I am republishing this post with slight revision since I last revised it in 2016, having noticed the recent controversy over the ideas and worldview of Dr Jordon Peterson, a clinical psychologist and polymath scholar from Canada. As my Christian faith grows I become increasingly concerned about the loss of the concept of truth in a secular society. Christ stressed repeatedly the importance of truth in reaching spiritual fulfilment. The near hysterical reaction by university cultural Marxists to Peterson's coherent and rigorous arguments are worrying to say the least and I only hope the final result is not comparable to the mayhem which followed the 20th century adherence to truthless ideologies (e.g. Marxism, Maoism and Nazism were godless ideologies which between them generated untold misery, tragedy and over 250 million deaths over the first half of the 20th C) .
| See 1984, George Orwell website |
Instead they create their own model of reality in a kind of
‘collective solipsism’ (a phrase used by O’Brien, the Party leader in the novel) and force
this on the Party members by controlling every aspect of their lives and
thought processes from cradle to grave. Solipsism is defined in my Penguin
English dictionary as the 'theory that the only possible knowledge is that of oneself.'
The collective solipsism of 1984 is the extension of this to a whole society.
All those in the Party are forced, by indoctrination and torture, not just to pretend belief, but to really believe, for instance, that
2+2=5
black is white
ignorance is strength
war is peace
love is hate
The Party members thereby learn to ‘doublethink’: to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time. This reminds me of Steven Hawking’s ‘model dependent realism’ and post-modernism in general (as defined in philosophy rather than art; dictionaries often don't reflect this), since these philosophies deny the existence of an objective reality. Fortunately they are not collective in nature and are not imposed on us by a totalitarian regime but in my view they could have dangerous consequences in the long term even if only held individually.
Orwell appears to have based his society on the communist and fascist, godless, dictatorships of the first half of the 20th century. The rulers in these regimes, in Orwell's view, saw themselves as the source of power and power was all that mattered. The real God does not exist for the Party founders of 1984, so the Party is God and the Party stands for power over people. Hence ‘God is power’ is perhaps the most telling slogan of the novel.
People loving power over others feature in my novel, 2077:Knights of Peace. I call them ‘dominophiles’. However, they are not as ruthlessly evil as the founders of the Party in 1984. Their danger to the world lies mainly in their capacity to bring out the badness in others and stir up trouble in zones of ‘sociodynamic’ instability, which unchecked would cause violent conflict such as ethnic cleansing. A dominophile with the right aims, e.g. wiping out some disease, might do some good in the world; but I would not like to work under one.
What concerns me about western democracies today is that they are overly secular and attempt to hold up Christian moral values without any acknowledgement of their sacred source. The horrific consequences of abolishing the sacred are explained by Jordan Peterson (I may add a YouTube link later - there are many to choose from). Political correctness and endless talk about human rights and labelling of people as 'racist' or 'homophobe' or 'sexist' when they make simple statements of fact are, I believe, symptons of this denial. The spiritual equality of all human beings is a natural consequence of Christianity. All are made in God's image, all are equal in the eyes of God, and without constantly reminding ourselves of this shrill denouncements of
those who speak truths such as that
some people are more intelligent than others
some people are more talented than others
people brought up in different environments or cultures are different
people of different races are physically different
people of different gender are, on average, different at a deep emotional and visceral level
can only lead to trouble.
I believe there is a God who incarnated himself into humanity. If this is true, and the evidence is huge, then pretending that it is not is a complete denial of reality, a mass insanity which can only have dire consequences, starting with the rise of demigods offering prosperity, social justice and security to the masses. I don't know what Donald Trump really stands for but we need to be careful about expunging the divine source of reality from government, schools, hospitals, private companies and all public institutions, lest we open the door to evil to rush into the spiritual vacuum.
The Triune God is real and sustains every atom, thought and being in existence. He is the source of reality itself, the bedrock, the 'truth that sets us free' and attempts to ignore this can only have horrific consequences.
See also Gems from the Hiding Place
John Sears
Author, 2077: Knights of Peace
Author, 2077: Knights of Peace
cosmik.jo@gmail.com
