Hegelian Dialectics in Live Action

Censorship has been a big problem in America. Decades back the right-wing Evangelicals made sure the FCC kept media language and behavior guidelines in check. And now "Social Justice Warriors" on the left, are making sure Sillicon Valley controls the internet with an iron fist.

I do not believe it's a magical coincidence that both fanatical groups, helped billion dollar corporations establish, and attack competitors who offer an out-of-line alternative .

What is the Hegelian Dialectic?

Well it isn't really Hegel's. It's Johan Fichte's, but I'll go into that on the next section.

The methodical view of the dialectic is simple:

Thesis --> Antithesis --> Synthesis

Problem --> Reaction --> Solution

Pressure from Above and Below (a Marxist activist strategy)

Order out of Chaos

It also appears in a variety of ways:

[Problem] "Youtube radicals" (does not have to be true - in reality it's "competitors".)

[Reaction] Youtube radicalizes young people through video recommendations! (Public outcry, and narrative manipulation, by "journalists").

[Solution] Censor Youtube channels (and we want all the ad money Youtube!)

[Problem] Iraqi government killed babies! (confirmed lie)

[Reaction] Such monsters need to be held accountable! (Will the US Marines save the babies?!)

[Solution] Join Kuwait in the Gulf War (and make money).

[Problem] This Polar Bear is starving, because of Global Warming... (confirmed lie)

[Reaction] Facebook 'shares', cries for action.

[Solution] We'll somehow try to save the environment through NGO programs, so give us your money!

Not entirely Hegel's

German Philosopher Georg Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), is still considered one of the major academics to shape Western thought. Through his study of history, he concluded that civilization progresses in a non-linear way.

According to Hegel, progress is the result of two opposing sides coming into conflict, which then results into a solution of both (Hegel more or less used the term "sublation"). For example; Ancient Greece became complacent in its hedonism, which made it easier for the the militaristic discipline of Persia to conquer it. However Persia's own authoritarianism created issues in its newly expanded territory, which led to its own fall. The result was the Roman Empire - the total of both - the best of both worlds.

However this is an oversimplification, as Hegel's dialectics are ultimately about two in-completions (ie: nations), with particular 'truths' and 'falsehoods' (ie; positive and negative cultural norms) that find eventual resolution (ie: the US as a sovereign country).

Hegel believed the main force behind this was a metaphysical one, known as the "Absolute Idea". Which was becoming more and more aware of itself, as civilization progressed by becoming wiser through the dialectic. The growing self-realization of this entity was manifested through world-changing human conflict.

Individuals who have a higher level of consciousness (Geist, spirit) than the rest, are the main movers of civilization and often responsible for its progress. Napoleon Bonaparte, was one of Hegel's main examples.

To Hegel, this was a law of reality, not a practical method - at least judging by his writings. However Hegel was a political authoritarian, and believed that the population was not educated enough to make political decisions. He was also very close to the Prussian regime.

Johan Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)

Another influential, but lesser known German philosopher, this is the man responsible for the famous Thesis > Antithesis > Synthesis triad model - not Hegel. The model was influenced by Fichte's reading of Hegel, in which Hegel criticized Kant - who was Fichte's mentor.

Ordo ab Chao (Order out of Chaos)

Count De Grasse, a Freemason is often credited for the motto. It is worth noting that it seems to have been instituted in their societies, at least publicly, in 1802; which was around the time that Fichte and others were still active in academia.

There is a very strong argument that Hegel himself was influenced by the ancient writings of Hermes Trismegistus - which spawned the Hermetic traditions, that influenced many like the Kabbalah, alchemy, Freemasonry etc.

As Long Island University Professor of Philosophy, Glenn Magee points out:

"There are, furthermore, numerous Hermetic elements in Hegel’s writings. These include, in broad strokes, a Masonic subtext of “initiation mysticism” in the Phenomenology of Spirit; a Boehmean subtext to the Phenomenology’s famous preface; a Kabbalistic-Boehmean-Lullian influence on the Logic; alchemical-Paracelsian elements in the Philosophy of Nature; an influence of Kabbalistic and Joachimite millennialism on Hegel’s doctrine of Objective Spirit and theory of world history;
alchemical and Rosicrucian images in the Philosophy of Right; an influence of the Hermetic tradition of pansophia on the system as a whole; an endorsement of the Hermetic belief in philosophia perennis; and the use of perennial Hermetic symbolic forms (such as the triangle, the circle, and the square) as structural, architectonic devices."

"Hegel’s library included Hermetic writings by Agrippa, Boehme, Bruno, and Paracelsus. He read widely on Mesmerism, psychic phenomenal dowsing, precognition, and sorcery. He publicly associated himself with known occultists, like Franz von Baader. He structured his philosophy in a manner identical to the Hermetic use of ‘Correspondences!’ He relied on histories of thought that discussed Hermes Trismegistus, Pico della Mirandola, Robert Fludd, and Knorr von Rosenroth alongside Plato, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. He stated in his lectures more than once that the term “speculative” means the same thing as “mystical.” He believed in an “Earth Spirit” and corresponded with colleagues about the nature of magic. He aligned himself, informally, with “Hermetic” societies such as the Freemasons and the Rosicrucians. Even Hegel’s doodles were Hermetic, as we shall see in chapter 3 when I discuss the mysterious “triangle diagram”".

"Hermeticism has influenced such mainstream rationalist thinkers as Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Newton and has played a hitherto unappreciated role in the formation of the central ideas and ambitions of modern philosophy and science, particularly the modern project of the progressive scientific investigation and technological mastery of nature."

"It is surely one of the great ironies of history that the Hermetic ideal of man as magus, achieving total knowledge and wielding Godlike powers to bring the world to perfection, was the prototype of the modern scientist."

(https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/magee.htm)

Later the resulting philosophers known as "the Young Hegelians", pushed a less esoteric interpretation of Hegel into the world.

Marx and Engels

Both philosophers were heavily influenced by Hegel's dialectics, however they dropped all esoteric aspects of it, and replaced it with economics (Dialectical Materialism). With his Conflict Theory, Marx concludes that history is the result of conflict between the social classes.

It was through Marx, and subsequent Marxists, that "praxis" - practical action aimed at change - began to be written about more widely, and used by activists.

This process was also made into the Rogerian Argument, which "is a conflict-solving technique based on seeking common ground instead of polarizing debate". It's a rhetorical treatment technique used by Psychotherapist Carl Rogers.

Academia certainly was influenced by the Hegelians and their methods. No doubt about it. And educated people that have never read Hegel, have probably read Marx, or activist texts at the very least.

"The real action is in the reaction" - Saul Alinsky

SOURCES:

[Philosophy]

Craig, Edward. Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) OUP Oxford (May 16, 2002)

Hegel's Dialectics

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel-dialectics/

Hegel on the Master-Slave relation

http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2014/05/hegel-on-the-master-slave-relation/

The School of Life - "PHILOSOPHY - Hegel"