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January 13, 2015
“Gnostic societies and their leaders will recognize dangers to their existence when they develop,
“but such dangers will not be met by appropriate actions in the world of reality.
They will rather be met by magic operations in the dream world, such as disapproval, moral condemnation, declarations of intentions, resolutions, appeals to the opinion of mankind, branding of enemies as aggressors, outlawing of war, propaganda for world peace and world government, etc. The intellectual and moral corruption which expresses itself in the aggregate of such magic operations may pervade a society with the weird, ghostly atmosphere of a lunatic asylum, as we experience it in our time in the Western crisis.” Eric Voegelin, The New Science of Politics-- HappyAcres
Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 13, 2015 11:16 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
So nu?
Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://americandigest.org/sidelines/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 14, 2015 4:33 AM
David Warren (formerly a columnist at the Ottawa Citizen) once wrote a column a few years ago titled, "Shamanism", in which he described how the educated elites of Pakistan dealt (or, more precisely, failed to deal) with the rise of radical Islam in their country. His point was much the same as Voegelin's: they had become educated beyond their intelligence.
So also has our current political elite become "gnostic".
Hale Adams
Pikesville, People's still-mostly-Democratic Republic of Maryland
Posted by: Hale Adams at January 15, 2015 9:30 PM