By Dr. Charlie Palmgren

“The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead.” – Albert Einstein

We are now realizing the magnitude of the change we set in motion with our recent election. Many now are beginning to understand some of its significance. For those in the MAGA camp the glow of victory is still blinding. For a growing number that oppose MAGA, it’s becoming clear how radical the shift can/is/will be.

I assumed when the President Elect was determined, I would be moving on to the next phase of the WLL and leave the prophetic side of Henry in the past where it started. Nevertheless, because of the results of the election and the current rhetoric in the wake of Trump’s victory, I realize that Henry’s prophetic insight has much more to teach us.

Post Election Final Frontier Supplement ³

I will start by condensing his primary statement about postcivilization.

“When wars were fought with sword and lance in the hands of [an] armored knight, the power of war could be largely monopolized by the wealthy few; but when guns were put into the hands of the common man, a wider distribution of power, wealth and honor was enforced. So also, when industry could not operate without many skilled workers and a large public with enough wealth to buy the goods produced, was the same wider distribution enforced.

Perhaps this brief period of democracy…is coming to an end. …We seem to be moving into a time when wars will no longer be fought by [individuals] with guns but with complicated and technical instruments operated by experts. Industry under automation may become the monopoly of a ruling few.

So far, what Wieman is saying is pretty straight forward and would not require him to be prophetic. So, let’s probe deeper.

“Science is now (1968) being used to devise methods for enforcing a brainwashing ideology by which the great majority are made to think, feel, and act as the privileged few demands, enslaving the minds of the many more completely than the of ancient slaves.”

This key nuance is that ancient slaves knew and were conscious of their status as slaves. They had no delusion about what and who they were. This was discussed in a previous section of The Final Frontier 3. The problem we face today is that most people believe they are not delusional. In fact, most would become enraged at the thought of anyone considering they might be. There is a kind of astigmatism in our culture when it comes to mental illness. Such an attitude was woven into the fabric of our “old normal”. My personal bias is that this helps explain why our culture is reluctant to get involved in conversations regarding mental health. Henry puts it all into perspective;

“All of this may indicate that we are reverting to the ‘ancient system’, prevalent throughout almost the whole of civilization, wherein the privileged few gathers to themselves the benefits of social organization while the masses are controlled in such a way that [their] creativity [sinks] to a minimum.”

Wow, what an astute, if not prophetic observation. Do you see any of that going on in our current post-election time? I’ve observed this problem time and time again over the last several decades. We are looking at the basis for our current dilemmas regarding the polarization of our communication, decision making, problem solving, planning, evaluating and the list goes on. If there was ever a time our nation needed to be creative, it’s now. And, if that weren’t enough, Henry goes on to say;

“I am arguing that this destiny will be found if and when the control mechanisms are deliberately and effectively designed to avoid anarchy, AND NOT [relying] merely [on] law and order….”

Unfortunately, we’ve chosen “law and order”. As I said elsewhere, anarchy involves a tyrant, an autocrat, who wants complete control of the guardrails. Alas, I stray, so back to the election. 

So, what are we doing now in response to the choice we made as a nation on election day? It appears to me that our current response is to emphasize better adherence to law in order to save democracy. We are committed to demonstrating a peaceful transition of power intended and required by law as a guardrail to protect us from falling into chaos, anarchy or autocracy. 

Many pendants on the left think our democracy can weather the storm over the next four years using law and order. Can we? What was Henry not taking into account? Wieman’s take, as I’ve written before, was a quote from Raymond Aron. “Mankind has a history because it is in search of a destiny” and Henry added, “The continuity of human history will not be assured until humankind finds and accepts its destiny”. And, what is that destiny? Wieman says, “that way of life which [humankind] must follow if [we] are not to become self-destructive and bring [our] history to an end.”  The choices we are making currently are determining if and how we fulfill our destiny. Does it continue or end?

How close is the ‘Divided States of America’ to ending its democracy along with its destiny? What mechanisms are required if we are to survive? The majority of Americans voted to give up on democracy. Clearly democracy has to reinvent itself or give up on being one. One hundred forty million Americans cast their ballots in the 2024 election and 87 million Americans eligible to vote chose not to—the greatest number of non-voters in American history.

It would seem our President elect is committed to returning to a better time in the past. He does not want to continue business as usual. The democrats are committed to not going back. Both seem to be advocating for some form of reformation and/or revolution. My personal view is that the Republicans are not willing to go back far enough. This country was born out of a revolution. Why not return all the way back to the actual beginning and rethink our original revolution once again? 

The average life expectancy of a civilization is roughly 250 years and that number for the United States of America is July 4, 2026. The Republicans are wrestling with how far we need to go back to make America great again. The Democrats are wed to “not going back” and want to stay on the road we’ve been traveling. What if we approached the need for a revolution as valuable and encouraged all political parties Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Independents, Green, atheists, agnostics, religious types and the list goes on to “rethink” AND “redream” a better way to govern in order to survive AND thrive in 2025?

Could our fragmented, polarized masses regroup, rethink AND recreate a way of life that is planetary friendly, environmentally safe, socially collaborative, scientifically valid and spiritually committed? The answer is yes AND the probability of it happening is low. Our challenge once again would be to create a new nation, indivisible, under GOD that provides life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness AND forming a more perfect union. AND, by taking the enduring wisdom written on our currency, E. pluribus Unum, out of the many ONE. It’s possible, not probable, but well worth making the effort one more time. I’m guessing true Americans would roll up their sleeves and make another run at it. The lives of billions hang in the balance.

The election in the U.S. was to bet the old “postcivilization” way of thinking was the only thinking that was logical and offered any hope of change. The opposite is actually true. Continuing to think the old way means you’ll keep getting what you are currently getting. We’re getting planetary ecosystem decay at dangerous levels, air, water and soil continue to become more contaminated, the rich are getting richer and the poor will get poorer, and the ones in the middle will get more anxious and depressed. Wieman writes;

“…[W]hen the control mechanisms are deliberately and effectively designed to avoid anarchy…by directing liberated impulses into the creativity of history, whereby the human level of existence is expanded to larger dimensions. The mechanisms of control which must do this, if it is to be done at all are government, industry, institutional education, religion and morality, established custom, and the use of language.” [This was elaborated in The Final Frontier 4]

As stated above, “the masses are controlled in such a way that creativity sinks to a minimum.” However, in the situation we are in we need creativity optimized not minimized. The simple question is to what degree do you see Democrats championing creative solutions instead of reverting primarily to the use of law and order. Creativity and law and order don’t have to be polarized and that is where creative interchange becomes critical and essential. But that’s part of the next and final paper in The Final Frontier series. 

Henry goes on to say;

“Of all the innovations required to enable [humankind] to live at the high human level in the new age we are now entering, the one most critical important is the development of a form of religion which can join with science AND morality to serve this creativity. The part of religion in this development is to direct the commitment of our lives to this creative presence; the part of science is to search out its required conditions and the part of morality is to use scientific knowledge and technology to provide these conditions and continuously improve them as research learns more about them.” 

This type of relationship between science AND religion is hardly the norm of our day. This failure is attributable to both sides. Without such cooperation of science and religion the odds of globalization being achieved before deadly tipping points in environmental ecosystem decay are passed, seem almost inevitable. And, then Henry pushes the envelope one more time, by saying;

“The danger which threatens is not only atomic war; there is some reason to think other dangers are more likely. But the greatest danger of all, opening the way to all the other dangers, is traditional religion preventing the development of that form of religion which alone can show the way of salvation.”
In the next and final paper in The Final Frontier series we’ll look at Wieman’s conclusion as to what such a “new” religion would require if we are to emerge from postcivilization. Will we choose globalization ‘OR’ will we continue our descent toward an apocalypse and extinction event of our history, destiny and ultimately our species.