The new synthesis: Communitarianism
© Copyright 2012, T. Stanfill Benns (This text may be downloaded or printed out for private reading, but it may not be uploaded to another Internet site or published, electronically or otherwise, without express written permission from the author.)
There is something to the claim that what progressives are promoting today is neither communism nor socialism precisely. Instead, it is a little-known and complex fusion of various systems, sometimes called communitarianism, but also known as “the Third Way.” Its common ancestor is a system of philosophy known as “Hegelianism.” Hegelianism is named after Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, born in Germany in 1770. Basically Hegel was an evolutionist, believing that nothing actually “is” but only is in the process of perpetually “becoming,” (primitive Modernism). He is best known for his ideas on the philosophia perennis, that “all previous systems of thought — religious, mythological, philosophical — aim at and partially unveil the same doctrine,” the teaching that a grand synthesis of opposing beliefs would culminate in unity and equality,” (“What is the Hegelian Dialectic?,” by Niki Raapana and Nordica Friedrich, http://nord.twu.net/acl/agenda21.html). Some believe that Hegel’s ideas are essentially Hermetic, with Hermeticism (Rosicrucianism, Alchemy, Theosophy, ESP, New Age thinking, Freemasonic beliefs) constituting a middle position between pantheism (that God, an eternal being is somehow one and the same with the world itself, which is of limited duration) and the Judeo-Christian conception of God. This is why his philosophy also is called “the Third Way.”
Hegel invented the notion of dialectic, the term so common to evolving religious and political beliefs first taking center stage in the 1960s during the ecumenical movement. He believed that the only way to “become” was to engage in the expression of one’s thought processes, since these processes infallibly reflected a sort of ingrained wisdom passed on via man’s unconscious from generation to generation. By way of poetic discussion held through written and verbal exchange, Hegel taught that one could reconcile mythology with philosophy and religion to create a “new mythology of reason.” Thus is the perennial philosophy perpetually completed. Thought itself, in other words, “becomes” divine. This process joins all men and all disciplines, then, in a synthesis of experience that would replace the need for religious belief. God is the world and the world is God; we all are bound up in the same absolute knowing because we are Him. (This is related to a concept some also know as secular humanism.) Hegel’s intent in implementing his dialectic was to initiate constant conflict. The conflict created in these discussions resulted in the continual melding of systems and ideas, whether right or left in origin, (syncretism). And this in turn, he believed, would accomplish the ideal spiritualization and perfection of mankind. While this background information may be difficult to digest and appear to many to be irrelevant, this is far from the truth. It is necessary to understand exactly how dialectic has been employed in the formation and perpetuation of communitarianism in order to appreciate how communitarianism relates to so much of what we see today.
In his encyclical Divini Redemptoris, Pope Pus XI places this process in perspective: “According to this doctrine, there is in the world only one reality — matter — the blind forces of which evolve into plant, animal and man. Even human society is nothing but a phenomenon and form of matter, evolving in the same way. By a law of inexorable necessity and through a perpetual conflict of forces matter moves toward the final synthesis of a classless society…Communists claim that the conflict which carries the world towards its final synthesis can be accelerated by man. Hence they endeavor to sharpen the antagonisms which arise between the various classes of society. Thus the class struggle with its consequent violent hate and destruction takes on the aspect of a crusade for the progress of humanity.”
We have been hearing a lot from the left about balance lately and “balance” is one of the catchphrases used by communitarians. These political sectarians believe that the rights of individuals should be attenuated to the rights of the community, creating a “balance” between these two rights. What this often boils down to is not majority rule but rather the representation of a stated majority by a few elitists. These are usually the folks who have the time and money to involve themselves in politics, while everyone else is working hard just to make ends meet. Many communitarians support mandatory volunteer service, so it is not surprising that they believe they have an actual “mission” to transform communities according to communitarian principles. And many of these “volunteers” sit on the commissions, boards and other steering committees which advise or interface with town and county governments. It is not uncommon for counties and towns to even make grants available to such volunteers or the groups they represent to develop advisory and other documents then used as guidelines for the creation of laws and regulations or to fund other projects. And it is the orientation of those laws and regulations that determine whether Americans will be ruled by European Communitarian (international) law or traditional American jurisprudence.
Master Mason Albert Pike’s comments in his “Morals and Dogma” on the role of international law: “Public opinion is an immense force….In free governments, it is omnipotent; and the business of the statesman is to find the means to shape, control and direct it. According as that is done, it is beneficial and conservative, or destructive and ruinous. The public opinion of the civilized world is international law; and it is so great a force though with no certain and fixed boundaries, that it can even constrain the victorious despot to be generous, and aid an oppressed people in its struggle for independence.”
Raapana writes: “Every new law in the U.S. that balances individual rights against ‘Community’ rights is a communitarian law. This definition includes environmental laws that infringe on property rights and the creation of victimless ‘crimes’ (like…mandatory safety laws, helmets, seat belts, etc).” Raapana continues: “Communitarian law is the foundation for international communitarian sustainable development programs under U.N. Local Agenda 21,” (http://nord.twu.net/acl/commlaw.html)… In other words: “Communitarian Law is the new legal system used by regional and local governments affiliated with the emerging global government. This new law circumvents national law via a program of ‘balancing,’ often implemented by a small group of self-appointed elites who achieve consensus (not voting).” Taught as a law system throughout the U.S by universities such as Harvard, also educational institutions worldwide, opponents point out that communitarianism is already being exercised under present state and federal law. This includes the implementation of prevention programs established by Congress, (Violent Crime Act, Domestic Violence Act, Patriot Act, National Intelligence Reform Act, Homeland Security Act, etc. ).
While noise has been made about invoking the sovereignty of states over that of the federal government concerning healthcare and other laws many find objectionable, and even of seceding from the union, this is little more than a pipe dream. Communitarianism has eroded the foundations of state sovereignty to the point that it has established the equivalent of its own code of law, a code that does not embrace the previous definition of a sovereign state. This means that even if such states were to refuse to abide by federal law or to secede, in the name of “sovereignty,” those states with communitarian agendas would only become sovereign communitarian states. Some believe that this problem can be overcome by repealing the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, which many maintain was not in harmony with the intention of the Founding Fathers. It remains to be seen, however, how states that secede from the Union would defend themselves, fund themselves, govern themselves and avoid the many dangers inherent in reorganizing government.
Communitarianism = communism
It is easy to see from what has been described so far that communitarianism tallies perfectly with Communist tactics and teaching as outlined by Pope Pius XI. Hegelian philosophy is all about evolving socially; the system engages others in a “mystical” dialectic process of discussion to initiate the conflict necessary for Communism to establish itself. These dialectics, in turn, wear those engaging in them down and confuses them until eventually they arrive at a conclusion reached through a series of surrenders and compromises. This is a Communist war of words, not battlefields. It is a hidden and deceitful form of mind control known as coercive persuasion, engineered to arrive at the desired result without shedding blood. Those who come out on top in this process go on to become the new missionaries for the cause.
This is how slowly and for decades — almost imperceptibly — the United States was absorbed into the anticipated global community governed by Community (communitarian) Law. Members of the legal community worldwide have worked for years to revise laws of states and regions to conform to Community Law. Yet under the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Criminal Code, communitarian law is not only illegal — it is treason. Why? Because, as Prof. Francis Snyder writes in his “Institutions of the Union and the European Communities,” (Google translation): “Communitarian law…integrates extreme communism with extreme capitalism. It defends the rights of the global ‘collective’ against the rights of the greedy, selfish individuals clinging to their ‘outdated notion’ of independent nations.” In short, then, communitarianism is nothing less than global communism, implemented by dedicated volunteers who agitate ceaselessly for a “communitarian, or communist, system,” (Weekly Worker, Jan. 25, 2001). Is there a way to identify this system at work? According to an article in the Nov. 1998 issue of the Education Reporter, there is.
The Delphi technique
“Using the Delphi Technique to Achieve Consensus” explains how the Hegelian dialectic of “thesis, antithesis synthesis” is set into motion. By the unethical practice of creating tension and friction, change agents or facilitators move two sides towards the middle, making one set of views appear sensible and the other set ridiculous. Eventually this results in a new “thesis,” or melding of views, and the process will be repeated as many times as necessary until the desired result is achieved. “The facilitators or change agents…are hired to direct the meeting to a preset conclusion…to encourage each person in a group to express concerns about the programs, projects, or policies in question. They listen attentively, elicit input from group members, from “task forces,” urge participants to make lists, and in going through these motions, learn about each member of a group. They are trained to identify the “leaders,” the “loud mouths,” the “weak or non-committal members,” and those who are apt to change sides frequently during an argument. “Using the ‘divide and conquer’ principle, they manipulate one opinion against another, making those who are out of step appear ‘ridiculous, unknowledgeable, inarticulate, or dogmatic.’ They attempt to anger certain participants, thereby accelerating tensions. The facilitators are well trained in psychological manipulation. They are able to predict the reactions of each member in a group. Individuals in opposition to the desired policy or program will be shut out.”
“In her book “Educating for the New World Order,” author and educator Beverly Eakman makes numerous references to the need of those in power to preserve the illusion that there is ‘community participation in decision-making processes, while in fact lay citizens are being squeezed out.’” The similarity to recent events in this county and even the use of the same language by those agitating for a new thesis are too obvious to even merit comment. Communitarianism is obviously alive and well. The Delphi technique has been used over and over again to squeeze out the common man and move ever closer to certain individuals’ idea of a global community.
Religion and communitarianism
Communitarianism has a definite religious element, and the teachings of that element are expressed in the “social Gospel” we keep hearing about from the White House. It claims to have its roots in the Old and New Testament, also the Talmud, but its Christian “roots” amount to its promoters’ own interpretation of biblical truths and conclusions drawn from these truths. In reality, it can be traced to a very old system known as syncretism. As early as 1375 B.C., attempts were made to syncretize or “synthesize” pagan religions. During the reign of the Pharaoh Ikhnaton, these religions were absorbed into the worship of the sun god, which then was promoted as a world religion. This was done for political benefit and in conjunction with the promotion of universalism, or world empire. Ikhnaton’s reign of terror in enforcing his new religion earned him hatred and opposition. When Ikhnaton died, so did his forced religious beliefs, which lost Egypt its claim to world domination. Modernists and others teach that the Old Testament is nothing more than a collection of syncretic beliefs, accepted as divinely inspired by the unknowing. Yet Christianity, firmly based in the New Testament, stands outside this debate.
The emperor Amenhotep III or Akhnaton is said to have been the first ancient ruler to propose a one-world religion and government. Curiously it has just been reported that this pharoah’s tomb has been unearthed. In the late Middle Ages, Henry V is said to have aspired to world rule; Machiavelli openly promoted it. Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm, Stalin, Hitler — all had ambitions to first nationalize their own countries then conquer the rest of the world. All their attempts, save perhaps Stalin’s, have failed to produce the desired results. Now a similar attempt is being made once again to amalgamate Judaeo-Christian beliefs into a world religion. Some propose to reduce it to the seven “Noahide” covenant laws found in Gen. 9: 9-12, an earlier version of the 10 commandments that originated with Noah. These laws were officially recognized in a joint resolution of Congress under Pres. George H. Bush in 1991 as “the bedrock of society from the dawn of civilization.” They forbid idolatry, incestuous and adulterous relations, murder, cursing the name of God, theft and eating the flesh of a living animal. In the seventh law, mankind is commanded to establish courts of justice and a just social order to enforce the first six laws and enact any other useful laws or customs. Even the Roman usurpers recently moved towards endorsing these laws as a form of international law, re the seventh Noahide law’s mandate for the creation of a world court. Christians worldwide have observed that since Noah preceded Christ, Christianity could itself become illegal under the third Noahide law: “Do not worship false gods/idols.” This is possible, they say, because Jesus Christ as God post-dated these laws, and neither the Jews nor the Mormons recognize His divinity. If we remember the section above on Cabalism, these Noahide laws predominated precisely at the time when the (false) Cabala held sway — the era of the Patriarchs. It would hurl humanity backwards into the jaws of paganism, magic and witchcraft, there to meet the true god of Masonry: Satan himself.
Some interpret the Jubilee cycle mentioned in the Old Testament, as “the redistribution of wealth, the protection of the earth, and the celebration of community. Out of the nation’s Jubilee revivals come redistribution of churches by force. The urge to socialize the nation or the churches is like Dracula; it keeps rising during the night when the citizens sleep. The solution is to shed light on these communal movements,” (“Jubilee: An Integrated Political Program for Religious Progressives,” by Arthur Waskow. See further commentary on this subject at http://www.piney.com/JubileJewish.html.) “We know of similar Jubilee movements which feel the need to overpower existing churches and restructure them along an Old Testament pattern. At times it means using deceit and force to take over the property to redistribute the wealth in a socialist system,” (Ibid.) What many churches experienced as inexplicable and unwanted change — even hostile takeovers in their churches in the 1960s-70s — can be attributed to the application of this social gospel interpretation of Scripture. Its true roots lie in the teaching of pre-Christian pagan sects, now absorbed into Freemasonry.
In A. Allen Butcher’s “The Six Waves of Communitarianism: A History,” (referenced by Raapana), Butcher explains how communitarianism was introduced by degrees or “waves” following the Protestant Reformation. The third wave officially introduced liberalism and modernism or progressivism to America at the same time that Marx and Lenin were formulating their ideology on communism and socialism. The fourth wave brought FDR’s New Deal. Thirty years later, in the 1960s came the fifth wave, ushering in the peace movement, ecology, [ecumenism] and feminism. The sixth wave arrived in the 1990s with co-housing, eco-villages and various “networks,” as in networking. When Protestantism exploded into numerous sects beginning with the Reformation, this created the anti-thesis to the Catholic Church, which up until that time had held sway. In the 1800s during the second wave of communitarianism, Hegel’s philosophy was put to work in earnest.
Not long afterward, The Social Gospel movement, a Protestant Christian intellectual movement prominent in the late 19th century and early 20th century, entered the scene, (Wikipedia). “The [Social Gospel] movement applied Christian ethics to social problems, especially justice, inequality, liquor, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, child labor, weak labor unions, poor schools, and the danger of war. Social Gospel leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wingof the Progressive Movement and most were theologically liberal, although they were typically conservative when it came to their views on social issues.” This movement gained strength during the Great Depression. During the fifth wave, under the title of ecumenism (added above to Butcher’s list), this grand synthesis among the various churches formally began. By the 1980s, with a slight correction to the right to avoid the appearance of too drastic a change in belief, it was nearly complete. But the final amalgamation of all religions under one Judaeo-Christian umbrella remains to be accomplished. Hegel’s philosophy would not only synthesize Judaeo-Christian beliefs into this new system, but the nature beliefs of the pagans re “God as nature, God as the world itself” into this very same system. This new “balance,” or leveling out of all previous doctrine is keeping pace with the political drive to achieve global government.
All of this takes us back to Hegel’s philosophia perennis. “All previous systems of thought — religious, mythological, philosophical — aim at and partially unveil the same doctrine, the teaching that a grand synthesis of opposing beliefs would culminate in unity and equality,” (“What is the Hegelian Dialectic?,” by Niki Raapana and Nordica Friedrich). This is what those teaching the social gospel and its Old Testament interpretation sought to do. And in its wake the way is being prepared for what some believe to be “a new messiah” to affirm this syncretization.
Conclusion
True to the Masonic method of operation, progressives have succeeded in painting Communism as a caring and kindly master by removing its label and repackaging its content. It reaches back to the ancient origins of Hermetic thought, deeply embedded in the organization’s many cells. It appeals not to the Catholic idea of philosophia perennis, but to the pagan version, yet many believe that somehow the phrase has a Christian interpretation and accept it as such. Pope Pius XII’s teaching on philosophia perennis dispels all misunderstanding on this subject. Philosophia perennis is the living and forever applicable teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, which Pope Pius XII describes as “a teaching in full harmony with divine revelation…singularly effective in establishing with certainty the foundations of faith and for gathering the fruits of true progress,” (as stated in Pius XII’s infallible encyclical “Humani Generis”). In his “The Perennial Philosophy,” address, given at the 4th International Thomistic Conference in Sept. 1955, Pope Pius XII teaches that philosophia perennis “affirms that there exists in a material body a unifying principle which reveals itself more effectively the more one closely examines the inner constitution of the body. Bodies cannot be made of particles each one of which preserves its own individuality and which have been put together to form an aggregate.” Basically what the pope has just said tells us that no one can believe anything that is one iota different from what Christ taught, and the Church has always taught, and maintain that unifying principle. God created the microcosm (souls of each individual fashioned after His own image and likeness). Christ created the macrocosm (setting St. Peter over the Church He founded that was born from the wound made in His side on the Cross). All begins with God and issues from Him; God created us, He sent His Son to save us, and Christ incorporated us into His own Mystical Body. He then sent us the Holy Ghost to teach us all things. Catholics could no more be individualists and believe as they please to be Catholic than the Trinity could be divided.
Yet the present church of Rome and its five antipopes, Roncalli through Ratzinger have championed Hegel’s contention — a union of disparate spiritual entities, that is, ecumenism resulting in the amalgamation of the world’s religions; the syncretism Freemasons have promoted for centuries. Karol Wojtyla (John Paul 2) used the same approach in his first “encyclical” Redemptor Hominis, where he quotes St. Justin completely out of context to proclaim: “The Fathers of the Church rightly saw in the various religions as it were so many reflections of the one truth, ‘seeds of the Word,’ attesting that though the routes taken may be different, there is but one single goal to which the human spirit as expressed in its quest for God…tending towards God.”
Those echoing Hegel fail to mention that everything changed with the fulfillment of the Old Covenant and the birth of Christ. No longer was there any confusion concerning the means necessary to salvation. Nor can St. Justin be pointed to as a supporter of this teaching. And it is the one passage of this Church Father NOT quoted by Hegel’s sympathizers that will bring everything into focus: “The truth which men in all lands have rightly spoken belongs to us Christians…All writers by means of the engrafted seed of the Word planted in them had a dim glimpse of the truth. For the seed of something and its imitation, given in proportion to one’s capacity, is one thing, but the thing itself which is shared and imitated according to His grace is another.” Seeds may die in the ground as many did with Jews and pagans alike. God’s law — the natural law — is written on the hearts of all men, but not all heed it. In order for fruitfulness to transpire, there must be cooperation with grace. The seedling must erupt from the earth of the soul and bear the fruit of good works for faith to exist. This is all the Fathers meant, and it is expressed quite succinctly in all the teachings of the Church throughout the centuries.
Wisdom and the Word have always existed; no one is denying this. But the Word made Flesh makes all the difference in the salvation of those born in A.D. Christianity. “Truths found in other religions” will never be more than just the seed, and then only the seed that never grew.
