Word: gnostics
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...world's way out of Gnostic confusion depends largely on the U.S." If that is true, the world is sunk. Because there is, and/or are, more Gnostic influences running riot through every stage of American life than ever existed in any other country or civilization...
Besides seeking salvation on earth and thereby lapsing into political absolutism, the modern Gnostic as described by Voegelin has another tendency, one that he shares with ancient and medieval Gnostics. Both Greek and Christian thought holds that man reflects the order of the universe (or of God) when he understands cause & effect and correctly fits his means to his purposes in earthly affairs. But Gnosticism, even in earthly matters, substitutes dreams for reason because it disregards the facts of the world that exists, misunderstands cause & effect, and has no luck in getting where it wants to get. Voegelin believes...
...Gnostic societies and their leaders will recognize dangers to their existence when they develop, but such dangers will not be met by appropriate actions in the world of reality. They will rather be met by magic operations in the dream world, such as disapproval, moral condemnation, declarations of intention, resolutions, appeals to the opinion of mankind, branding of enemies as aggressors, outlawing of war, propaganda for world peace and world government...
...model case is the rise of the National Socialist movement to power with the Gnostic chorus wailing its moral indignation at such barbarian and reactionary doings in a progressive world-without, however, raising a finger to repress the rising force by a minor political effort in proper time...
...Gnostic influence on Western policy did not stop with the peace of 1945. Says Voegelin: "If a war has a purpose at all, it is the restoration of a balance of forces and not the aggravation of disturbance; it is the reduction of the unbalancing excess of force, not the destruction of force to the point of creating a new unbalancing power vacuum. Instead, the [Western] Gnostic politicians have put the Soviet army on the Elbe, surrendered China to the Communists, at the same time demilitarized Germany and Japan, and in addition demobilized...