15-03-2021
The majority of humanity lives in a hypnotic trance, taking a simulacrum of reality as actual reality. They live in a collective dream wherein values are inverted, lies are believed as truth, and tyranny is accepted as security. They become entrained and even entertained in their metaphysical slumber and slumberous ignorance. Having long been victimized as a hostage, they cling to their misery and suffering that give them their identity and meaning.
“The Great Awakenings” of the past, starting with that of the 1730s, were all religious revivals, which means that they were all in the direction of deeper dogmatic beliefs, which in turn means that they were in the vector of internal unfreedom and slavery.
None of the American Revolutionary Founders and Framers was part of the Great Awakening. In fact, many of them were condemned as “infidels” by the fanatical leaders of the “Great Awakening” such as Jonathan Edwards.
The Founders and Framers who made the American Revolution possible were “Freethinkers” and they were literally a minority, uniquely exemplifying Arnold Toynbee’s “Creative Minority”. (Toynbee was a collectivist, and hence I used “uniquely” to give an ironic twist to his concept of “creative minority”.)
We must not mistake that it was the Great Awakening/Religious Revival of the 1730s and 1740s that made the American Revolution possible, and we must not repeat the same mistake today.
Liberty is not possible without a critical number of people being internally (i.e., psychologically, intellectually, and spiritually) free, while internal freedom is not possible without the individual being an authentic freethinker.
Liberty, we must deserve and earn, which means that we each must be internally free and be an authentic freethinker. If there are a sufficient number of freethinkers constituting the creative minority, the great American Restoration is possible.