Eric's bemoaned elightenment

I am prejudice, I can agree with that. The European Enlightenment at large bothers me. Rousseau, perhaps one of the strongest minds of the enlightenment was the midwife to the semi morbid yet existential thought nonetheless, "l'homme est ne libre, et partout il est dans les fers." (Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains." I cannot more so thoroughly agree with any enlightened concept, however it was the trajectory that the enlightened ones chose to take which is what bothers me the most.

Throughout our time in German 401, we have watched the Germans move from small spaced out clans into functioning cities and states at large. Through literary pages we have watched the Romans and the Franks bolster and build the German society-- a cornucopia of influences. Within the sojourn we watched those allegedly born with divine right ruthlessly and mercilessly belittle and bastardize the minds of the average man only in their selfish pursuit for power, riches, and infamy. Thus, we reach the age of the reformation and as though it were a domino effect we watched the "whole world" wake up and be fruitful. Medicines, Language, Math, Textiles, and knowledge as a whole flourished. (we are humans, hear us roar!)

However, I am not convinced that this was for all people. Knowledge became a capitalistic enterprise. It is true that information was introduced to the masses, but for the daily life of a peasant who never has been anything, never was going to be anything, the introduction of information was about as useful as fire in hell. In class, we spoke of the hierarchy where the educated were ontop and the undereducated were on the bottom. The enlightement did a damn good job of protecting that hierarchy even up into today's society. We cannot turn on the news without seeing the undereducated losing their homes in natural disasters, or watching the undereducated lose their lives to plaguelike diseases (aids, cancer, etc.). Many of us cannot walk down highstreet without being haggled for change by the undereducated, and we most certainly cannot thumb the pages of the newspaper without seeing the undereducated being convicted of life in prison because they weren't smart enough to make good decisions. The underedcuated send their children to underfurnished schools where their highschool education, if attained, means nothing to the educated society. The unedereducated are poor, and tired, and in desperate need of help. We live in a cut-throat society ladies and gentleman. Half of us are asleep in this fake empire and the other half of us just don't even care. To me, the enlightement was apathetic, because while it flourished with thought and optimisim it failed to protect and advance the institution of the all minds .

Had the enlightenment actually wanted to share its finding with everyone rather than just those who could afford it and those who were luckily in the right place at the right time, we would be one step closer to a better world. However, because the bourgeois replaced the nobles, gained their fortunes and said screw the rest of you-- we now live in this bougie-bougie society where enlightement is still purchased and rarely deserved and all the undereducated, like dark forests, eat themselves and somehow live forever.

So, because the enlightment failed to expand itself and truly enlighten all.. I cannot help but to be morally opposed to it as a whole.


Good-Day.