Contempt for reality
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- For criticism see Criticism of Contempt_for_reality
"Contempt for reality" is an intellectual vice that plagues mankind and is especially prevalent among intellectuals and ideologues. Reality is of no consequence for some people and these people seem to think that they are above and beyond reality (i.e. nature/cosmos). It stems from a loss of contact with nature and/or loss of respect for nature.
The opposite of this vice is objectivism or being realists.
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Historical thought and examples
Many of the most influential thinkers of the past 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries displayed this contempt of reality. Rev. Denis Fahey points out the paradigm of this vice when he notes the intellectual current of the past 300 years in European thought:
- "Kant carried out the "Copernican revolution" of making things conform to the human mind instead of the human mind seeking to grasp the objective order of the world". [1]
"Contempt for reality" is the disregarding of the natural law and the Old Order. Humans are not confined by the realities of life but instead are free to make the laws and impose their will. Reality is conformed to what that particular human mind wants it to be. Instead of approaching reality with an open and objective mind, the mental actions of rejection of facts is sign of subjectivism. Underlying the core of this contempt is the lack of humility and tremendous amount of pride.
As the grandfather of both the French Revolution and of Socialism and thus the quintessential ideologue, Jean-Jacques Rousseau exhibited this this contempt of reality that all future ideologues share; he had this to say: "Let us begin by setting aside all the facts, because they do not affect the question." [2] This paradigm is the essence at the core of ideology. Human opinion contradicts reality and must be superior to the facts on the ground.
Emile Boutmy observed in one of his essays the cold mind like Royer-Collard's produced the formula, "I despise Facts". [3] Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn compliments this with, "...Royer-Collard represented the Continental idea---"ideologism" in a more extreme form." Von Kuenhelt-Leddihn backs this up by repeating a famous incident involving Hegel:
- "This recalls Hegel's reaction to a student's observation that the facts contradicted his theory. Hegel looked at the man severely over his spectacles and said, "All the worse for the facts".
Trotski's outlook was no different; he confessed: "The feeling of the pre-eminence of the general over the particular, the law over the facts, the theory over the personal experience, originated in me at an early age and was strengthened with the years." [4]
Sayings
- "Reality bites."
- "Humankind cannot stand too much reality." ~ T.S. Eliot.
- "We are not in the world to give the laws, but...in order to obey the commands of the gods." ~ Plutarch
- "Satan takes learned heads for a ride." ~ Greek proverb? [5]
Occurrences of the phrase "contempt for reality"
- "The ideological contempt for factuality still contained the proud assumption of human mastery over the world; it is, after all, contempt for reality which makes possible changing the world, the erection of the human artiface." [6]
See also
References
- ^ Fahey, Denis, The Rulers of Russia, Omni Publications, 1938 (1986). pg 69.
- ^ Evans, M. Stanton, Faith of our Fathers, "The American Spectator", Feb. 2007. pg 22.
- ^ Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Erik von, Leftism Revisited, pg 325.
- ^ Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Erik von, Leftism Revisited, pg 488 #1150.
- ^ Mazower, Mark, Inside Hitler's Greece, pg 282.
- ^ Arendt, Hannah, Totalitarianism: part three of The Origins of totalitarianism, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1968. pg 156.
