The Right Side of History?
During debates, the left regurgitates an erroneous trope to counter and quell arguments their radical policies are disastrous: “You are on the wrong side of history.” The corollary being, naturally enough, that the left is on the right side of history. Are they?
Built into the left’s non-sequitur riposte are patently false assumptions that need to be exposed and refuted, lest the trope continue to confound and confuse honest debaters in the public square.
The first false assumption is that history is a force determinative of individual behavior. History is the cumulation of individuals’ freely made decisions. Thus, history is the effect not the cause of these decisions. Such historical determinism denies the individual’s free will and renders them little but flotsam upon the inexorable tide of history.
Of course, proclaiming it is championing “democracy,” the left will disingenuously counter how they believe it is this cumulative effect of individual decisions they are talking about when discussing history. But their “democracy” is composed of those already in the thrall of the expected outcome of these allegedly inexorable historical forces, and these self-professed visionaries’ mission is to impose their mystical prognostication upon those vainly swimming against the tide of “history.” Indeed, by making the imperatives of a preconceived arc of history the culprit, the individual leftist feels not only excused for the questionable means by which they pursue their aims to control others, they consider themselves justified in doing so. It is a major reason why totalitarian leftist “utopias,” such as North Korea, often call themselves “democratic” and/or republics with a straight, unsmiling face. To do so is to deliberately conflate the dictates of ideology with the forces of history.
The reason stems from the second false assumption of historical determinism: history is linear and “progressive.” History itself disproves the point, be it glancing as far into the past as the decline and fall of the Athenian City-State and the Roman Republic or as recently as the French Revolution or the later rise of fascism and communism. Of course, the supporters of fascism and communism claimed their ideology was the unstoppable “wave of the future”—until it wasn’t, and hundreds of millions of innocents were killed by these twin evils.
Aware of its historical track record, proponents of historical determinism have recently co-opted a statement by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” But, as Randy Patrick noted in the WinCity Voice, secular progressives miss the point.
In his March 31, 1968 sermon Dr. King was quoting another clergyman, Unitarian Minister Theodore Parker, who wrote the words in 1810. Rev. Parker also humbly added the following: “I do not pretend to understand the universe. The arc is a long one, and my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
It was not the first time Dr. King quoted Rev. Parker. Ten years earlier, Dr. King put the statement in its proper context:
Those of us who call on the name of Jesus Christ find something at the center of our faith which forever reminds us that God is on the side of truth and justice,” [Dr. King] wrote in a Christian newsletter 10 years before his speech at the cathedral. “Good Friday may occupy the throne for a day, but ultimately it must give way to the triumphant beat of the drums of Easter. Evil may so shape events that Caesar will occupy a palace and Christ a cross, but that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D. and B.C… so that even the life of Caesar must be dated by his name. Yes, the ‘arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’
It is not historical determinism and its inexorable forces compelling human beings toward justice, let alone ensure it transpires in a linear manner. It is God.
Whether compelled by the supposed forces of history or by following their own reason alone, humanity remains imperfectible. Consequently, the ideologies purporting historical forces and/or human reason that can perfect humanity and lead to an Edenic future have resulted not in better tomorrows, but in reeducation camps and killing fields.
God is and ever will be the eternal moral arc of the universe. It is God calling each human being to honor Him; and heed His eternal command to treat others as they, themselves, wish to be treated. Thus does the God inspire every hardened human heart to bend to His justice.
When and how God inspires His creation toward justice is beyond human understanding. And, those who tell you they know the shape and outcome of “history” are charlatans with an ideological agenda that will result in a host of dictates and impositions, but none will result in the Golden Rule.
Heedless, the secular left continually contends it is on the “right side of history.”
Better to be on the right side of God.
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