“The seat of knowledge,” said William Hazlitt (1778-1830), “is in the head, of wisdom in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, if we do not feel right.”

What can “feeling right” about knowledge mean in a head stuck on politics, and what wisdom can come from a cold heart? How can “feeling right” connect to justice when the realities of being human are dismissed – as, for chief example, by progressives and fake liberals? 

At the heart of the matter, frequently though incorrectly framed as a conflict between liberals and conservatives, is the difference between ethics based on the politics of the day and ethics reflecting centuries of human experience. The “progressive” posture disregards unity between generations (“progress and change are equal”), while the so-called “conservative” stance is mindful of the organic continuity between generations. The one relates all justified action to a vertical Now, the other to a horizontal Always.

Which of the two stances of mind and heart makes better sense regarding what is “right” and what is “wrong,” what is “acceptable” and what is not “acceptable,” what is “justified” and what  is not “justified” in political action and social conduct? Which of the two “attitudes” is essential to “feeling right” about morality?

This is an idle question only to those who turn their back on justice for whatever reason – gain and convenience at the top of the list. But it happens to be front and center to those who are serious about justice to humanity.

The following may help ease the old subject of morality out of a darkness it has drifted into . . .

It is rarely noticed that the social and political sciences have nothing to say about greed, plunder, revenge, and other negative tendencies of the heart and the mind, once called “sins,” as though these adverse qualities are not relevant to the right conduct of human affairs. The so-called social sciences necessarily depart from the needed rigor of scientific methodology, which exposes them to political manipulation. The “liberal/progressive” take on “what is acceptable” depends on such fungible “science” to make its case and move forward in “progress.” The unfortunate result is that what is deemed possible finds its way from hypothesis to law, free of filters for destructive extremes.

“Is there a right to murder?” or “is it right to kill or plunder those who disagree with a given worldview?” are the kind of question that is let out the back door by social and political “sciences” or is assigned to perpetual “studies” to keep them out of the way. What else to expect when possibility is put ahead of validity?

How plain can it be made that possibility and justification are not equivalent, and why morality enters every human equation? Should hands always do what they can, based on the pos­sibilities? Hands that feed and caress and hold from falling can as well strangle and destroy and pull triggers. Science (both real and fake) does not provide the wisdom to distinguish between what is possible and what is the right thing to do. Ethics based on what is possible regarding human life gives political radicals a license to turn “justice” into an asset for their agendas.

The basics of our existence – how we grow, breathe, experience pain, pleasure, etc. etc. – may be understood scientifically but being human in its totality is off the radar screen of scientific inquiry and cannot be controlled scientifically. Biotechnology (for example) is a great tool for mending bodies, but if the attempt is made with it (or any science) to own the forces behind our existence the result must be failure. The fact is that our chronic ig­norance regarding all the most important aspects of life is as profound today as it was B.C.

“Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago,” observed Edgar Allan Poe, a man with a mind as sharp as they come.

It should be clear to all, regardless of generation, that a disengagement between knowledge and wisdom leads to serious trouble. An enduring such disconnect, predominant among Marxists, aka Progressives, aka Leftists currently plagues our streets, our schools, our homes, our workplaces, our families – even the places of worship, where the spreading disruption of knowledge and wisdom has even corrupted the doctrines of faith. What excuse is there for the abandonment of wisdom and morality and allowing the consequent insanity to spread throughout the land of the free and the brave that so many fought, sacrificed and died for?

In a free society, most folk, “average” to “genius,” accept and cherish the essential mysteries regarding life. They move with its natural flow, feeling not the least slighted for their dependence upon a power felt in the heart, acting as a spiritual gateway to one’s ground of being that most people know as God. It is a ground expressed in religious scripture, in tradition, in love for one another in spite of the many differences among them. It is what “feeling right” about morality is about.

It is a feeling evidently absent from people in high positions of authority who have no use for God or who have appropriated the role of God, as a prop to lord over others.

How far such cultural dereliction has advanced in this country is daily news. For the first time in history America is being deliberately dismantled by its Administration. There is no spin that can hide the fact that this is treason, insurrection, coup – words hurled by leftists against loyal Americans, regardless of political rank or affiliation.

To the head turned to the Left, in spite of its unspeakably bloody history under communism, the concept of God is upsetting. Whether it is admitted or not, the fact of a higher authority than the human punches too many holes in the Left’s materialist plans for total control of humans, let alone the entire world.

But when enough people have had more than they can take of Leftist bull regarding reality, knowledge, wisdom, and human life, the purveyors of that bull will have to retire to their rightful position of political minority, regardless of bankroll.

Anthony J. DeBlasi is a veteran and lifelong defender of Western Culture.

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