Radwell is the author of “ American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing Our Nation ” and serves on the Business Council at Business for America. This is the second entry in a 10-part series on the American schism.
Even the most casual reading of the news headlines today can be quite disheartening. With war raging in multiple regions and climate change threatening the planet’s existence, it certainly seems like the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Of course this is in addition to our domestic political arena, which often resembles a three-ring circus.
In the latest act, in response to growing citizen hysteria, a usually futile legislature finally crafted a comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill, only to have the very guy who provokes the hysteria in the first place instruct his minions to veto said bill. One could not make this stuff up.
But perhaps we need to change our perspective. How are we doing at a macro level over the last 300 years based on objective measures? As Stephen Pinker explains in his book, “Enlightenment Now,” the data make a compelling case for an unparalleled surge in human prosperity – in fact, we have made more headway during this three-century timeframe than during the prior 2,000 years. One example among many: 300 years ago the life expectancy of humans was about 30, and four-fifths of the world lived in horrendous poverty; today, the average lifespan is over 70 in almost every part of the globe, and about one-fifth of the planet’s inhabitants live at the dreadful level of poverty.
Thus we can conclude (if objective data still matters), a focus on the pursuit of empirically based science has resulted in an unleashing of human capacity previously unrivaled in our history. The 18th century period we now refer to as the Enlightenment has provided the bedrock for what we think of as a modern society. While the Enlightenment was an all-encompassing movement marking a plethora of disciplines, one overriding theme of the era was celebrating the astonishing potential of human capacity. For the millennium prior, the determinants of an individual’s prosperity were demarcated by two simple factors: the birth lottery and one’s brute strength.
As Benjamin Franklin and Denis Diderot showed us, all humans are capable of reason and problem-solving and thus able to build their own unique brand of prosperity. They postulated that one’s destiny on earth is not solely in the hands of faith, but also on the ability to observe the universe and employ deductive logic. More recently, Jonathan Raunch built on this concept in what he calls a “ Constitution of Knowledge ”: a powerful structure he visualizes as a funnel – one end very broad. allowing a wide range of idea contributions from all, while getting progressively narrower as only those ideas that can sustain academic rigor come out the other side. The key features of transparency and peer review render the discovery process cumulative, and thus very efficient at building knowledge within what today we would call a “network.”
Yet despite this impressive track record, for the last 60 years we have been experiencing a head-on assault from the postmodern movement, which maintains that truth is elusive and all is subjective. The original intent of many postmodern thought leaders was to incorporate diverse voices into a discussion dominated by white European males, a much-needed societal evolution, but unfortunately the result has often been to turn the traditional merits of empiricism on its head.
Today, you don’t have to be a philosopher or an academic to be a postmodernist. The goal of incorporating diverse voices has been construed by many politicians, academics and citizens to warrant everyone being entitled to one’s own facts – how convenient for us. This “lay postmodernism” is so pervasive that cherry-picking “one’s own facts” is now claimed as an inalienable right. Many who get lost in a sea of digital information have simply abandoned the pursuit of truth altogether. Moreover, this new lay postmodernism fad doesn’t discriminate based on partisan orientation. Whether in the form of conspiracy theories or alternative facts on the right, or a blinding focus on identity politics on the left, amygdala-driven conversations have crowded out reason and data across the political spectrum.
Most alarming perhaps is that lay postmodernism has increasingly invaded the realm of science in areas such as climate change or public health care where advocates on both sides choose to use the facts that already confirm their rigid opinions. This is a far cry from what Thomas Jefferson meant when he said “difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to the truth.”
When we surrender to this development, we do a tremendous disservice to the valuable aspects of the postmodern evaluation, but more importantly, we do so with great peril to our democracy. Indeed, objective scientific truth is a required element of democracy, and embracing it is the only hope for reaching consensus on policy. The intent of most postmodern thinking was to bring alternative views into the conversation, not to discard our constitution of knowledge. The former can be accomplished without throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.



















photo courtesy of Michael Varga.
An Independent Voter's Perspective on Current Political Divides
In the column, "Is Donald Trump Right?", Fulcrum Executive Editor, Hugo Balta, wrote:
For millions of Americans, President Trump’s second term isn’t a threat to democracy—it’s the fulfillment of a promise they believe was long overdue.
Is Donald Trump right?
Should the presidency serve as a force for disruption or a safeguard of preservation?
Balta invited readers to share their thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
David Levine from Portland, Oregon, shared these thoughts...
I am an independent voter who voted for Kamala Harris in the last election.
I pay very close attention to the events going on, and I try and avoid taking other people's opinions as fact, so the following writing should be looked at with that in mind:
Is Trump right? On some things, absolutely.
As to DEI, there is a strong feeling that you cannot fight racism with more racism or sexism with more sexism. Standards have to be the same across the board, and the idea that only white people can be racist is one that I think a lot of us find delusional on its face. The question is not whether we want equality in the workplace, but whether these systems are the mechanism to achieve it, despite their claims to virtue, and many of us feel they are not.
I think if the Democrats want to take back immigration as an issue then every single illegal alien no matter how they are discovered needs to be processed and sanctuary cities need to end, every single illegal alien needs to be found at that point Democrats could argue for an amnesty for those who have shown they have been Good actors for a period of time but the dynamic of simply ignoring those who break the law by coming here illegally is I think a losing issue for the Democrats, they need to bend the knee and make a deal.
I think you have to quit calling the man Hitler or a fascist because an actual fascist would simply shoot the protesters, the journalists, and anyone else who challenges him. And while he definitely has authoritarian tendencies, the Democrats are overplaying their hand using those words, and it makes them look foolish.
Most of us understand that the tariffs are a game of economic chicken, and whether it is successful or not depends on who blinks before the midterms. Still, the Democrats' continuous attacks on the man make them look disloyal to the country, not to Trump.
Referring to any group of people as marginalized is to many of us the same as referring to them as lesser, and it seems racist and insulting.
We invite you to read the opinions of other Fulrum Readers:
Trump's Policies: A Threat to Farmers and American Values
The Trump Era: A Bitter Pill for American Renewal
Federal Hill's Warning: A Baltimorean's Reflection on Leadership
Also, check out "Is Donald Trump Right?" and consider accepting Hugo's invitation to share your thoughts at newsroom@fulcrum.us.
The Fulcrum will select a range of submissions to share with readers as part of our ongoing civic dialogue.
We offer this platform for discussion and debate.