In Joanne McNeill
When others believe the same things, it becomes a community consciousness adding impetus and credibility by sheer weight of numbers to confirm they are “on track”, this “orthodoxy” (serving as answers to the existential questions thrown up by life) - forms a culture or worldview. We have then a phenomena we know as " the tide of opinion".
Humanity has utmost “faith” in a native ability to discern truth.
Philosophers develop their views; teach them to prospective intellectual leaders of society, who in turn, become the politicians, film-makers, bankers, editors, lawmakers, writers, teachers, artists and others leading the direction of culture. Through their influence these views filter down to street level and become stitched into the fabric of the dominant thought patterns and culture of the day.
Holocaust survivor and Psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl said
By the time a view is almost universally held at street level, few are questioning whether or not it is true- whether it corresponds to reality. A fundamental change in society has occurred. It is now an authority in its own right and is beyond question, and woe betide anyone who expresses doubts as to its validity or basis in truth.
A cogent example of this has been eloquently portrayed in Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled: No intelligence allowed". Another example is how in Evangelical circles and the secular population at large is the unquestioned acceptance of libertarian free-will.
Holocaust survivor and Psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl said
" I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some Ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers.”
By the time a view is almost universally held at street level, few are questioning whether or not it is true- whether it corresponds to reality. A fundamental change in society has occurred. It is now an authority in its own right and is beyond question, and woe betide anyone who expresses doubts as to its validity or basis in truth.
A cogent example of this has been eloquently portrayed in Ben Stein's documentary "Expelled: No intelligence allowed". Another example is how in Evangelical circles and the secular population at large is the unquestioned acceptance of libertarian free-will.
The changes may be natural progression from certain philosophies gaining a wide following- others- the result of deliberate social engineering. Is tobacco smoking still socially acceptable?
The view that “we make up our own reality as we go along” seems laughable to commonsense citizen Joe - but without realizing it we are already compromised. The indoctrination is complete. Ever heard someone say “What’s true for you- is not necessarily true for me”?
Relativism and its co-dependant -moral relativism is now endemic to our society. To appreciate the wrongheadedness of relativism there must be a concerted effort to show the exclusive nature of truth, and that the idea of relativism is born out of multiculturalism and the pluralization of societies where tolerance has been objectified to the point of being a social "idol".
“Many have such an opinion of their own capacity as to think that that cannot be proved which they cannot believe; by wisdom they knew not Christ .” -Mathew Henry
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