Foundations of 21st Century Progressivism

In Bernie Sanders’s speech to Liberty University, he quoted Amos 5:24:

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

This verse has become the theme for the Christian 2023 Season of Creation. Bernie is not religious, nor is he Christian. Call it coincidence or call it providence, but he kicked off our Season of Creation, which includes the Christian version.

Many of the authors of the American classics, as well as their foreign critics, were ‘aristocrats of the spirit’, as Harold Kaplan called them. Some of them had aristocratic ancestors and felt at home in European society. Most of them mistrusted democracy. It is time to re-examine their writings in this light, preferably with the help of knowledgeable sources such as Kaplan and his book Democratic Humanism and American Literature

Unspoken questions wind their way through the national conversation. Where are we going? What can we expect in the future? Will we survive? How can we prepare? Anxiety is increased by omens in the sky and the weather. In myth and religion we hope to find promises and instructions. But we also find lamentations. We are not children who deny the possibility of destruction and death. Not now. The worst is already upon us. We’ve already seen families swept away in the flood and burned in the fire. Let’s face the future like wise men and women. Let’s sit down together like elders of the tribe. Let’s mourn what is lost and love what remains.

The continuing influence of Plato is a contradiction in democratic societies. Plato’s doctrine of Forms or Ideas never had a sound political basis. But today the impossible utopia he created is more real in our philosophy and religion than the world we live in, even though it offers no remedy for the supposed corruption which inspired it. And yet, people of all political persuasions applaud Plato. This is a striking anomaly, and it needs our attention.

We live in a time when immigration is a matter of life and death due to climate change, societal breakdown, and war. Without a formal process of immigrant assimilation, chaos and confusion are inevitable. This understanding might serve as a foundation for cultural renewal.

We live in a conservative democracy. At its core are the hidden doctrines of Freemasonry. As progressives become more clear about the shortcomings of this system, they are shocked to see freemasons trying to end the democratic experiment. We can see their dependence on Plato’s anti-democratic notions when Kyrsten Sinema demands unity and civility regardless of her behavior in Congress, or when the anointed presidential candidate, Hilary Clinton, tells a rival faction to respect authority.