Aristotlean Social Science

Everyone knows the first thing that we learned in science class...Aristotle, the Greek Scientist , taught that the earth was the center of the universe. Subsequent generations proved Aristotle to not quite have it right. What was his problem? Did he not follow the scientific method? or maybe because he did follow the scientific method, he arrived at this conclusion. I believe that he and many of the intelligentsia of his time suffered from the problem of "presentism". Presentism is basically a type of pride, pride being the downfall of all societies and civilizations, that creeps into the society when people become basically, full-of-themselves. Presentism is more insidious; it is the tendency to judge history through present-day morality. It is the prism through which the past is seen as barbarian.

For instance, slavery is an abominable practice and anyone that would entertain the idea of using slaves would suffer the wrath of political correctness. But, not too long ago in the world's history, slavery was accepted by some. I would never condone it, or even allow it to be promoted, but can we really judge prior generations as evil, for their practice of slavery? Similarly, during WWII because of the Japanese aggression, many thought that Americans of Japanese descent should be separated out from the general population. Thus, many were taken from their homes and businesses and put into internment camps, supposedly for their own safety. Many of these people went willingly and some even went out of their way to prove their loyalty to America. Present-day historians have condemned this act and even sought monetary compensation to the descendants of the victims. Do we really understand what it was like? Maybe, but saying that what was done was immoral, is not fully understanding what all the contributing factors were, that led to the internment solution. The juxtaposition of present-day morality to morality at the time of WWII will never be equal and never be fair. Fast-forward to 9/11/2001, the day that extremists attacked New York City. Many innocent lives were lost and there was much clamor and much hysteria about who the enemy might be. Cooler heads prevailed, but from the killing fields of the Taliban and other hotbeds of fundamentalism, many enemy combatants were collected and sent to a modern-day internment camp. This time many were quick to avoid the mistakes of the past, to a fault, as they were, either for political or possibly moral reasons, easily given to forsake things like profiling, listening stations, interrogation, and heaven-forbid, psych-ops, to obtain information from the declared enemy.

Well, you get the point. I wonder sometimes about how future generations will judge our time and the social mileposts that we establish. Will they try to understand our weaknesses? Will they judge us for our hedonistic "sexual revolution", or the drug culture that has led to a society of contrand and illegitimacy. Primarily, I hope that they don't make the same mistakes but seek to live to a higher law from a higher source....but as always this is....just an observation.

Do the Ends Justify the Means (to accomplish the Ends)

It has always been a tenet of Marxism that the Ends justify the Means...that the greater good is always served by force. This has a familiar ring to many people because of what occured prior to coming into this world; a kind of deja vu. Any kind of End, or goal, or utopia must be deserving on merits alone. If it is a true goal, or of a truth, then there is only one way to reach that truth, and that is to follow the path of truth. You cannot reach truth by following a lie. A lie only leads you away from the truth; therefore, you may define the truth by the opposite, or opposition. For instance, you can only find heat, if you follow heat, like moving towards the sun. If you follow cold, it will lead you to cold; but by reaching the cold you will only know that you have not reached the heat. Once you reach the cold you will have gone to the far reaches of our solar system, and you will need to go backwards to find the heat. No matter how long you follow the cold, you cannot reach heat by following the cold. In this way you cannot reach your End. If the Means are true, then it will lead to a true End. They are inseparable because, the adage, "all roads lead to heaven", like "all roads lead to Rome" was never true. It was the vanity of men that they overlooked the truth.

And so it is today. Many governments, political movements, etc. seem to be bent on populist agendas that seem to ebb and flow, but never reach a knowledge of the truth. Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would rise and be a great nation and would scatter Israel to the four corners of the earth. But, where is Babylon's greatness today? Where is the greatness of Egypt? of Rome? It has gone the way of all the earth, because the End did not justify the Means and the Means were not true, because the End was not true. Israel is returning as Isaiah prophesied; that is the truth.

Karl Marx could not have known what the End would be, because he could not follow truth; he was an amoral relativist, bent on authoritarian force to make people follow his manifesto; the collective, over the individual.

Individual freedom has been given to us by our creator and cannot be taken away, only given up by each individual for a path of personal non-accountability. This hearkens back to an earlier crossroads that we met, in an earlier time, in the Grand Councils, where we had the opportuntity to leave our first estate and progress to our second estate....but just as true as this existence is, this is Just an Observation! You still have to choose for yourself.....