Thursday, April 03, 2008

Sri Aurobindo, even with his Vedic inspiration, would not support any such Natural Social Order

[The essence of democracy, instantiated so perfectly in Bush's neoconservative administration, is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "general will," a "national purpose" that ought to be implemented by an all-powerful state. Voltaire, a rather cleverer Frenchman, said that Rousseau is as to the philosopher as the ape is to man. Still, that ape's idea animated the blood-drenched French and Russian revolutions. And sadly, it wafted over the Atlantic, took root in the republic's soil, and flourished like kudzu.
Over time, this foreign weed began to choke the Founder's Republic. As Felix Morley observed in Freedom and Federalism, earlier Americans were undeniably influenced by Rousseau, harboring a considerable admiration for the manner in which the common democratic will found expression in revolutionary France. The later infestation of Marxist ideas completed Rousseau's work...
Democratic Despotism Daily Article Posted on 9/16/2004 by 4:46 PM]

[The problem, then, is over-centralization – a problem that both India as well as the US suffer from. Powerful central governments make a nonsense out of “democracy” because the democratic ideal is to diffuse power, not concentrate it... Against Centralized Democracy from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik 1:26 PM ]

[The true social science, therefore, proceeds with the rule-following individual and thereafter attempts to derive theorems applicable to the whole. A true science of society must be based on individualism as well as subjectivism: that is, the mind of the thinking, acting human being. Once the individual is understood, then only can we begin to understand the big picture: society... The false social science applies ‘polylogic’ and conjures up conflicts between groups, which are then used to foment strife: fascism, racism, socialism, communism, trade unionism and Keynesianism are all examples of polylogic, false ideas of society based on group-think and aggregation. In reality, the very factual existence of the natural order is proof that the elements co-exist in harmony; and that just as God has made the movements of the celestial spheres harmonious, so also He has made the social world one in which individuals interact harmoniously through market exchanges.
Columns Antidote
A natural social order Newindpress on Sunday Thursday August 16 2007 Sauvik Chakraverti]

[Why should we study the rhetoric of right? Of what importance is it inthe attempt to understand the political world? Understanding the rhetoric of right gives us insight into an old maxim that has regained favor over the past few decades: that to act politically, people must first understand the world.1 Brute facts and bare economic conditions do not provide a sufficient framework for action. They may provide reasons for acting, but crucial questions remain unanswered: How do we act? What is to be done? Where do we start, with which problem? How do we solve problems? How can we be effective? What do we want to achieve? People must first interpret the world in order to know what action to take. Tradition and the Rhetoric of Right: Popular Political Argument in the Aurobindo Movement by David J. Lorenzo 12:08 PM]

"A natural social order" should come to us naturally "just as God has made the movements of the celestial spheres harmonious." If not, it is erroneous to call such theoretical constructs "natural."

Sri Aurobindo, even with his Vedic inspiration, would not support any such Natural Social Order. Not because he is against individual freedom, but because it does not reconcile with his big picture, the ontology. For him even "the celestial spheres" are in "conflict" and "strife" because of evolutionary necessity. [TNM]

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