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cebomar09-blog · 4 days ago

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The Spirit Of Ideas, The Death of God, and the Crisis of Truth

"In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." -Judges 21:25

The same idea can lead one group to justify the enslavement of people based on the color of their skin just as effectively as it can spark an abolitionist movement. Take the grand narrative (universal truth) of Imago Dei—the idea that all of us were made in the image of God. You can use that to say that everyone is equal no matter what. One can also say, “Everyone is made in the image of God and therefore equal, except you people.”

An additional illustration is the social constructionism put forth by Michel Foucault and his peers in 1970s France. This concept posits that ethics, morality, identity, knowledge, and social norms are shaped by historical and cultural contexts rather than being inherent or universal truths. Foucault, Derrida, and Sartre signed a petition supporting the decriminalization of consensual relationships between minors and adults…

If each person’s individual truth is considered The Truth, who are we to deny them?

Conversely, Derrida’s relativism possesses a certain brilliance, making it quite suitable for career counseling and other areas of counseling. The postmodern constructivist perspective encourages individuals to reflect on the various factors that have shaped their current life circumstances, offering them the possibility of escaping a fixed narrative. This approach fosters insights far more effectively than a generic method, especially in an age when people can no longer depend on predefined identities or linear career paths.

The point I aim to drive home is that ideas, their development, and how we use them matter. Philosophy, theology, and the social sciences aren’t simply a matter of people having abstract discussions for the fun of it. The discourse of ideas shapes humanity, and if you’re reading this, you have a worldview that affects you and everyone around you.

The Spirit of Ideas

Nietzsche begins Beyond Good and Evil by critiquing philosophers by pointing to their arrogance. They lack the humility, he says, to admit that their ideas come, in large part, by way of their own psychophysiological societal constitution. “...the greater part of the conscious thinking of a philosopher is secretly influenced by his instinct and forced into definite channels.”

Nietzsche seemed to understand that ideas are not formed in isolation; rather, they are like seeds that carry the imprint of the environment in which they were conceived. Just as DNA encodes the blueprint for a living organism, ideas are shaped by the psychological, cultural, and social forces that give birth to them. These forces—what might be called the spirit behind an idea—guide its development and influence the direction it takes in the world.

Additionally, Nietzsche prophetically lamented what would happen when grand narratives collapse, leaving humanity in a state of moral and existential disarray. As the death of God looms over modernity, we see ideologies emerge that seek to fill the void. The rest of this post will showcase examples of important ideas that started as seeds, the soil in which they flourished, and the fruits they produced.

Example 1—From Karl Marx to Soviet Russia and Mao Zedong: Communist Atrocities and the Influence of Postmodern Neo-Marxism in Today’s Discourse

Karl Marx had an obsession with destruction that was not solely intellectual; it carried a psychological weight. His works often reveal profound disdain for his surroundings, a fixation on chaos, and a compelling urge to witness the downfall of established institutions. This sense of negation is intertwined with his personal life—his estrangement from family, inability to find personal stability, and a disordered lifestyle mirror the decay and turmoil he sought to inflict on society. Considering Nietzsche’s view that philosophers' ideas stem from their personal instincts and experiences, Marx’s preoccupation with destruction, rebellion, and dark imagery becomes particularly telling.

Dr. Paul Kengor, author of The Devil and Karl Marx (2020), notes that Marx was fixated on Faustian themes and Hell, despite his declared atheism. He famously stated, “Thus Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know it full well... My soul, once true to God, is chosen for Hell.” For those unfamiliar, Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, profoundly influenced modern communist ideology, laying the groundwork for many 20th-century communist movements, including those responsible for over 100 million deaths. No other ideology in history has caused such widespread loss of innocent life. Marx also advocated for the dissolution of the nuclear family and encouraged ruthless scrutiny of everything—ABSOLUTELY everything. The Communist Manifesto explicitly calls for a violent overthrow of the current state of affairs, including private property, capital, the family unit (yes, the family unit), and entire societies. He glorified destruction.

I encourage you to look into the terrifyingly strong positive correlation between dark triad (now tetrad) personality traits and left-wing authoritarianism.

What about the origins of this spirit of destruction?

These ideas originated from a deeply unclean man who led a chaotic, financially unstable life, constantly borrowing money and failing to repay his debts. Marx exploited his parents' generosity and was widely disliked, even by his partner, Engels. He refused to bathe, and his squalid living conditions reflected a deeper disorder that manifested in his revolutionary vision. Marx’s life embodied his ideas—marked by disarray, dependency, and self-inflicted misery. Just as he sought to abolish the social order, he rejected personal responsibility and hygiene, living in perpetual financial and physical distress.

He suffered from carbuncles, which were at their worst while he was writing Das Kapital (his magnum opus), a lengthy and painful read (I’ve tried). His carbuncles on his privates were particularly severe during the writing process, sometimes triggering fits of rage. In a letter to Engels (co-author of The Communist Manifesto), he noted a boil between his upper lip and nose, stating, “It's as if the devil has been hurling shit at me.” It is not unreasonable to suggest that Marx’s bodily suffering found expression in his work—his pain, both physical and psychological, sought relief through the destruction of the societal body. His boils, which tormented him as he wrote his magnum opus, can be seen as a metaphor for his ideas themselves: festering, painful, and ultimately destructive.

Karl Marx’s perspective views consciousness as a collective social phenomenon heavily influenced, if not determined, by material, particularly economic, conditions. He argues that societal superstructures, especially economic and religious ones, manipulate the working class (proletariat) to benefit the ruling class (bourgeoisie). He wasn’t entirely mistaken. History indicates that religion can indeed perpetuate oppression, as seen in the papal states' influence over politics, the harshness of the Inquisition, and the collaboration between religious institutions and colonial powers. However, to limit human history solely to class struggle while neglecting the positive aspects of the subjects he criticized oversimplifies the intricate nature of human experience. I think this quote from The Communist Manifesto sums it up: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” History, for Marx, is defined by conflicts between classes with opposing interests, and the mode of production in any given society determines its social structures and relationships. That’s it. It’s all about power.

If that sounds familiar in today’s discourse, it should. The dominant view of universities, which has so thickly seeped into every nook and cranny of sociopolitical life, has become an adaptation of this same Marxist framework—only now, class struggle has been refashioned into an endless struggle of identity categories. There are the privileged people and the oppressed people, and they are demarcated primarily by race, gender, and sexual preference. If you are a member of the oppressed class, you are de facto morally superior to your oppressors. Some people go as far as to suggest that being wealthy or white means you must be morally corrupt. And if you happen to be a wealthy straight white male, well…

What I’ve just described is often referred to today as postmodern neo-marxism. It denies the existence of universal truths and grand narratives while paradoxically operating religiously (wink) under its own rigid, unquestionable dogmas. But some ideas seem to eat themselves alive like a snake. This intellectual ouroboros fuels a cycle where every institution, relationship, and belief is viewed through the lens of power dynamics, often leaving little room for nuance, complexity, or alternative interpretations. Ironically, while striving to break down hierarchies and absolute truths, these ideologies establish new, rigid orthodoxies that replicate—yet corrupt—the systems they aim to dismantle. This creates a continuous cycle where skepticism becomes self-destructive, eroding the very foundations it relies on. Consequently, we find ourselves in a culture dominated by deconstruction, which allows scant opportunity for genuine reconstruction.

In the end, Marx’s philosophy of destruction did not arise from an objective analysis of history but from the chaotic, festering spirit of his own life. His call for revolution was not just theoretical—it was deeply personal.

Example 2—John Money, Alfred Kinsey, And The Spirit Of Hate And Deception

John Money

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Ideas do not emerge ex nihilo. Their existence embodies the essence of those who conceive them—molded by personal experiences, trauma, biases, and disturbing motivations. This was evident in Marxism, and it holds true in the work of John Money.

Money’s childhood in rural New Zealand was marked by early failures, anxieties, trauma, and personal tragedies. He was thin and delicate, raised in a home of strict religiosity, or what he would later call “tightly sealed, evangelical religious dogma.” He had a terrible relationship with his father. Many decades later, he wrote about his father, describing him as a brutal and heartless man who gave an “abusive interrogation and whipping” to his four-year-old son over a broken window. Money famously indicated that this event contributed to his enduring rejection of “the brutality of manhood.” After his father’s death, he wrote, “My father died without my being able to forget or forgive his unfair cruelty.”

Money was thereafter raised in a strongly feminist atmosphere, shaped by his mother and single aunts, whose critical attitudes towards men had a profound effect on him. “I suffered from the guilt of being male,” he wrote. “I wore the mark of man’s vile sexuality”—referring to penis and testicles. Considering Money’s forthcoming notoriety in adult and infant gender reassignment, his subsequent remark carries a disturbing tone. “I wondered if the world might really be a better place for women if not only farm animals but human males also were gelded at birth.”

Fifteen years after starting at Johns Hopkins University, he became known as the individual who introduced the term "gender identity" to describe a person’s internal sense of being male or female. He was also recognized as the foremost expert on the psychological effects of ambiguous genitalia and garnered international attention for establishing the pioneering Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic (presently known as the Center for Transgender and Gender Expansive Health).

I’ll provide some direct quotes and tidbits from Money.

"If I were to see the case of a boy aged ten or twelve who's intensely attracted toward a man in his twenties or thirties, and the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual, then I would not call it pathological in any way," he told the journal, and added, "It’s very important once a relationship has been established on such positive and affectionate grounds that it should not be broken up precipitously."

In 1987, Money wrote a foreword to a work published in Denmark entitled Boys on Their Contacts with Men: A Study of Sexually Expressed Friendships by Dutch professor Theo Sandfort. The book presented what purported to be verbatim testimonials of boys as young as eleven years old describing the delights of sex with men as old as sixty. "For those born and educated after the year 2000," Money wrote, "we will be their history, and they will be mystified by our self-imposed moralistic ignorance of the principles of sexual development in childhood."

A childhood sexual experience," he explained to Time magazine in April 1980, "such as being the partner of a relative or an older person, need not necessarily affect the child adversely."

He granted an interview to Paidika, a Dutch journal of pedophilia, which carries ads for the North American Man-Boy Love Association and other pro-pedophile groups.

Under Money’s influence, the Johns Hopkins Medical School curriculum in 1971 featured explicit photographs of people engaged in bestiality, urine-drinking, feces-eating, and various amputation fetishes in order to desensitize medical students to sexual perversions.

During a lecture in Winnipeg, Money screened a stag film of five women and three men having group sex, then followed the screening with a speech in which he informed the assembled professors and first-year medical students that marriage was simply an economic compact in which the “heart follows the wallet”; that incest should not be prosecuted as a criminal offense; and that in cases where stepfathers sleep with their stepdaughters, the mother is often “happy” because she “is glad to have [her husband] off her back.”

[W]hat happens in our culture?" he wrote. "Children's sex explorations are treated like a contagious disease... [D]on't let them see the incontrovertible differences in their genitals, and don't, at all costs, let them rehearse copulation—the one universal human activity that still imperatively demands that the two sexes behave differently and harmoniously!"

In an interview with the pornographic magazine Genesis in April 1977, Money vented his frustration against the prohibition against childhood sexual rehearsal play and a psychologist's right to observe it. “The number of studies of the effects of depriving human infants and juveniles of sexual rehearsal play is exactly and precisely zero,” he said, “because anyone who tried to conduct such a study would risk imprisonment for contributing to the delinquency of minors, or for being obscene. Just imagine the headlines and the fate of a research-grant application requesting funds to watch children playing fucking games!”

Note: Information about Money is sourced from As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As A Girl (2000) by John Colapinto.

His influence on the fields of gender studies and human sexuality extends far beyond the walls of Johns Hopkins University, where, like a seed planted in fertile soil, his ideas have taken root and flourished, influencing generations of scholars, clinicians, policymakers, and the political landscape of modern discourse. Many of his students and proteges, educated in his theories of psychosexual differentiation, have risen to prominent roles at some of the nation's most esteemed universities, research institutions, and scientific journals. Among his former students are Dr. Anke Ehrhardt, a senior professor at Columbia University; Dr. Richard Green, director of the Gender Identity Clinic in London; Dr. June Reinisch, who led the renowned Kinsey Institute (remember that name) for many years; and Dr. Mark Schwartz, director of the influential Masters and Johnson Clinic.

The spirit of his ideas, born from personal turmoil, radical ideology, and an explicit disdain for men, continues to shape policies, academic curricula, and society's perceptions of gender and sexuality. However, John Money was not an anomaly. He was part of a larger intellectual movement determined to dismantle long-standing notions of sexuality and morality under the pretense of scientific inquiry. To grasp the full extent of this ideological shift, we must also consider another influential figure whose impact parallels Money's—Alfred Kinsey. If Money’s theories sowed the seeds of gender fluidity, Kinsey’s work laid the groundwork for the sexual revolution itself. Like Money, Kinsey's research did not arise ex nihilo; it bore the unmistakable mark of his personal obsessions and biases, which continue to reverberate through academia and public policy today.

Alfred Kinsey

Alfred Kinsey's work on human sexuality was deeply influenced by his personal history and upbringing. Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1894, Kinsey grew up under the watchful eye of his father, a strict Christian disciplinarian who saw Sundays as sacred and tightly regulated his family's activities. Conversations about sexuality were virtually non-existent in his household, leaving Kinsey grappling with feelings of repression well into adulthood. In fact, by the time he met his future wife in 1920, he had never been on a date or engaged in sexual intercourse—a striking testament to his sheltered upbringing.

Kinsey’s early years were further complicated by a series of health challenges, including rickets, rheumatic fever, and typhoid fever, conditions that left him physically frail. The combination of his father's rigid expectations and his own physical vulnerabilities may have fueled a deep-seated desire to push boundaries and challenge societal norms. His fascination with biology and the natural world provided an escape, offering him a lens through which to explore life beyond the rigid confines of his upbringing. Eventually, this scientific curiosity led him to one of the most controversial and influential fields of study: human sexuality.

Initially trained as an entomologist, Kinsey’s career took an unexpected turn when he founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947.

Kinsey’s personal experiences with repression, combined with his relentless pursuit of scientific understanding, fueled his advocacy for a more nuanced and inclusive perspective on human sexuality. His work not only ignited academic discourse but also played a pivotal role in reshaping societal attitudes, paving the way for modern discussions about sexual fluidity and orientation. Whether hailed as a visionary or criticized for his methods, Kinsey undeniably left an indelible mark on the study of human sexuality.

The Kinsey Scale and Its Influence

Kinsey's most famous contribution is the Kinsey Scale, introduced in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948). The scale ranges from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual), with intermediate numbers reflecting varying degrees of bisexuality. This scale critiques the binary perception of sexual orientation, framing sexuality as a spectrum.

The Kinsey Scale is frequently used by LGBTQ+ advocates to highlight that sexuality isn't limited to fixed categories but exists along a spectrum. It provides a flexible framework for individuals to explore their sexual orientation, and it is often referenced in educational materials and awareness campaigns aimed at promoting acceptance of sexual diversity. Kinsey’s research significantly contributed to the concept of sexual fluidity, challenging the notion of static sexual identities. His work has been vital in LGBTQ+ advocacy, normalizing various orientations and addressing societal taboos. Much of Kinsey’s foundational work has paved the way for marginalized individuals, fostering a sense of welcome and inclusion in society.

Let’s take a look at how he conducted his research, which was cited positively multiple times during my time at IUPUI from 2020-2024. What you’re about to read is deeply disturbing.

In Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (which was reprinted in 1998 and is widely available), the Institute published the notorious Table 34, which documents the sexual responses of children from infants through teens. They conducted sexual experiments on hundreds of children by bringing them to what the experimenters called “orgasm”, timing these responses with a stopwatch.

Kinsey proudly asserted, “We have now reported observation on such specifically sexual activities as erection, pelvic thrusts, and several other characteristics of true orgasm in a list of 317 pre-adolescent boys ranging between infants of five months and adolescence in age.” Table 34 in Kinsey’s book includes an 11-month-old baby who had an alleged “orgasm” ten times in one hour; a four-year-old child and a 13-year-old boy experienced 26 such alleged “orgasms” in a 24-hour period.

For more information, visit: https://familywatch.org/fwi/Kinsey_fraud.cfm & https://stopthekinseyinstitute.org/

John Money and Alfred Kinsey's work illustrates how humans tend to develop new moral frameworks when traditional ones are lacking. Nietzsche's famous words — “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms” — effectively captures the contemporary challenge of replacing objective morality with constructs rooted in science and society. As Kinsey explored the complexities of sexuality and Money aimed to redefine gender, society began to forge new sacred values to fill the emptiness left by diminishing traditional values.

The fundamental ideas promoted by John Money and Alfred Kinsey have had far-reaching societal outcomes. On one hand, their work played a pivotal role in advancing discussions around sexual identity and gender expression. Kinsey's research, in particular, helped to destigmatize non-heteronormative sexual orientations. His findings contributed to a gradual shift in public perception, paving the way for advancements such as the legalization of same-sex marriage and broader LGBTQ+ rights movements. Similarly, Money's introduction of the term "gender identity" laid the groundwork for the recognition of transgender individuals and the development of legal protections and healthcare policies aimed at supporting gender-diverse populations.

However, their work has also led to controversial and unintended consequences. Increasingly, gender-related concerns in individuals are being addressed through medical interventions rather than social or psychological support, resulting in a significant rise in treatments for minors, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries. Rather than affirming the inherent connection between mind and body and reinforcing the intrinsic value of one's biological identity, these ideas have contributed to the erosion of parental rights—as seen in many cases in Canada—and the destabilization of the nuclear family. This has raised serious concerns about the long-term social and psychological implications of their theories.

While Kinsey and Money influenced important social progress, their legacy remains a complex and polarizing one—challenging society to continually navigate the balance between evolving scientific understandings and the stability of long-standing moral frameworks.

Did the spirit of their ideas require child sacrifice in order to flourish? Was that worth future social progress? I’ll let you decide.

Final Thoughts

Nietzsche’s haunting question— “What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent?”— rings louder today than ever. The collapse of grand narratives and universal truths has left society in a frantic search for meaning, replacing once-sacred values with new ideological constructs. But what drives these constructs forward? The spirit of an idea, much like a seed, carries the imprint of its origin—its cultural, psychological, and historical context—shaping the trajectory of thought and action in ways both profound and perilous.

Ideas, as we have seen, are never neutral; they are infused with the desires, biases, and struggles of those who conceive them. The spirit behind an idea influences whether it will build or destroy, liberate or oppress. In the absence of universal guiding principles, we find ourselves in a landscape where ideas are constantly deconstructed but seldom reconstructed with wisdom and foresight.

As we strive to redefine morality, identity, and social order, we must ask: Are we creating a coherent framework that fosters human flourishing, or are we trapped in an endless cycle of ideological reinvention? True balance requires both order and chaos—an acknowledgment that while ideas must evolve, they should not detach entirely from the timeless truths that anchor our humanity.

In the end, the spirit of an idea shapes not just the world but the soul and psyche of those who embrace it. The challenge is not merely to invent new values but to discern which spirits we allow to guide us forward, for better or worse.

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.

Matthew 7:15-16

#Philosophy #Nietzsche #Marxism #Postmodernism #Critical Theory #Moral Philosophy #Social Commentary #Cultural Critique #Identity Politics #Gender Theory #Societal Decay #Karl Marx #John Money #Alfred Kinsey

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