29 April 2012

The Age of Reason Citizen

To be an age of reason, the time in reference must be characterized as a time when people in general are devoted to fact and truth above any other fealty. This doesn't mean that there wouldn't be room for faith and familial devotionquite the opposite, actually.

However, it would indeed preclude societies whose claim to reason is based on the leadership of one or a few persons, or of a particular caste of personsan "elite." That's one reason why I find the Georgia Guide Stones so preposterousin order to drive the dicta they present, there would have to be a caste that dictated to all others.

Thomas Paine coined the term, "age of reason" by writing a book and giving it that name. The book trumpeted values of The Enlightenment, which placed reason above the dictates of what he considered corrupt or corrupted religion, including the so-called "divine right of kings."

In short, the foregoing puts to its end any call for an age of reason that also calls for demagoguery of any kind, a caste system of any kind, an "elite" to rule the "commons."