Early into the biography I discovered Voltaire was antisemitic. What does that mean, other than he held the same view of Jewish people, that was common in his day. Voltaire can't be characterized as a frothing at the mouth, racist, but it is definite he had no love for the Jewish people. I accept the notion that people must be understood within the context of their time. It is only exceptional men and women that can transcend their eras and carve new and independent directions. Voltaire is one of those men. Calling for tolerance between Christens, reform of the Justice system and Freedom of Expression. Just not the one, that was able to look past societal racism. We are the totality of our actions, the good or the bad, and is improper to apply a filter. That lead me square to the point of this piece: Belief.
Our human nature is the framework, beliefs we hang upon it, the sum is who we are..What we believe changes, a lot, but not our natures. Throughout the biography are examples of our nature. All of those strengths and weakness that encumber us as a species, love, sacrifice, avarice, greed, ego and so many more positive and negative emotions. The 18th century human differs from us only in what they believe; and how such beliefs, guide by nature formed action. The slave owner is not a different species of human, even if today he would appear so. The only thing that separates us from him is that slavery is now believed to be wrong. That idea came gradually, refined over time to include more and more groups of people till there was none left to enslave. Slavery faded because it could no longer be defended; not its utility nor its purpose. Yet met still many clung to the idea regardless of the harm it inflicted on them personally. It is important to note that we didn't become incapable of enslaving people, we just decided not to do it any more. It began with the elites of the day. First a few, then more, they raged on against it, the public intellectuals-philosophers, men and women of God. They worked hard to change the minds of those that could alter the course of events.
So I arrived at this point, if we can be moved away, by thoughtful conscientious elites, from the acceptance of slavery, of the oppression of women, LGBT or other minorities; we can be moved back. Nazis Germany; a case study in the failure of elites to safeguard political and social advances. Some tried, but the current was against them, more were engaged in advancing an set of ideas that would give rise to the Nazis. But by no means was Nazi Germany's rise was inevitable, it was merely possible.
So I arrive at the conclusion that no advance is safe because no idea and the belief that follow from them is permanent because we aren't. The more complacent we are; the greater our need for public intellectuals is. In our era, Elite is almost a swear pushed out through thin, tired lips. Science is held in disrepute by our fellow citizens and also far to many of those that govern. Our Rights are parsed and segmented till we are left with nothing, a phrase gutted, that no longer has the power to protect us.
Our times are tougher, more information at the disposal of more people than ever before, at the same time seem less able to filter the good form the bad, false and misleading information has an easy appeal, hard to deny.
Every generation has to learn about our fundamental freedoms and why we need to keep them in order to remain free. Our Elites need to be out front, engaged in dialogue with us, the citizens. Talk to us about our responsibility to the society in which we live. For it is the citizen that confers the power to govern and they must choose as wisely as possible.
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