Progressive Ideology: Return to the Dark Ages

The history of man is a record of a journey of enlightenment, with occasional setbacks and long periods of superstition & oppression.  The reformation, the age of reason, the scientific method, & the enlightenment were all interrelated, & built upon each other to free man from the dark ages of superstition, elitism, & a ruling aristocracy.

The Reformation ended the Dark Ages.  Here are some of the characteristics of that time:

1. There was an elite ruling class.  They were separate & privileged.  They believed & acted on their superiority over the huddled masses.
2. Their mandates were absolute.  They spoke for God & the Universe, & nobody could question them.  Everyone else was expected to submit to their pontifications.  Truth & reason were irrelevant, as the mandates from the elite were supreme.  There was no appeal to Reason, Science, or a Higher Law.
3. Superstition & submission to the elite were indoctrinated into everyone.. not critical thinking & discovery.  The institutions of men required absolute devotion, loyalty, & submission, & were not to be questioned.
4. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of the elite, ruling classes.  There was no middle class.  The privileged elite did not work, themselves, but were leeches & looters of the production from the working class.
5. The ruling elite were above the laws that they themselves decreed & enforced.
6. Violence, torture, & intolerance of diverse views were used to keep the reins of power, & any dissenters were targets of their wrath.  Non conformity was punishable by death.

The Reformation was the beginning of the end of the dark ages.

1. Sola Scriptura.  Man's edicts were not absolute, but there was a Higher Power.. there is a Natural Law that was above the whims & pontifications of man.
2. A common language, Latin, where a knowledge base began to build.  Advances in mathematics, science, & technology began to replace superstition.  Science & reason worked, & provided a stable base for discovery, rather than the whimsical mandates of man.
3. The beginnings of the Equality of Man, & a rejection of elitism & the Divine Right of Kings.
4. Birth of Defiance.  The reformation saw the legitimatizing of defiance, 'We must obey God rather than man', was a common theme.  The compliance & submission that the ruling aristocracy demanded began to crumble, as people held conscience above the edicts of the elite.

Almost concurrently, the Age of Reason began, which promoted scientific methodology over superstition.  This was also the beginning of the Enlightenment, where Reason & all the old values of the dark ages were cast off.  From this ideological basis, the American Experiment was born, where our collective governance was based on these central values:

1. the equality of man.  ALL men are created equal, & are endowed with unalienable Rights.
2. Natural Rights, & a Higher Law was over everyone, & the orders of aristocracy were destroyed. Life, Liberty, & Property, the core values of Natural Law & the Enlightenment, were codified into a system of checks & balances.
3. Citizen Representatives, not a ruling elite.
4. The right of the people to resist & overthrow any collective institution that oppresses or violates the natural rights of man.

These were High Ideals, that have been bought with the blood of thousands of humans who died resisting the dictates of the privileged elite.  Generations of people born in the last hundred years have been the beneficiaries of those who believed in & fought for the rights of the individual over the collective institutions & tyrants who would enslave them.  They were never completely defeated, but have always been there, working to assert their control over others, striving to gain power, & drawn to any system where they could insert themselves into seats of authority & rule.

From early in the 20th century, the progressive movement was based on several principles that influenced their agenda.

1. Dismantle or render ineffective the constitution of the US. "..government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton." Woodrow Wilson.  Govt was seen as the Solution for all of the problems of humanity, not as the source of them.  Early progressives had nothing but disdain for the American Founders, & the principles of Enlightenment thought.  The 'checks & balances' of the constitution were seen as a hindrance to the progressive agenda.
2. Gain control of the institutions of power.. academia, journalism, the courts, local & state govts. 
3. Darwinism was much of the driving force of progressive ideology.  Superior thinkers & leaders were more highly evolved than the common man, & should have an elevated position of power & control in any collective endeavor.  'Living political constitutions must be Darwinian in structure and in practice. Society is a living organism and must obey the laws of life, not of mechanics; it must develop. All the progressives ask or desire is permission—in an era when “development:... “evolution,” is the scientific word—to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle…' Woodrow Wilson
4. 'Rights' are a gift from govt, not something inherently possessed.  "Natural rights and natural liberties exist only in the kingdom of mythological social zoology." John Dewey.

At the very core of progressive ideology is the belief in a naturalistic explanations of origins.  There are no moral absolutes.  There is no Higher Law.  There is no God, or He is irrelevant.  Man makes himself, & is the Author & Finisher of his own fate.  The irony of this is the elevation of Man into his own god, but one who is fickle & unstable, unlike the unseen God of the universe whose laws were orderly, which was the basis for the Enlightenment.  This new god was more terrible & fearful than the old one, & he demanded loyalty & submission in this life, or you will suffer the consequences.  Forget the afterlife, they will make this life a hell for you if you defy them.  All of the basic traits of the dark ages are being reborn under the new mantle of progressivism.  But instead of elitists from a distant, unseen God, they are present & visible.  The roots of the dark ages religion have changed, but the actions & principles they operate under are the same.

America's foundational beliefs have transitioned from the enlightenment view of a Creator, Human equality, Natural Law, & individual freedom to the naturalistic, collectivist pop religion that currently permeates all of our culture.  Progressivism is the State Religion, & is promoted & indoctrinated as such.  Even in the court cases, you can see the slow 'evolution' of progressive dominance.  We are returning to the dark ages, with a new crop of elitists to rule over us, mandates based on position rather than science or reason, intolerance for dissenting views, & mandated conformity.  Collectivism from Marx, with the basis of naturalistic origins have blended to form progressive ideology.  It's twin sisters were born at the same time, but have not been as successful.  Communism & Nazism were born of the same era, with the same philosophical bases.  The success of progressivism lies in its ability to lurk in the shadows, & slow gains of power in the institutions.  It is a chameleon, able to change colors with the surrounding habitat.  It is not surprising that the elitist views of Islamism are viewed sympathetically by progressives, as they see their central enemy as traditional American values.  The constitution, with roots in absolute morality, freedom, & diversity of thought are at odds with the mandated conformity of Islam & progressivism.  Both are driving us back to the dark ages.  Both are based in elitist rule.  Both require absolute submission & obedience from the subservient masses.  Both destroy the middle class & prosperity.  Both use political power to control the people.

Progressive ideology:  Anti-American, enemy of mankind, driving us back to the dark ages.