Soren Sorely Sought Solidarity

But, there is nothing new under the sun.

Recently reading Soren Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” has got me thinking about postmodernism, truth and reality and why we seem to have such trouble defining them. Soren wasn’t too well liked in his day, maybe because like any good philosopher he questioned a lot of popular premises, but like a child reacting to a parent’s heavy hand, he utilized the premise he criticized.

In his preface to “ Fear and Trembling,” Soren seems to be frustrated with “the new generation” for beginning where every other generation ended up. (Most ancients began doubting and questioning after lives of self deprivation, study and seeking wisdom, whereas his peers began doubting and questioning without enduring the proper steps as did their elders. )Though building on another’s framework seems to be highly celebrated in business, politics, industry and family wealth, Soren keenly pointed out that there is then something lost in the sincerity of that henceforth achieved.

Privilege of doubting without the struggle of searching promotes devaluation of wisdom which turns healthy reverence into sinister criticism and careless dismissal much like Prince Charles and Harry expend the popularity of their envied lineage. Unfortunately, Soren himself popularized the same sort of trend with more dangerous tools than misplaced criticism or reckless squandering.......

Those are the tools of faith and fact, placed on the potter’s wheel of existentialism and postmodernism as effectually as Soren retold the story of Abraham and Isaac. Soren recapitulated the philosophy he criticized but more dangerously cloaked in the guise of reform. Most commonly known as a “fresh look,” a “fresh gospel,” or “a different light,” but “what happened to the days of John Adams when facts were known as “stubborn things?” Facts are stubborn things yet, for though we have left behind fact in pursuit of fiction and fantastic illusions of life, facts will stubbornly return to our reality or the reality of our children with the jealousy of a woman scorned, and we will not be able to ignore them.

This will be well illustrated in the current financial crisis. For while philosophies devoid of fact, and banknotes devoid of currency flirt with speculation, possibility, and human nature, the deficit of these are more patiently waiting their eager and painful revenge. Because like hard cash, facts cannot be at their core manipulated or corrupted. They can be temporarily inflated, uselessly tossed about, or denied, but there is a fortunate, created order that will set all things back in motion as they should be, and mankind will once more have a chance to seek Soren’s solidarity.