How Liberals Built Western Civilization

Modern Western Civilization has experienced four waves of liberalism. Each is characterized by its focal ideas. Their intellectual descendants can be recognized by these focal ideas like they are genetic markers. All four waves have had their part in the making of modern Western civilization, for good or ill. Primarily it has been good, but there is ill.

These waves are as follows:

The Renaissance
The Protestant Reformation
The Individual Rights Movement among English Speakers (Puritan Revolt)
The French Revolution

Some of these may not seem like “liberalism,” but at the time they were. Each was a major change and each has influence to current times.

Here are the key ideas of each wave…

The Renaissance was the founding event of modern Western Civilization. It’s key idea is not art or literature as typical history books claim. The key idea is that the truth about the observable world is discovered by observing it. That is, data rules, not authorities. Truth is determined by observation and experiment. Experts may be right, but the final arbiter is observed data. And anybody can observe. This is not something only for the elite. Everyone can learn the truth from observation of what happens. This is the basis of technological advancement. And technological advancement is the basis of modern Western Civilization and its strength.

The second wave of liberalism was the Protestant Revolt or Protestant Reformation. This rose out of the first wave. Note that the first wave rejected authority as the final arbiter of truth in the observable world. Extend that to the spiritual world. Note that the first wave went to the original source of fact. As spiritual truth was understood in 1400, the original source was the founding fathers of Christianity, the Christian Apostles and also the Jewish Prophets and Patriarchs. That is, the Bible was all that they had that was solid and observable to represent them, their very own writings. And anybody coud read it.

St. Paul in his epistles was the main source, especially the New Testament Epistle to the Romans. He said that salvation was a gift from the Savior to the individual, who could get it only by freely choosing to accept it. Salvation was not something bestowed by the Church Body upon the Congregational Body. Salvation was arrived at by a free will decision of an individual to believe in the Savior and to choose to accept his salvation.

The third wave of liberalism was the Individual Rights Movement. This movement took place over several hundred years (as did the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation). And it was largely confined to the English speaking world, at least the successful part of it. So it is not usually recognized as an global historical event. It was not global, but its influence was wide. Among the historical events involved are Scotland’s rejection of their Queen Mary, the Puritan Revolution in England, the unsuccessful revolt against James II in England by the Duke of Monmouth, the successful revolt against James II known as the “Glorious Revolution,” and the American Revolution. Yes, strange as it may seem to many people, the Puritans were liberals. In fact, English Puritanism and Scotch John Knox Presbyterianism is the origin of almost all of the ideas that we now think of as liberal. These are the ideas in the United States Bill of Rights. If an individual can choose salvation, then he can choose what to think, say, write, print. He can choose who to associate with. He cannot be compelled to confess to some crime and he cannot be held prisoner without a lawful accusation. And so on. These ideas were largely originated by Puritans, including the right to bear arms.

The final stage of the Individual Rights Movement wave was the American Revolution. This was an inspiration for the fourth wave, the French Revolution. But the French Revolution was different. It was a social class and an economic class revolt. This liberal wave is obsessed with class distinctions. Upper class is bad, lower class is good. To be rich is evil, to be of the Proletariat is to be a hero. The power of the Oppressor can only be beaten if the Oppressed unite together as one totally. The Oppressor is anyone not in the lower class, anyone with money (even the lower middle class). And those who support the Oppressor are also Oppressors. This latter includes the military and the Church. Originally the “Church” was the Catholic Church, which supported the King, the Nobility, and the established order. But eventually it came to be any Christian denomination convenient, and sometimes any religion. This wave can be recognized and separated from the Individual Rights Movement by these characteristics: obsession with class and distinct hostility towards wealth, military, and religion.

The heirs of the Renaissance are Scientists, Engineers, and Technologists. The heirs of the Protestant Reformation are Evangelical Christians, the “Religious Right.” The heirs of the Individual Rights Movement are pretty much the English Speaking World, but particularly the United States: most American conservatives and many American liberals. The heirs of the French Revolution are diverse but include notably European liberals, Third World liberals, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, Nazis, Baathists, Peronists, and the American far left (about 25% of the adult population).

It may seem strange to lump the Fascists and Nazis in with the “left,” but they are intellectual siblings of the left. I will elaborate on this item and all of this when I have more time.