A recurring theme of modern culture is the idea: ordinary people cannot "handle" the truth. It is a way to say ordinary people cannot be trusted to know what government knows. It is an excuse and justification for the government to keep secrets from the American people. The supposed stupidity and cupidity of most people is a key part of Progressive ideology.
A ubiquitous theme promoted by Progressives is the necessity of controlling "public opinion" and "manufacturing consent". This is in direct opposition to Christian ideology, as common in colonial America. The founding ideology of the United States of America is natural law supported by Judeo-Christian ethics. Natural law is based largely on the ability of individuals to understand what is in their own interests, and to act on those interests.
The Second Amendment is based on the idea that people can know their own interests. People can band together to promote their own interests. Society is better if everyone is armed to protect their own, and societies, interest in mutual defense, property rights, and the rule of law.
The worship of the truth is a key part of Christianity. In the bible, Jesus says, "I am the truth". Jesus says the revelation of the truth will set his followers free. The pursuit of the truth flowered during a combination of the reformation and renaissance, when the printing press and paper created an explosive revolution of knowledge as important as the invention of writing.
Pursuit of the truth led to the scientific method and the industrial revolution. Islam floundered on a denial of objective truth, because the dominant theology in Islam came to be an insistence that Allah could and would change reality at will. The past, the present, every bit of existence at any instant, is subject to change at any moment in Islam. Thus no search for objective reality or for physical laws would or could be fruitful.
Progressivism echos this fluidity in its understanding of the universe by its insistence that nothing is permanent or knowable (except to "Experts"). Everything is changing all the time. Only skilled and dedicated Progressive "experts" can understand what is happening. Governments have to be able to change all the time and instantly, to cope with a changing reality. Therefore, what the mass of the people know and think has to be constantly managed, to prevent them from doing stupid things and doing things against their "own interests".
Stupid things are defined to include throwing Progressives out of power.
How often have you read of Progressives (leftists) saying a certain group voted against their own interests? This is a shortcut version of the above. Progressives assume they know everyone's interests better than the people themselves do. Marxist theory does the same. Marxists claim people who disagree with them to have "false consciousness". The consciousness Marxists consider to be true is that which validates their assumptions about reality. Woke theory is a variant. White people are defined as racist, whether they know it or not. No one who is not Woke can define what a woman is.
In contrast, the American Founders trusted the people, on average, over time, to know their own interests. They also knew different people's interests and different groups interests often conflict. The checks and balances of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were put in place to keep any one interest group, especially the interest of people in political power, whether State or Federal, from promoting their interest ahead of all others.
The First Amendment is based on the theory a vigorous debate is the best way to determine the truth. The Scientific Method is based on anyone being able to challenge scientific findings by duplicating experiments to see if the same result is obtained. "Scientists" who refuse to reveal their data invalidate their own results.
If you cannot see the data sources, you cannot duplicate the results.
If a person "can't handle the truth" they should not be trusted to handle firearms responsibly. Progressive ideology has gun control in its DNA.
You can handle the truth. You can handle weapons. The truth shall set you free.
The flip side is: Lies enslave you and liars lie to you to keep you enslaved.
When someone tells you the public cannot handle the truth, they are advocating for unlimited governmental power.
©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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