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Hagel's Helter-Skelter Hegelianism.

Reader comment on item: The Hagelian Dialectic

Submitted by Martin Horan (United Kingdom), Apr 11, 2013 at 21:26

We don't know much about Hagel over here in Britain. Judging by his views it seems he thinks like a Hegelian but gives the impression that he doesn't really know what Hegelianism is.

Over here in Britain that would mean he is a liberal or a member of the Anglican church. Both those groups sometimes seem to believe in everything and at other times seem to believe in nothing and sometimes a mixture of both.

Confused? Never mind, so are the liberals and the Anglicans. The latter don't know if they are Catholic or Protestant and originated in persecuting both groups. Sometimes they sided with the Catholics and sometimes with the Protestants when it suited them with the result that neither side trusted them.

Again that's like the liberals in politics. The British electorate haven't trusted them in about a century. Yet both the Conservative and the Labour parties steal as much liberal "ideas" as they can. Now that's quite astonishing when most of the electorate of Britain continually reject the confused liberal policies.

As the theologian Francis Schaeffer pointed out a couple of decades or so ago: it took Hegelianism longer to catch on the the US than in Europe. Lucky America! At least it once was till it caught up with the rest of us on the east side of the Atlantic.

Nobody seems to notice that Hegel's combination of thesis and antithesis producing synthesis shows that before that can happen--IF it does indeed happen--there would have to exist the absolutes of thesis and antithesis to produce it. And where do they go if it is produced?

Hegel has a lot to answer for by way of the confusion of thought and the abolition of classical logic.

Most political "thinkers" have merely followed Marx's adoption of Hegelianism and probably don't even know they've done so. Hagel seems to be in that bracket. One wonders if those who really do know what Hegelian synthesis is, and go along with it, will realize that thesis and antithesis still exist as their own entities. To ignore them as such is utterly foolish and illogical.

There are plenty of shades of grey. But black and white still exist. They haven't gone anywhere.

It is impossible to get a straight answer from those who act and think as if absolutes no longer exist. Such people will always be changing the widths and heights of the goalposts and ducking and diving when it suits them. In a sense, Hegel was the originator of modern politics and the mentality of Hagel and those who "think" like him.

Submitting....

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Title Commenter Date Thread
Hagel's Helter-Skelter Hegelianism. [432 words]Martin HoranApr 11, 2013 21:26205103

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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