The Spiritual Basis of The Republican Ideology

[Leonardo17]

   What I mean is this: A philosophical attitude can also lead you to very right conclusions. Most of the well-known climate activists for instance are scientific minded atheists. Paul Watson for instance (the founder of Sea Shepherd) is very critical of the religious view of nature. He says it’s the belief that “God gave nature to Adam to use it in any way he wants” (this is a Biblical quote and has parallels in other monotheistic religions) that is our main problem. In his non-theistic view, we simply don’t have the moral right to kill whales for instance. Because they are the inhabitants of this planet just as we are.
 

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   So as I said before, a moral approach toward life does not have to be religious or even non-religious. It is basically a choice we are making.
 
   But the point on which I am going to insist is this: Philosophy says that humans are like other human beings, in fact we are very much like other living organisms on this planet. So this simple observation should be enough to make us respect one another and other human beings as well. So this is how monarchy and aristocracy is gone. No one can be born as something superior to others. This simply doesn’t make any sense anymore. And that’s the events of the 18th / 19th century.
 
   But look at what’s happening now. When Noam Chomsky was young, he had access to free college education. Today, if you don’t have cash, you may need to send your kid to public education which is considered by many as completely ineffective. Institutions are being eroded as well. The NRA is putting money into lobby groups so kids with war weapons are killing other kids with legally acquired weapons. And there has been similar wake-up calls in Europe too. The French had to rethink their institutions and their approach to republican ideas after the attacks of Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan etc. and in my country they have a great religious tool they can use to undermine all the acquisitions of the Turkish Republic.
 
   So what is happening is different now. They say: “Yes no one is born as superior to others, but I still want to be superior to others”. They say (He says) “… the American democracy, I want to be the president for another term”. Or “…. Public education. My kids are in private schools anyway”. Or “… freedom + the rule of law I believe in God”. Or even “Yes all men are born as equals. But Women are not born like men so why should they have the right to decide over their own bodies?”.
 
   To me this is the Ego mind talking. To an atheist it can be something else, I’m not saying that atheists cannot be opposed to such ideologies in fact I believe in the opposite. But for me this Wedjat or Udjat, Eye of Horus / Eye or Ra is quite something anyway. In my way of thinking (for instance) it is there to remind me than I am not bigger than anyone else. The typical consumer society believes in superiority not in a way that is based on birth, but in a way that is “I have a better car than this guy”, “I went to college, this guy did not” or (in the middle-east for instance) “I am a man / You are a woman” for instance. This Wedjat is there to tell me “You are a piece of the Universe. All of God’s children are special / None of Gods children are special, SO you might want to check your attitude toward this person, or this horse / Dog whatever once again”.
 
  So there is this deeper dimension of spirituality. And what I am trying to say is that, I think the fundamental republican principles are very spiritual in their essence. Yes, they are very philosophical too. But I kind of see some sort of deep spiritual dimension in them as well.
 
Anyway:
Here is the Wedjat. It is still worn by many women in the middle-east as a protection against the evil eye. This is the eye of Horus. The Falcon-God:


 

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