Editorial Note
This essay argues that the Enlightenment, long celebrated as humanity’s great emancipation, was never an arrival but a passage—one that lost its way by enthroning reason while exiling meaning. What followed was not illumination but exhaustion: a civilization armed with unprecedented power yet increasingly unable to distinguish truth from illusion, freedom from domination, or progress from self-destruction. By reading unreason, superstition, techno-scientism, and modern tyranny as symptoms rather than aberrations, the essay invites a deeper reckoning with the civilizational impasse of our time—and raises the unsettling question of whether a culture that severed itself from transcendence can still generate moral and intellectual light.
Part I — Enlightenment
For the last three centuries the West has been living with an illusion of Enlightenment. Writing in 1784, when Sapere Aude! appeared to many as the most fashionable motto to celebrate reason triumphant, Kant was well aware that his was an Age of Enlightenment and not an ‘Enlightened Age’ (Kant 1784). Enthused with the general optimism of the time as he was, he saw – in the alluring freedom under Frederick, obstacles to Enlightenment ‘gradually diminishing’, shackles of ‘self-imposed immaturity’ finally being broken and above all, a clear assurance for mankind to rise above barbarism. For Kant and other philosophes of his ilk Enlightenment was a meta-narrative where rational thinking was destined to produce a new civilizational utopia.
Hence onward, in the succeeding centuries, the struggle to create an entirely Man-centred world intensified. Initially it appeared that a new alternative world was possible. The birth of democracy in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the discovery of more continents than those mentioned in the Bible, the replacement of the biblical static view of the earth-centred universe with a yet evolving view about the cosmos and above all, rapid inventions and industrialization empowered Man with an unflinching confidence in himself (Hobsbawm 1962).
This optimism however was short-lived. The latter half of the nineteenth century was marred by scepticism of all kinds; as deism finally evolved into atheism and the intellectual landscape became ripe for such future isms as nihilism, structuralism and existentialism. With the horrors of two world wars and Nazi experimentations at Auschwitz, faith in Man’s goodness further deteriorated (Arendt 1951).
Today at the dawn of the twenty-first century, when the Bush Administration has thrown upon us the ‘war on terror’ as a new meta-narrative, we are faced with an Enlightenment winter. Is a new dark age descending on us? Who is really turning the light off?
The Enlightenment narrative as it evolved in Europe was inherently a flawed concept. By sending God to a perpetual exile, Man had overburdened himself. As he rejected myths or accumulated wisdom, he could only feel isolated, finding virtually nothing to hold on to. In a universe where the Creator had left after creating it, as most of the first-generation Enlightenment thinkers believed, it was too heavy a burden for man to find meaning (Taylor 1989).
Despite so much credit to Enlightenment—which created a whole new world around us and radically altered the Western worldview forever—intellectual challenges always left a void. It was as if man was pitted against an infinite cosmos. Probably, it was too much for Man.
Nietzsche toyed with the idea of a super-man and by doing so he fell prey to the same age-old myth of a super-human messiah. Unlike the biblical messiah, Nietzsche’s Übermensch was not to descend from the sky; it had to be created right here on this earth (Nietzsche 1883). But both propositions made at least one thing clear: that man was no match for the enormity of the problem.
When René Descartes came up with the proclamation cogito ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am”—he was sounding a paradigm shift; hence onward man rather than God had to be the focal point around which everything would revolve, and human reason had to serve as the foundation of future knowledge (Descartes 1641). This coronation of man as the chief deity, once lauded as Enlightenment’s major achievement, later became its bane.
As man became the locus of this new civilization, human perception was now reduced to a mere cluster of a priori and a posteriori, leaving no room at all for any revelatory wisdom (Kant 1781). Instead of an omnipotent God, everything had to centre on Man, who was the ultimate yardstick. Thus the new religious sensibility was termed Humanism, and the new polity was canonised as democracy.
But Man was no fixed or standardised canon. Any polity built on him was doomed to be vulnerable. Democracy never delivered what it promised. It always remained fragile and shaky; at times justifying colonialism, genocide, and even weapons of mass destruction and nuclear annihilation (Bauman 1989).
Worse still, in a post-modern world that saw meta-narratives rendered virtually redundant—leaving us with no valid myth to cling to—the very being of Man perished and the new barbarians were born (Lyotard 1979). The death of God eventually led to the death of Man.
And it is against this background that the difference between democracy and fascism, traditionally taken as two opposite poles, faded. Democracy has often resulted in plutocracy, dynastic rule, military dictatorship and even fascism, which in turn revert to democracy (Michels 1911). In essence, are they not all celebrations of Man?
Part II — Unreason
The Enlightenment fathers intended to salvage us from what they perceived as ‘self-imposed immaturity’. Man was supposed to take his affairs into his own hands independent of a master, guru or clergy (Kant 1784). This exercise in intellectual empowerment however has been a grand failure as we see today biologically grown-up men and women look for professional healers and snake-oil vendors.
Modern snake-charmers style themselves as life-style gurus, be-happy consultants, parenting coaches, makeover guides, spiritual healers and mentors. They are the new shuyukh or spiritual seers of our Age of Unreason. They invade almost every aspect of our life telling us how to see, how to think, and even how to feel. From art of dressing to reading a book and from meeting a friend to casting a spell on your beloved, they claim to have a ready solution. They teach us the ‘art of living’. Yes, for them, it is an art of living on our vulnerability, as the New Age gurus have amassed huge wealth and this farce has now developed into a multi-billion industry (Heelas 1996).
For example, in the US, Deepak Chopra’s annual revenue crosses $20 million (Chopra 1993), and in the UK, the female feminist guru Gina Akers charges as much as £2,000 for a consultation (Bruce 2002). Then we have high-profile Kabala centres with celebrities like Madonna, Elizabeth Taylor, Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and Demi Moore as their clients. They believe that Kabala water can cure diseases and wearing a Kabala bracelet can seal in all the positive energy and ward off negative vibes or the evil eye (Myers 2004).
Hollywood stars alone are not to be blamed for their obsession with unreason. We have otherwise sophisticated policy makers and even heads of powerful governments who wait for the nod of their spiritual seers. Former US President Ronald Reagan’s reliance on astrology is well known. His official diaries were arranged and rearranged as per the advice of his astrologer (Quigley 1990). It is on record that at the time of the Geneva Summit in 1985 he asked his astrologer Joan Quigley to check the star-chart of Gorbachev to anticipate his likely behaviour (Reagan 1989).
The Clintons too never felt shy of their frequent hooking up with self-help gurus. President Clinton’s brainstorming sessions with Hollywood mystic Marianne Williamson and management guru Anthony Robbins and Stephen Covey are no secret (Marquand 2004). Hillary was especially known for her heavy reliance on Jean Houston who styled herself as ‘sacred psychologist’ (Houston 1996).
Then we have Tony and Cherie Blair who underwent a rebirthing ritual in 2001 during a Mexican holiday. As they undertook a perfumed mud-bath smearing papaya and watermelons on each other, they were expecting the birth of a ‘new you’—a popular claim of New Age healers (Brown 2001).
In India, the traditional abode of god-men, it is a routine that ridiculous beliefs become a matter of concern. Some years ago, the situation took an interesting turn when soothsayers suggested that outgoing Prime Minister Narasimha Rao vacate his official residence on 10 June while it was supposed to be auspicious for the new prime minister to move in on the 6th. Superstition dictated that both of them share the same residence to avoid evil influence (Nanda 2003).
Esoteric sciences that were rejected even in the Middle Ages by sensible individuals are now marketed as holistic, alternative, spiritual healing, rebirthing, etc., and there is no dearth of gullible individuals ever willing to buy them.
When reason dims, unreason takes over—and that is the beginning of a catastrophe. Today anything goes in the name of New Age metaphysics: from occult to Wicca, from witchcraft to Satanism, and from animism of all sorts to the debunked paganism of the ancient past (Hanegraaff 1996).
Can we ignore the historical fact that the Nazis were also a product of occult and unreason? They frequently held occult rituals at Wewelsburg Castle—the centre of the Knights of the SS—and believed in the supremacy of the Aryan race, which according to their belief fled Atlantis when the third moon crashed. They even launched a search for Atlantis and the Holy Grail (Goodrick-Clarke 1985).
Like Nazis of the past, the New Age healers are also tech-savvy and can successfully mix myths with technology to create disasters. Shoko Asahara experimented with his vision of salvation by introducing poisonous gas into a Tokyo subway (Kaplan 1996), and Marshall Applewhite, leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult, was successful in sending a couple of dozen of his followers on a trip aboard the Hale–Bopp comet (Zeller 2014).
And very recently, President Bush’s unfounded belief in his chosenness—as one who has been assigned to promote democracy and freedom—has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of innocent lives in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places (Woodward 2004). Are we amidst a catastrophe, or is it just the beginning?
Carl Sagan has an insider’s insight:
“I have foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time … when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost their ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness’. (The Demon-Haunted Worlds)
Part III — Superstition
Unreason begets superstition. Not long before, in 1995, India—which styles herself as the superpower in waiting—was taken over by a wild frenzy of the milk miracle. Sensible and educated individuals thronged to nearby temples to witness the drinking of milk by clay idols. Rationalists and scientists had to debate long hours on electronic media to expose this farce (Nanda 2003).
In Hyderabad, the cyber city of twenty-first-century India, when there was a solar eclipse people were looking for safe confines. Pregnant women were tense and, according to some newspaper reports (The Hindu), some grandmothers even prevented them from scratching their bodies lest the newborn develop scars (The Hindu 1999).
That superstition is on the rise the world over can also be gauged by the increasing popularity of horoscope pages in the print media. Newspapers publish horoscopes which have no religious or scientific rationale, yet according to a 1984 Gallup Poll, 55 per cent of American teenagers believe in astrology (Gallup 1984).
Officially, both Christianity and Judaism have an aversion to astrology. Moses Maimonides considered it “a disease, not a science” (Maimonides 1963), and for Martin Luther “astrology is framed by the devil” (Luther 1530). Despite the Judeo-Christian tradition’s strong stance, astrological publications and gurus thrive on people’s gullibility.
To ward off the effects of the evil eye, there has come up a world-class industry in Istanbul which specialises in finely made crystal amulets. The evil-eye amulet has a global market, as it is probably the most popular superstition. The Arabs call it ʿayn, and in modern Europe and America a person who looks run down is generally taken as “over-looked,” wished or ill-wished (Dundes 1992).
In America it is not unusual to find someone who believes that breaking a mirror can bring bad luck or even death in a family. And it is no secret that American sailors still avoid whistling aboard ship lest it raise a whistling wind. They say: “whistling girls and crowing hens / always come to some bad ends.”
Some superstitions that were successfully wrapped up some time ago have made a comeback. For example, Reform Judaism had long abandoned ancient practices such as having a mezuzah at the doorpost or breaking glass at a wedding. The new generation of Reform rabbis is not just reintroducing such practices; they even justify them as another way of dealing with anxieties (Jacobs 2004).
When it comes to the number 13, the notion of a civilised West evaporates. In Florence, for example, houses between 12 and 14 bear 12½, and the Italian national lottery purposely avoids the number 13 on its tickets. In modern metropolises, high-rise buildings—especially hotels and hospitals—skip the thirteenth floor. Aeroplanes have no thirteenth aisle, and some airports skip Gate 13.
Some even believe that having thirteen letters in one’s name can be disastrous, or at least a source of intriguing troubles. There are specialised gurus who tell us how to adjust the spelling of our names to avoid the evil effects of number 13 (Vyse 1997).
Part IV — Tyranny
With the transformation of democracy into plutocracy, tyrants are back to business. In recent years, following the American occupation of Iraq, anti-war demonstrations in Western capitals made at least one thing clear: that the ruling elite do not represent the will of the people (Chomsky 2003).
Recently, in Gujarat (India), the electoral victory of Modi despite international condemnation for his state-orchestrated pogrom in 2002 has questioned the very efficacy of the system long held as a civilised means for political change (Human Rights Watch 2002). In the West there is a general feeling that the golden age of democracy is over and that elections now function merely as a camouflage for a system that increasingly shrouds itself in secrecy (Wolin 2008).
Today there are some 700 U.S. military bases across the globe, and no one exactly knows what goes on in these camps or what the precise terms of agreements with host governments are (Johnson 2004). In countries that claim to be nuclear powers, citizens have little knowledge of the number of nuclear warheads in stock, nor of the scale of biological and chemical weapons programs. In the wake of 9/11, many governments passed draconian laws—such as the U.S. Patriot Act and the UK Anti-Terrorism Act—which further strengthened the culture of secrecy (Cole and Dempsey 2002).
Things have come to such a pass that in 2006 the U.S. Congress appropriated funds for the construction of detention facilities on American soil, widely interpreted by critics as preparations for large-scale internment (Scahill 2007).
In the United States, the slide from freedom to tyranny has not gone unnoticed. Yet neither opposition parties nor public opinion appear to have any meaningful role in a system that increasingly displays an air of arrogance: truth be damned. This plutocratic culture has allowed successive U.S. presidents to erode what once was termed the American Dream. Abraham Lincoln, otherwise known for his democratising rhetoric, significantly curtailed freedom of the press during wartime (McPherson 1988). Woodrow Wilson was harsh on war critics, and Franklin D. Roosevelt interned American citizens of Japanese origin (Daniels 1993). George W. Bush effectively hollowed out the Bill of Rights in the name of national security (Dworkin 2006).
Dick Cheney—whom former CIA Director Stansfield Turner labelled the “vice-president for torture”—resolved the ethical dilemma of torture decisively in favour of expediency (Turner 2008). In the backdrop of the documented abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, The New York Times reported:
“This week, Vice President Dick Cheney proposed a novel solution for the moral and legal problems raised by the use of American soldiers to abuse prisoners and the practice of turning captives over to governments willing to act as proxies in doing the torturing. Mr. Cheney wants to make it legal for the Central Intelligence Agency to do this wet work.” (New York Times, Editorial, October 26, 2005)
Part V — The Siege-Mind
That religion is on the rise and God is back in fashion are only illusory if we look at what goes on behind this spiritual smokescreen. We still live in a spiritually barren wasteland where the devil rather than God appears to be shaping our destiny; yet TV evangelists, through their digital blitz—live telecasts of carefully choreographed church rituals, impressive Catholic liturgies, and round-the-clock religious channels—create the impression that the Age of Faith has returned (Roof 1999).
Televangelists such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and R. Albert Mohler preach the inerrancy of the Bible, either unaware of—or willfully ignoring—two centuries of biblical criticism (Barr 1984). Some even claim direct communication with God and promise deliverance from suffering through their “holy solutions,” evoking a return to an age when paying tithe was believed to remove ancestral curses and demonic afflictions (Armstrong 2000).
What we are witnessing is not a spiritual revival but religious faddism and spiritual bankruptcy of the worst kind. Instead of the ethical depth of the Gospel, neo-Christian culture is increasingly obsessed with Bible codes, dream interpretations, occult wisdom, aura-reading, and Nostradamus. Religious bookstores are crowded with sensationalist titles describing encounters with demons and angels moving not left to right but bottom to top—serious books marketed to adults, not children’s fantasy (Hanegraaff 1997).
Desperate seekers now turn to the Bible as a form of alternative medicine. The craze for esoteric solutions is steadily expanding. Recently, Mark Bubeck’s Spiritual Warfare Basics—a deeply disturbing guide—advises believers to pray that God search their sexual organs, blood, bones, hair, skin, and even cells for demonic activity (Bubeck 1990). Such practices have little connection to biblical theology, yet they enjoy a thriving market among the religiously anxious.
While claims of divine visions may have diminished in the Muslim East, they are on the rise in the modern West. Kathryn Riss is one such poetic visionary who claims to have received the following song directly from “the Lord”:
If you feel too serious and kind of blue
I’ve got a suggestion, just the thing for you!
It’s a little unconventional, but so much more fun,
That you won’t even mind when people think you’re dumb!
Just come to the party God is throwing right now,
We can all lighten up and show the pagans how
Christians have more fun and keep everyone guessing,
Since the Holy Ghost sent us the Toronto Blessing!
(Hanegraaff 1997, 245–46)
Dare one question this siege-mind religiosity? Contemporary Western culture presents a paradoxical mix of inquisitional mentality and indifferent self-abstention. The once-prized habit of radical doubt—central to the post-Enlightenment Western mind—has been eroded by a postmodern faith that prefers to manufacture its own reality (Taylor 2007).
The triumph of neo-conservative inquisitionalism has created an atmosphere of fear in which rational debate is suppressed. In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush sounded distinctly inquisitional:
“Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids, and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos.” (Bush 2006)
Such pronouncements evoke an unsettling return to the age when ecclesiastical authority condemned Galileo.
Those who oppose this inquisitional mindset and advocate a purely techno-scientific rationalism are equally culpable in elevating science to the status of deity. Their ambitions—genetic purification, behavioural prediction through DNA, near-death brain mapping, and neuroscientific glimpses into the afterlife—represent another form of absolutism (Habermas 2003).
Whether humanity will succeed in engineering flawless supermen remains uncertain. If, as proponents of the Special Theory of Relativity suggest, the universe is four-dimensional and the future already exists, then history collapses into a closed circle. Nothing fundamentally new can occur. We are driven back to the ancient theological impasse between free will and determinism.
Such irresponsible scientism cannot rescue humanity from the abyss into which it has descended. Nor can Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida, or postmodernism offer lasting shelter. Reason must be re-engaged, mystery must not become a euphemism for obscurity, and meaning must neither be imposed nor erased. Yet none of this is possible unless the Enlightenment narrative itself is decisively deconstructed (Horkheimer and Adorno 1947).
References
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