The real fruit of the "Age of Enlightenment"

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Nov 30, 2018 at 14:09

Jim,

The "Age of Enlightenment" developed politically, as the most expansive era of British, French, Dutch, Belgian, German, Italian and Japanese colonialism. It was also marked by the "Reign of Terror" in France, and the Napoleonic and German conquests of Europe. In the US, it was marked by the rise of the American Republic; as well as by the massive importation of slave laborers, the US Civil War and the consequent Jim Crow laws (enacted by Democrats). Religiously, it was marked by the great overseas mission movements from places like Germany, Denmark, the UK and the US, and of the greatest Christian revival movements of all time. For the Jews, it meant the partition of Poland, the pogroms, the Dreyfus affair and the Holocaust.

The "Age of Enlightenment" is spoken of as the time of 18th century utopian philosophers; but the reality it created unfolded over the next 200 years. A tree is known by its fruit; and this is the fruit. I wonder which of the elements of this unfolding, today's leftists are wanting to take ownership of.

For the sake of reference, the "Enlightenment" pretty much ended at Hiroshima. We are now in the Nuclear Age -- generated by raw power, not utopian ideals; and what the leftists call "enlightenment" is more appropriately described as "delusion".

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