BrianGarst.com

In tribute to the late, great William F. Buckley, I thought I’d forgo the usual reminiscing and discuss instead an issue which Buckley considered of great importance. Though he did not coin the phase “immanentize the eschaton”, he was responsible for its popularization and fought vigorously against its implications. The phrase refers to the efforts by some to bring the eschaton (the transcendent, i.e. heaven) to the immanent (within worldly limits). The utopian visions of communism and all other collectivist ideologies constitute attempts to immanentize the eschaton.

In founding National Review, Buckley made opposing “Social Engineers” one of the magazine’s core convictions, along with the need to oppose utopian communism:

2. The profound crisis of our era is, in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to conform with scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order. We believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side.

3. The century’s most blatant force of satanic utopianism is communism. We consider “coexistence” with communism neither desirable nor possible, nor honorable; we find ourselves irrevocably at war with communism and shall oppose any substitute for victory.

Sadly, many in America still strive to immanentize the eschaton. Barack Obama, the likely Democrat nominee for president, has fashioned an entire campaign on the concept. He has declared a desire to “create a Kingdom right here on Earth.”

Ancient history is the DLC, along with Bill Clinton’s declaration that “the era of big government is over”. The modern left is reaching back in time to the days when social engineering was in vogue, when all kinds of “experiments” were undertaken at the slightest whim, and any change was automatically better than status quo. Who now will take Buckley’s place “standing athwart history, yelling Stop” at this time when we need it most?