MODERN CRITICISMS OF THE HUMANITIES THREATEN REPUBLICAN TRADITION
Americans often have ideas of how our society should be structured without really understanding the roots of the ideas that our thinking brings out. Political slogans and speeches are often in memorialized moments using the terminology every American citizen kind of understands without having to think too much, and I am asking us to think alot about those ideas. The manner in which authoritarians and the pretenders of democracy use and abuse language is a vulnerability of a Republic. Right now, e.g., the field of Humanities is threatened by funding cuts to departments, economic pressures and shifting educational priorities put in motion mainly by the evolution and utilization of artificial intelligence. The field is criticized for self-immolation and ideological theatrics, overemphasis on ideology and politicizing curricula. The Humanities (studia humanitatis) comes up in my research as one of the key aspects to understanding the roots of neo-classical Republicanism in the eighteenth-century and the synthesis that constitutes its heritage. My research into Republicanism is forcing me to confront the Humanities and its seven disciplines, particularly with all the books I am led to in the foundations of an “enlightened Eclecticism.”
Renaissance Humanism’s focus on individual agency and eloquence is integral to the ideal of our Republic, where education in the humanities equips citizens to participate actively in public life. Petrarch’s and Bruni’s ideals of reforming society through classical wisdom comes from this period. The style of education and curriculum in the Humanities is inspired by this era. The early English Republican thinkers who in their time argued, that they needed to train the youth against their day’s political and moral degeneration by turning to their old writers — are drawing on the ideas of persons like Petrarch and Leonardo Bruni who advised the same. They subsequently turned to the advice of the classical writers themselves who said the same thing. Each time, their new ideas and advice influenced the younger generation to bring about new society and educational reforms. You are stuck, and Europe [the whole world] sees this. The conservative, liberal, post-liberals, etc, are all scrambling to find solutions, but each appear trapped in deepening animosities and limitations. The U.S. founders, e.g., turned to the advice of the English Republican thinkers who said it appears our civilization has hit its limit. turn to the WISDOM of those before you and your ancestors.
This once defined the quality of the liberal-minded, and now a “liberal-minded person” is seen as an intolerant and totalitarian snob from which no mind can escape without social repercussions. Those who have tried to find ways outside of the very real limitations and hypocrisies of liberalism often find themselves in another trap — some other ideological pipeline of the unsavory kind.
AMERICANS THROWING IN THE TOWEL TO THE MACHINE
Liberals have often told me, that my ideas are outdated. Even Liberals like Gordon S. Wood fell to despair to the thought that the modern thinker could bring back these important elements of REPUBLICANISM; and that this American heritage is dead and cannot be resurrected. The history I just described that has taken place cyclically since antiquity, when civilization and the thought of a People have hit its limits, says differently. Yes, indeed, I say the American has hit its limitation, and that is why we say dimly only see we ought to delegate the future to the predictable measure — to the MACHINE.
I will try to explain a little more what I mean by all this.
Civic Republicanism is the core structure of my project. It is at the core of American political and social thinking, splintered and diluted in its expression in many ways among citizens, and understanding it is key to political reform for all citizens and politic. I believe, the individuals, associations and parties that become most capable of articulating and representing this heritage and philosophy will indeed possess the best strategy in exposing the actual corruption among an aging political representation, and articulation of American political and cultural potential for RENAISSANCE.
POLITICAL RIGHT CIRCLING FOR NEW IDENTITY AND ADAPTATIONS OF HERITAGE
At the moment, the only political side active in this extreme polarized time circling to try to provide an Ideal beyond the limitations of modern Liberalism and the Left is the political Right. Their politicians are increasingly alluding to our classical roots (From Jerusalem to Philadelphia!) with Stephen Miller, e.g., adapting Russell Kirk’s ideas about the Roots of the American Order; and then the Liberal and the Left react against their misunderstandings and manipulation of the history to support their White ethno-nationalist insecurities. Arguably, we can say that the Right understands what their political opponents have forgotten — the element of storytelling and the power of mythology. The People are in need of grand vision once more, and they are trying to construct something, but it feels more akin to Frankenstein’s monster.
I have read certain Conservative intellectuals circling around the history of the Carolingian Renaissance, but they filter it and their view of the Classics through the perspective of the Right, White ethno-centrism and Tradition. So, they cannot alone express the idea, let alone embody it in their authoritarianism. The flaw of this approach is that it is forced to reckon with the fact, that the roots they are looking into possess fundamental aspects that gave rise to Liberalism and modern Democracy, which they are trying to excise from themselves, even from their understanding of Christian roots, which is radical and anti-capitalist. Those aspects cannot be extricated and filtered through our modern political animosities, without distortion and dilution; and that diluted understanding is being used to force domination on citizens. This is anti-republican. So, who is the real RINO: those (of whatever political party) who fight against this, or loyalists to an authoritarian President?
Who is to say, as the Liberals and Left do, that America as Violent, Empire and Domination is “the real America” and have always been? Historically, yes; ideally, no. It is for you to make sure your government aligns with its ideal. The United States lives in contradiction and hypocrisy, yes; then itself is anti-republican. You should therefore still be fighting for the real republican ideal. It is not simple to twist the republican ideal. If its vulnerabilities are exploited, it quickly slips into a different system. Now, the vacuity of ideal and vision is apparent in the American; and this vacuity creates the space for the despot, the cunning populist and authoritarian appeal. The vacuity is a pit of despair and degenerative motion. No true elevated inspiration can come from such quality of motion. The citizen is in despair and thinks more about the crimes and manipulations of their administration, because they must maintain alertness and care for their fellow citizens harmed by this administration. However, this is a position of defense, and this position of defense and despair has created that vacuity.
This is why my idea from the beginning prevents falling into filters through modern political polarity, because REPUBLICANISM as strictly non-domination philosophy speaks for itself. The Republic, our Republic is a mixed government blending elements of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy to prevent domination and corruption, as emphasized by thinkers like Cicero and Machiavelli, who advocated for rule of law, separation of powers, and popular sovereignty. It takes inspiration from various elements as an eclectic approach to WISDOM in Governance. I delved into this with new additional input in Where Authority Lies: Republicanism, Liberalism, and Progressive Morality. I emphasize Republicanism as “the divine ideal” as Washington, Mazzini, Madison and others put it, in its actual context, which exists outside of the post-colonial critique, that solely situates the understanding in a critique of the American Empire as embodying White colonialism and slavery. I want us to move away from the history being filtered through this particular style of critique, and from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky and those influenced by their critical analysis. These thinkers took hold of our world (How Lenin and Bolshevism displaced Civic Republicanism with Socialism in Black Radicalism), and no one can really think of revolution and radicalism outside of them, or by adapting them, e.g., Democratic Socialism, Social Republicanism, etc. While it is true that Marx can be considered a part of the Republican tradition Four Points about the Revolutionary Character of Republicanism, Marx and other related thinkers are not and have not been the sole point from which to critique everything.
U.S. DIPLOMACY, WHITE IDENTITY AND REAL POTENTIAL OF U.S. MODEL OF GOVENRMENT
The Americans already have an expression and model, which it needs to protect and develop more upon, rather than jealously looking to China and adapting to China. Our inability to do this demonstrates our weakness as a nation, and with this weakness, our DIPLOMACY and relations with other countries merely represents the false image “Whiteness” sees itself in relation to the World and its Peoples. Our political leader is not even capable of standing on the same stage with any given Iranian, Israeli, Russian, Brazilian, Ethiopian, Egyptian or Chinese leader, cleric, philosopher, literary or scholar and really “shoot the shit” with intellectual admiration on the World Stage. The leader being stupid and poor in their civic literacy expresses the American nation and people as stupid and poor in civic literacy — the stereotype anyway of Americans. A highly educated and morally excellent leader will inspire American youth in particular to not be like the former leader. This is simple.
When studying just the roots of Classical Republicanism, all of this still does not really express the fullness of what others attempt to adapt. Republicanism contains just as great, or even better an educational ideal than China. The political Right are “circling,” because they are aware of this and the limits of the Liberal and the Left; and they see our institutions of education as facilitating those limitations. The problem is that they want to replace the dominant critical narrative of a declining Empire with infantile bed-time stories (or as national mythology) that depicts a sanitized history of the United States as “GREAT” for propagandizing or molding impressionable minds.
As I am doing this research, I am understanding why within even the secular framework, Washington refers to Republicanism as a “divine ideal,” and this has much to do with the foundations of “Western Civilization” as I explained in my Introduction to the Pre-Socratic Sages: All the Wise Sages. So, this cannot be separated from a classical theosophic-eclectic understanding, because essentially the Liberalism and Republicanism we are familiar with from the Revolutions secularizes its classical theosophic, theological and eclectic roots. I absolutely reject the idea that this is some mere niche special interpretation of mines. The history points to it. This underpins the mechanisms of our thinking. This secularizing effort, which contributes to hiding this aspect began during the emergence of Renaissance Humanism although culminated in the “Secular” Enlightenment as the “Age of Reason” and “objective Science.” This is the modern mythology still playing in our society. Those features and the language still exist, and without it, Americans certainly would not have had a basis for Law, the reforms in our Laws and Religious Pluralism. The Christian Right has unfortunately exploited this, and I am providing a serious counter to it by not avoiding Religion, as is the strategy of the Democratic Party.
TRANSHUMANIST BULLSHIT
Americans are always using the terminology and language, but it is not as strong as the first twenty-five years of this country’s history, where the classics felt more part of the culture. In not understanding these roots, even fighting against it as “just White people stuff,” we have relinquished the Humanities in spirit, relegated the past to the contemporary “traditionalist” and larper (far less educated than the founders in their adaptations), contributing to further divisions till we have arrived at the situation we are in currently. The emergence of any genuine new RENAISSANCE will depend on our collective reaction to Artificial Intelligence, not the current political extremities artificially fomented. All citizens of every political inclination must come together to respond to its rise through tech companies, by combating (by all means) and critiquing its use by any aspects of government. This will bring about the true Post-Enlightenment and push us out of our current limited thinking focused on, e.g., the “greatness of Whiteness” — an invention. That legacy is now the legacy of wealthy authoritarian transhumanists with their lies of the inevitable rise of artificial intelligence, which they are contributing to by the Benjamins every day. So, it is not inevitable. The new tech lords are pushing it.
The main reason the government utilizes artificial intelligence technology is for the development of its surveillance-military industrial complex. This is a threat to every citizen. There is no noble use for it. The only noble use in this equation is the noble use of humanity (of the human brain), and I really believe and hope we can bring about an Age of new Human Ingenuity. We can generate new counter-cultural historical bodily and intellectual movement against authoritarian government from any political party among us, as well against materialism, consumerism and artificial intelligence. The Humanities is key to that, and the field I am in (Religious Studies) is key to that.
The American Minervan 
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