The Religion of Doom & Gloom

A Discussion concerning the expansion of Pessimistic Philosophy and World View is taking place over at Democracy Forums.

Burning Giraffe:

Liberals and Mystics have been undermining Man’s faith in himself for centuries, promising Doom and Gloom around every corner, demanding more fear, more submissiveness, and more order to protect us from each other and from nature. (That’s where Global Warming comes in. Indeed, unbridled fear and helplessness has reached its most vigorous expression in the “science” of Global Warming). These people have reached the stage of out-right panic.

The Religion of Doom and Gloom is predicated on several premises:

1. That Human Beings are naturally evil and selfish.
2. That Human Beings are incapable of knowing the world around them.
3. That Liberty is a natural threat to unity, peace, and harmony amongst Men.
4. That Man’s nature must be curtailed by either the force and power of government or the fear of and submission to God.

Look around you and you’ll find these premises at work in the thinking of hundreds of millions of people all across the world. You'll find these premises alive in nearly every religion and in most political institutions, and certainly throughout the cultures and societies of the world. I call this a religion because these premises are the core of many people's world view and require a great deal of faith.

Buck Laser responds by noting:

I simply do not believe that it's "man's natural evil that requires great effort to tame and control" that lies at the basis of human society. Humans, despite the faults they share with the rest of the animal world, long ago learned the values of cooperation and compassion. That they slip from thes values doesn't mean they're evil creatures. Yeah, I know some people, especially a few of the more vocal Christians on this board believe that.

Guilt isn't so much the motive factor as the clear evidence that people generally do better in cooperative relations than they do in either anarchic or rigidly authoritarian systems. I have no use for anarchy, and I don't personally care much for authoritarianism, but I do believe there are situations where an authoritarian structure may be necessary. The military is one of the places where it's pretty much inescapable, as it would be in any human activity that requires closely coordinated actions.