How history works, by Jeff Einstein at lewrockwell.com:
Because there’s nothing new under the sun…
The Theocratic Cycle always begins with a liberating ideology…
Turns out that all great social movements, even the most deist and secular, are born in faith and resolve in theocracy. This should come as little or no surprise because we are — at our most essential — religious creatures, hardwired for wonderment and the mystic exploration of human nature and the universe around us. Consequently, each evolutionary social cycle seeks to liberate us from the religious shackles of the past, but ultimately seeks to enslave us by the time it matures and runs its course.
Each new theocratic era follows the same basic sequence: First comes a liberating ideology (or technology) that replaces the existing theocracy. Over time the liberating ideology is institutionalized, and gives rise to a new theocratic regime with new canon and a new class of high priests. Finally comes theocratic tyranny marked by institutional corruption, illiberal incoherence, and chaos: what happens when the prevailing narrative and institutions of the new theocratic regime — religious or secular — are pushed to extreme and begin to break down.
The “antidote” to this seemingly endless affliction has emerged. Unfortunately, owing to resistance to its implication for “morality,” its healing powers remain subservient. Reason continues to be rejected when determining proper morality!
Individual MORAL responsibility politically arose within an unchallenged “collective” view of morality. Collective morality led to collectivism in politics. Collectivism in politics destroys individual responsibility.
We shall not return to individual responsibility until we cast away the idea that we are “our brother’s keeper,” and replace it with a reasoned version that we are to be our brother’s “guardian.” NOT a guardian of his well-being, but guardian of his right and responsibility to/for his own life!
Alas, until such time, faith will, as the author cites, continue to trump Reason – in whatever ugly manifestation!