws to keep the population in check. In order for us to regain ground in the war on enlightenment, we have to stop looking to government for answers and start fixing things in our local communities. The world is too big for central control, we have no other choice, even with all the technology, it will not work.

If we do not, we will be living back in the old world order and all that humanity has gained will have to be re-learned.

References: http://www.historydoctor.net
https://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/enlightenment/summary.html
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p26okqg/The-Enlightenment-in-England-The-first-major-Enlightenment-figure-in-England/