Rendering Unto Caesar: Demonizing Humanism‏

[sophia_sadek]

For those who suspect that the Platonic Cave of Ignorance does not actually exist, I recommend reading this work by Matt Barber. He has a bee in his bonnet over humanism. His commentary makes the assertion that both Stalinist Communism and German National Socialism were manifestations of humanism. Nothing better matches the paradigm of the Cave

Comments

[meus_ovatio]

Humanism is what people believe when they don't really have anything to say.

Hey-o!

I like science...

[sophia_sadek]

There are a significant number of humanists with a great deal to say. Do you consider them to be empty talkers?

[meus_ovatio]

I like being ethical. I like realizing potential. I like science. I like humans. I like knowing things.

[sophia_sadek]

Beware lest the anti-humanism police come for you.

[meus_ovatio]

I like... democracy. I like... things.

[kylinrouge]

I like science too. :)

[meus_ovatio]

The anthem of humanism!

[sophia_sadek]

I am embarrassed to say that I know guys just like that.

[meus_ovatio]

Humanism will go down in history as the utterly uninspiring status-quo mediocrity of the 21st century bourgeois classes who spent a whole life coming up with some faint affinities for science, technology and knowing stuff, pretending to be a philosophy so that consumer culture can limp along with its dead soul and meaningless contrivances.

[sophia_sadek]

That sounds like a Marxian deconstruction of humanism. You and Matt Barber agree that it is not something that has legs.

[meus_ovatio]

It isn't dangerous. It's just the silly things the silly people carry on about while sipping their teas and reading the latest Smart Person Magazine so they have something to talk about and fill the otherwise dull, lifeless and heavy air of their existence with noise.

[sophia_sadek]

I see. There is definitely no judgement there. I suppose if they kowtowed to the material Creator of the flat and immobile Earth their lives would be so incredibly full of meaning.

Barber sees it as a pernicious threat to the health of the body politic. It seems that you disagree with that assessment. (Either that, or you mean very different things when you use the word.)

[meus_ovatio]

I didn't claim no judgment. I live in the 21st century, where judgments are the accepted course of critical thinking. Regardless of the material Creator, humanism is its own ball of silly wax. I mean, you're not pulling a pretty classical logical fallacy here, are you?

Barber sees it as a pernicious threat to the health of the body politic.
Well I hate to break it to Barber, but the body politic is already pretty damn fucked to begin with, so its sort of a moot point.

It seems that you disagree with that assessment. (Either that, or you mean very different things when you use the word.)
It is no more dangerous or damaging than [insert ism] here.

[pastorlenny]

You're a damn poet.