Summary of text [comment] page 72

[In the amusing (yet horrifying) parodies of Christianity that constitute today’s religions of Progressive television, the artistic depiction of unreal agape (as well as unreal eros) has reached spectacular heights.

When one watches any mainstream media newscast, one sees the vilification of innocent people. They are labeled think^anti-object and conscience^anti-object. They are the scapegoats.]

[By the 2010s, the word ‘sin’ was replaced by ‘anti-object’ terms. These anti-object epithets are drained of traditional meaning. They are fully compliant with Progressive ideologies. They are not descriptions. They are political accusations. They are think^anti-object.

Over the past 50 years, the old wineskins of familiar words have been emptied. The old wineskins have been filled with new definitions, powerful concoctions of ‘anti-knowledge’.

Orwell was right on this one.

Our language has been redefined.

The old wineskins are about to burst.]

[Over the half century, language change has been significant.

Schoonenberg, who published his book in 1962, must have witnessed the postreligious manipulation of the Dutch language in his home in Europe. His book aimed to find a new appreciation of the term ‘sin’ (especially the term ‘original sin’).

Karl Menninger’s book (published in 1973 and reviewed in prior blogs) demonstrates that the word ‘sin’ was successfully marginalized by the end of the 1960s.

By the 1990s, the word ‘sin’ was so marginalized that Ted Peters’ book (published in 1994) focused on Satanic Cults within the New Age Movement.]

[Comments on Alexander Dugin’s (2012) The Fourth Political Theory notes the coincidence between the turn towards postmodern language games and the establishment of a postreligious sovereign religion.]

[How did this come to be?

In America, the symbolic order began turning in the 1950s. It attained temporary stability in the 1960s. The language (as system of differences) remained weirdly jelled until the 2000s.

Many circumstances contributed to this stasis.

A demographic condition played a role. The so-called boomers born in the late 1940s and all the 1950s dominated discourse for many years.

An institutional condition may have also played a role in the the temporary stability. State-subsidized university systems promoted conformity in language use.

The state universities then set the stage for the postmodern conversion of discourse into a language game during the decades since the 1960s.]

[In brief, Progressive ‘freedom’ reduces the human to less than an image of God.

‘Progressive freedom’ is ‘unreal freedom’, just as ‘Progressive agape’ is ‘unreal fraternity’ and ‘Progressive equality’ is ‘unreal equality’.

Progressives express the unreality of love.]

[Look how the word ‘free’ has turned on the wheel of a changing symbolic order.

What happened to the ‘free eros’ acclaimed in the 1960s?

The word ‘free’ no longer implies ‘independence, responsibility, personhood, and grace’. It suggests ‘without cost to the user’.

‘Free eros’ became sex without commitment.

‘Free agape’ fared no different. ‘Free healthcare’ exemplifies ‘free agape’.

The original meaning underlying the word ‘freedom’ gave the slogans ‘free love’ (eros) and ‘free healthcare’ (agape) a real (though diminishing) association to independence, responsibility, personhood and grace.

Now, 50 years later, Schoonenberg’s assertions ring true.

‘Free love’ sounds like ‘the procreative acts of animals, without the procreation, of course.’

‘Free healthcare’ sounds like ‘standing in line to redeem a government coupon’.]