Humanism

Laura Loomer (photo: Gage Skidmore)

Is the whole humanistic project shot? During the last election, you may have started to hear angry town halls in red states where democracy itself was questioned. The economy in fact is still the big issue (though the fact of its continuing decline does unleash the irrational element ofTrump's base remaining loyal despite the adverse affect on their pocket books). Democracy was up until recently a source of pride for most Americans. However concepts like "due process" and "inalienable rights" can be sophisticated and hard to grasp. Along with the discountenancing of ideals has come a skepticism about institutions such as universities which by their very nature propose a liberal aka humanistic agenda. How far away the disciplines of english and sociology still less intellectual history appear in this era. The ivory tower, where campus life provided an oasis from the world, has become discredited  Along with the New Deal and The Great Society, which were arguably products of academia, the great ideas of the Enlightenment have been thrown by the wayside. A new Dark Ages looms where knowledge itself is being undermined by quackery, mysticism and unverifiable conspiracy theories (the purge of the NSC propagated by Laura Loomer being the most recent example). Repetition and insistence are the organizing principles of this new tautological reality. 

read "An Incident of Defenestration" by Francis Levy, Vol. 1 Brooklyn