The American Crisis: Origins-
The Failure of Modern Science and Our Historical Dilemma
Part 1
Journal Entry #20
I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray…Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray.
-1 John 2:26, 3:7

On the Home and Garden cable channel (HGTV) are found many programs that highlight the repair and restoration of older- and really old- homes. From the foundation, to the superstructure, roof and chimney, to the electrical wiring, plumbing and even various retaining walls, these stately old homes to a greater or lesser extent manifest signs of disrepair and the pronounced need for renovation.

It would not be a great leap therefore, to liken these homes and their need for repair and renovation to the current status of our American Republic- another sort of stately old house certainly in need of restoration after 236 years of hard, though faithful service. And like those older houses on HGTV, our democracy- our unique experiment in self government- will endure to the extent we restore and improve its structure. Otherwise, it will collapse. There is no middle ground, no half measures (no political solutions, no economic solutions); the moment my fellow citizens realize this, the sooner we can get to work and set things right.

Most would argue that the greatest dilemma threatening the health and future of the United States these days is economic in nature. The federal government’s unrestrained deficit spending habits and the attendant staggering debt burden, coupled with high unemployment and flat economic growth are all cited as the focus of greatest concern to the American people, and dominate debate as we approach the 2012 election. The national political discussion seldom rises above the economic, even as the economic discussion rarely rises above the political.

To be sure, these national economic problems are real enough and the political connections and subsequent social implications of these imprudent economic policies are undeniable, but these are NOT the source of the American Crisis. More accurately, these are symptoms of the Crisis. The true source is more profoundly elemental than politics or economics: it derives from the absence of freedom of thought in America.

The United States has been embroiled in a Historical Crisis since the end of WWII, brought about by the corruption of our Western intellectual tradition, the most conspicuous indication of which is the de facto prohibition on intellectual freedom. In brief, we are no longer permitted as a society to speak of, think about or teach our children absolute Truth. And it is precisely according to absolute Truth that the Founders justified the American Cause and the eventual Republic.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence “We hold these Truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator…” and the universal, immutable, intellectual basis for all that was to follow was articulated and established by the Founders; for all subsequent generations, for all time. The Declaration was certainly intended to be much more than merely a political and social manifesto or compact.

As I mentioned in an earlier journal entry, the American philosopher Mortimer Adler defined a “self-evident truth” as a truth the opposite of which it is impossible to conceive, so that to even suggest that all men are not equal would be tantamount to saying that “all men are not men”- which is, of course, a philosophical absurdity. What is also forgotten in this quotation from this seminal document is the term “Creator”, who- in a Jewish and Christian sense- is the only being capable, because He is wise and powerful enough, to establish the physical universe and human beings as well as the absolute Truths sustaining both.

It is this Jewish and Christian sense of the term “Creator” that Professor Russell Kirk contemplated when he referred to America not only as an association of free citizens, but a “community of souls” as well. You will notice that at the critical junctures in American history- the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War Two- these ideas were violently challenged and much slaughter ensued.

Indeed, these violent confrontations- these horrendous wars, these societal conflicts- are undeniable testimony to what this Creator in the person of Jesus Christ would further decree as a logical corollary to these “self evident Truths”: that not all men would remain equal- spiritually. The immense and disastrous instability of human governments, institutions and societies throughout history have as their source this schism between those who accept the existence of absolute Truth and those who vociferously disparage and deny absolute Truth.

This latter group, those who deny and disparage absolute Truth, have insinuated their way into the halls of science and, ultimately into the corridors of social and political power. By advocating the existence of a physical universe bound by a closed system of material cause and effect, they have persuasively disposed of absolute Truth and the God of Israel who established it.

And in so doing, they have removed the solid foundation upon which rested the American Republic. Thus comes our current societal disequilibrium- our current social, economic and political instability. This is the failure of modern science and with it, the gathering failure of freedom and democracy. The paper you are about to read, The Failure of Modern Science and Our Historical Dilemma, is the logical response intended to reestablish the veracity of God and His absolute Truth.

Since 2005 this paper has been sent to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, their Vice Presidents, as well as to key Senators and Congressman of both political parties, and to individuals of the national media: it has been ignored by all of them. Perhaps this will serve as a fitting epitaph for our national folly.

The Failure of Modern Science and Our Historical Dilemma

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord.
Isaiah 1: 18

“What a lovely thing a rose is!…There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion,” said he. “It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers.”
Sherlock Holmes, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; The Naval Treaty

“You will not apply my precept,” he said, shaking his head. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
Sherlock Holmes, The Sign Of Four

Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.”
Isaiah 22: 4

Part 1
Can history permit us a look ahead, to see whether democratic government will endure the test of time? Will America, through popular rule and strengthened by its scientific, industrial and technological knowledge, be exempted from the decline and extinction that has befallen past civilizations?

More than academic speculation, the search for such answers is made with the clear understanding that even as there are certain historical conditions which permit the flowering of democracy, so must there also be circumstances which would cause it to wither and disappear. Such a search is joined, and the historical circumstances which endanger democratic government identified in the following study.

The story begins with the end of World War Two and the onset of the Cold War, as the United States formed alliances and enacted national policies designed to thwart Soviet strategic superiority in the post-war world. These are the years that represent a critical crossroads in U.S. history, as the sheer force of world events required momentous decisions to be made. In addition to defining the dimensions of international politics and law, and establishing a planetary balance of power for years to come, the path chosen by America would also certainly influence conditions domestically, eventually serving either to enhance or undermine the quality of democratic government.

Enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1958 was the National Defense Education Act, intended to fund schools and universities to step-up science and math education and increase the training of more scientists and engineers. Underlying this increased scientific emphasis in American public education were certain theories of biological and stellar development or evolution, vigorously endorsed by empirical science and based squarely upon the notion of materialism- the view that all that exists is either matter, or some function or property of matter.

Because history and philosophy were subsequently eclipsed in an educational climate increasingly defined by science, two glaring facts went unnoticed in the years that followed: these theories proved essential to the formation of such totalitarian societies as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia and, these theories could clearly and empirically be disproved. It has been the goal of my book, History Remembered, History Forgotten to demonstrate both of these facts, and proceed from there to show that to the extent modern science in combination with U.S. education continue respecting these dubious theories, democratic government and society are unavoidably imperiled.

Montag