Socrates believed that knowing oneself was associated with wisdom and that coupled with rationality along with moral and ethical behavior would lead to happiness. In essence, if one had the right or correct knowledge that could lead to behavior that was good which would be equated with happiness. However, concepts of unconsciousness, drive, needs, shadow, anxiety, alienation and irrationality put forth by Marx, Kierkegaard, Sartre , Freud, Jung, Horney, Fromm, Murray, Ellis and others have presented a more complete understanding of man’s motives. Man has clearly exhibited irrational and self-defeating behavior with religious wars, world wars, the bomb, climate change, income inequality, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, fascism and deplorable statistics on mental, cognitive and physical health. This disquisition addresses few ideas from Claremont Institute patriots that have influenced the authoritarian party of Trump.
Aristotle's philosophy suggested that man can create a well-being society with the pursuit of knowledge , if examined, that knowledge combats evil and ignorance. Briefly, the pursuit of happiness or rational activity within spirituality is considered a human good and the highest goal in life. Thomas Jefferson was influenced by Aristotle, Socrates and others, as he wrote in our Constitution "The “Pursuit of Happiness “was an inalienable right along with life and liberty”....for white males.
Roughly 160 years ago , Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas engaged in presidential debates regarding slavery. Douglas believed, as Aristotle and Jefferson, that man pursued happiness based on what was good for him. He advocated that people knew what's good and therefore the citizens should be the ones deciding on whether slavery, should be abolished or not. Of course, at that time, that idea appealed to the southern states and for white men that owned property. It didn't matter to Douglas that our Republic was inhabited by many others. Oh yeah, they were ineligible to vote, but that didn't matter to Douglas. Thank goodness Abraham Lincoln took a more humane,enlightened Christian morality and realistic point of view. That there existed universal truths like all men are created equal and that certain moral principles are immutable.
Leo Strauss, a German-American philosopher stressed the importance of inculcating one's youth. His teachings influenced one of his pupils, Harry Jaffa. Harry Jaffa wrote the classic "Crisis of the House Divided." That book influenced the online conservative think tank Claremont Institute located in California. Its mission was to keep the founding fathers principles relevant . As a result, the authoritarian establishment’s mission is to have complete control regarding what’s taught in the public schools. They fund their nominees for school boards across the country. They were recently successful in Texas. Now they can criminalize what is taught and what is not to be taught in certain public schools.They even created a 1776 commission in an attempted to control and suppress the 1619 project.School boards have banned teaching critical race theory; have censored books from authors Toni Morrison, Anne Frank and others; but they have not yet burned books .The Idaho state legislatures are defunding and banning colleges addressing students to personally affirm, adopt or adhere to tenants associated with critical race theory. So what if it's a First Amendment violation.
Along with conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, these Christian right-wingers are reframing American history by going back to what was taught, 75-80 years ago. This group is asserting that multiculturalism is evil and that it is important to go back to the history and principles of the founding of the United States. They in fact are characterizing Joe Biden and his voters as non-Americans; claiming that the left wing of the Democratic Party was responsible for the moral collapse of America; we are not a racist country nor being intellectually, morally and spiritually unjust. One can't allow foreigners to come to the country and be involved in the Democratic process because they have no background in the history of freedom. Good is Christian conservatism and everything else is bad and evil.
Most Claremont Institute disciples thought that California became the most economically unequal and socially divided state in the country . And that It was controlled by the oligarchical power ,concentrated in a handful of industries like big tech and Hollywood. California,early on, represented the golden times of Rome and had the greatest middle-class paradise in the history of mankind. However, that was swept away in barely one generation and is now in the point of no return. Claremont beliefs are patriotic and others non-patriotic.
John Eastman , a member of the Claremont Institute had his own ideas of authoritarian capitalism when thinking about the principles of the founding fathers. Perhaps, in his wisdom, he knew that they created the electoral college in an attempt to alter the popular vote. He knew that a Republic was created, not as a total democracy, as Adam Smith warned with pessimism, that the poor take from the wealthy. By all means it is just to protect the greed of the wealthy as the poor are just vultures and bloodsuckers. However, it's the wealthy that are greedy , exploit and discriminate. What's wrong with the wealthy donating, giving , sharing with altruism ? Eastman attempted to further the falsification with his plot to have the vice president as "the ultimate arbiter" and to delay Congress” counting the electoral college votes.
The Claremont College conservative elite and others initially knew that Trump was flawed, intellectually ignorant and boorish, yet they were cognizant of his appeal to the same.They figured they could work with him. They even supported the notion of the big lie about the election being stolen with the claim that mail voting was fraudulent. In fact, many of the Claremont Institute disciples were employed in Trump's White House. Moreover, anything that is favored by the multicultural Democrats results in the propaganda that it is evil, wrong and bad for America. Anything that Trump says or does. results in propaganda for being patriotic just and good for America. As a result, the authoritarian party of Trump is unanimous in its messaging. For instance, Liz Cheney was scapegoated in the search for democracy, freedom and liberty.Oh by the way, DeSantis is now considered one of the most important people on the planet. They are now questioning whether the Republic should be saved-is it worth it?
Reference
The New York Times. Right Minds.8/7/22.
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