Saturday, January 22, 2005
A Geek's Joy
Peggy Noonan had a negative reaction to the President's speech. She is worried that his attempt to rid the world of tyranny is overly ambitious because "Again, this is not heaven, it's earth. . . ."
Her words are a rephrasing of an old school conservative saying coined by the Political Philosopher Eric Voegelin. Voegelin believed utopians made the error of trying to force utopia, or the glory of heaven foretold in the Book of Revelations, onto our imperfect world. He believed that only tragedy could follow this attempt at the obviously impossible. Subsequently, I have spent the last few years trying to work these words into an argument:
Don't immanentize the eschaton.
Her words are a rephrasing of an old school conservative saying coined by the Political Philosopher Eric Voegelin. Voegelin believed utopians made the error of trying to force utopia, or the glory of heaven foretold in the Book of Revelations, onto our imperfect world. He believed that only tragedy could follow this attempt at the obviously impossible. Subsequently, I have spent the last few years trying to work these words into an argument:
Don't immanentize the eschaton.
