It is absolutely critical to understand that everybody is a product of their times, and we are all affected by our cultural surroundings. Current philosophies, our education,the environment of the world in which we grow up—all become part of our thoughts and actions. It is extremely difficult, indeed, it’s impossible, even for historians, to fully remove ourselves from our “historical surroundings,” our “zeitgeist,” put ourselves into other time periods, and think like those people thought. Leftists are especially bad in their utter failure to understand this. They judge everybody in history by THEIR current “moral” standards, and unsurprisingly, everybody but THEM comes up short—Columbus, our Founding Fathers, etc. It is a grievous error, but they must do it to accomplish their goals.
So, if we intend to comprehend any time in the pastwe must attempt, as best we can, to put ourselves back into thatperiod and think the way the people of thatage thought. This is crucial in comprehending the rise of modern Leftism.
For most of human history, from the beginning of humanity until near 1800, the world didn't change very much. There were some occasional improvements in various ways, but mostly, people in 1800 lived the way people had always lived all over the world, i.e., mainly by agriculture,hunting, a little trade, a relatively primitive existence. Thus, since the world didn’t change very much, the main human philosophies were based upon that viewpoint—no (or very limited) change. It’s what I call “stasis”—an unchanging world because God doesn't change. Most people throughout human history were believers in a “God” (or “gods”), and the idea was that since God doesn't change, that’s why the world doesn’t/hasn’t changed much. It was almost universal, but certainly dominant in Western Civilization.
Then, in the late 18th century, one of the greatest, most influential movements in human history began—the Industrial Revolution. You and I are products of this revolution, and materially we are certainly far better off than people before. I write these articles in Thailand on a word processor, often at night using electricity, drinking milk from a carton I get out of my refrigerator, send the articles via email to Townhall in America—and a million other such examples—all because of the Industrial Revolution. Such obviously was impossible 250 years ago. Because of this great revolution, the world has changed more in the last 200+ years than in all previous human history combined. It is impossible to quantify, of course, but I think the reader gets the idea. We live in a significantly different world than Abraham, Plato, Jesus, Charlemagne, or anybody before 1800.
Philosophy follows life, not visa-versa. With this humongous change beginning to take place in the 19thcentury, human philosophy began to modify. For thousands of years, we had stasis; now we are seeing change. Why? What explains it?
Thinkers began to cast about for explanations. For example, Hegel came up with his “dialectic.” Comte postulated “positivism.” Herbert Spencer developed an idea of universal evolution, that “change” actually explains everything , that there's nothing absolute, fixed, final—everything is in the process of evolving. There were others,but it was all just theory, human philosophy to explain the “change” now going on, none of it was proven. Just hypotheses.
Until Charles Darwin.
Darwin came along, and in his 1859 book “On theOrigin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,”ostensibly provided scientific proof to this idea of change, or “evolution.” Change—“progress”—DOES explain everything! Science proves it! That has become the accepted, underlying human philosophy ever since, the “zeitgeist” nearly everywhere on earth, and especially in modern Leftist circles. It is Leftism’s crucial, unequivocal foundation. If it falls, Leftism falls. For reasons I shall demonstrate.
Now, it is also vital to remember my first point in this article—all people, including Darwin, are the products of their historical circumstances. Darwin grew up during the rapid growth of the Industrial Revolution, and since he lived during the initial phases of this historical movement of “change,” he was swept up in it. It was becoming the “zeitgeist” of his day, and he couldn’t escape it any more than we can escape ours. Things change. That explains everything.
To our modern world, Darwin gave “change” a “scientific” foundation. But it’s crucial to remember he lived in the 19th century. He was certainly influenced by Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest”concept,buteven more so by Thomas Malthus’s economic laissez-faire ideas of competition. Malthus argued that while human population growsgeometrically, food production only grows arithmetically. Soon, human population will outpacefood production and only the “fittest” will survive—acondition caused by laissez-faire economic competition. Darwin believed that religiously. Critical.
The other great idea of the 19th century that influenced Darwin was “progress.” Darwin was a member of the most favored class of the world’s richest, greatest empire, during a time of relative peace and substantial economic and technical modification. Things will get better and better, “evolve” onward and upward, “progress” to greater human perfection. Man will evolve to more sublime heights of wisdom and strength. Darwin wrote, “Man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is.” “All corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.” That idea has been dominant until recent times when, interestingly, environmentalists have begun to question it. But Darwin, and 19th century England, believed it. His whole scientific theory was historically founded on English “progress,” Malthusian economics, and Industrial Revolutionary change. That’s how he interpreted existence. That was his “zeitgeist.” Historically, it could hardly have been otherwise, because he, like us, proved incapable of rising above it.
Now, how does all of this relate to modern Leftist “progressivism”? Darwinism underlay Marx (Marx said so) who inspired Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Obama, and the Democratic Party. More on this in subsequent articles. Stay tuned.
Subscribe to my substacks: “Mark It Down!”(mklewis929.substack.com), and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com) for Founding Fathers, current events, history, Christian evidences, etc. Both free. Follow me on “X”: @thailandmkl. Read my western novels,Whitewater , River Bend,Return to River Bend, and Allie’s Dilemma all available on Amazon.