MAGA isn’t a new argument, but a continuation of a centuries old argument between traditional ideas of knowledge, authority, and society and the brash, exciting, and radical ideas developed during the Scientific Revolution (17th century), the Enlightenment (the 18th century), the Industrial Revolution and Nationalism (the 19th century), and continuing into our own time.
We forget how shockingly radical secularism, liberal democracy, capitalism, urbanization, industrialization, and nationalism were to Western society as a whole, overturning centuries of traditional ways of living.
Some of us never got over it.
And the rest of us still struggle with the accelerated rate of cultural change as well as the dawning recognition that while we might consider ourselves heirs of the Enlightenment, we recognize that the heirs of the Counter-Enlightenment were not wrong when they predicted some of the modern problems it would create.
Resources
Sectional conflict: Regional differences | Period 5: 1844-1877 | AP US History | Khan Academy (8:27)
Some have likened America’s current situation to our nation before the Civil War. This video briefly describes that situation and is a great exercise in “compare and contrast” as that time is both like and unlike our own. Highlights the difficulties of pluralism by showing a cultural collision that ended in catastrophe. In our time, a pitched battle of armies seems unlikely, but - worst case - I can see a future looking like “Bleeding Kansas” or Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” in our future. Can we find unity amidst our diversity?
Can We Learn from the Counter-Enlightenment? Isaiah Berlin did. (21:02)
This video is a deeper dive into the ideological and historical roots of America’s dilemma. Isaiah Berlin was a liberal who nonetheless struggled to engage with the Counter-Enlightenment and confronted its most serious dilemma: there are different cultures have different beliefs regarding what constitutes the good life and the good community that may agree in the value of “fairness” but have very different conceptions of what that actually looks like in a community - and those cannot be resolved through reason. Reasonable people may disagree with each other. E pluribus unum is a tough nut to crack, especially in a nation as geographically large and culturally diverse as our own.