Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The Enlightenment occurred in the 18th century: it was the idea of personal autonomy, something few people could understand, let alone take advantage of because all of history was brutal authoritarianism imposed by an elite ruling class. Slavery, either explicit or implicit, was a way of life not an aberration: to think one could reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of their actions was unimaginable: soon the king’s guard, or roving bandits, would come take whatever they wanted at any time. With semi-honest government that recognized the constraints of aristocracy, The Enlightenment was able to foster the beginnings of what we now call liberty. At the time, the focus wasn't individual autonomy so much as the idea of democracy. The French revolution stopped with that, leaving the State in charge, because even philosophers then were still too deeply ingrained in God & scripture to accept personal liberty, which they considered selfishness. Americans, however, went the whole way, providing liberty to the individual, so each person could make decisions from themselves rather than having elites making decisions for them. This is all against a backdrop of kings & priests controlling society, with all decision-making power vested in them, and ruling classes don’t give up power voluntarily, so liberty can be considered a miracle.