HEGELIAN DIALECTIC ON THE RIGHT
By
Mary Thompson
October 10, 2013
NewsWithViews.com
What does the term,“Conservative” define in the political spectrum? Not much anymore. Is there such a thing as a Hegelian “Right”? The appointment of Carly Fiorina to the American Conservative Union’s Educational arm may reveal an answer. Her appointment caught this writer’s attention when it was reported in San Jose Mercury News, 9/29/13.
American Conservative Union Chairman, Al Cardenas, waxed eloquent about Carly Fiorina’s “conservative philosophy” saying, “It’s one thing to be a conservative among friends; it’s quite another to be an unapologetic public conservative in California.”
That description of a public unapologetic conservative in California doesn’t fit the Fiorina known here in Silicon Valley. The record shows no evidence of Fiorina Republicanism being aligned with the conservative wing of the GOP. She worked with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s transition team when he was elected Governor. San Jose Mercury News headlines (3/2/2005) “shouted,” “FIORINA A STRONG CONTENDER FOR WORLD BANK CHIEF JOB.” That was just three weeks after her dismissal as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard.
In 2008, San Jose local TV news reported Fiorina had been appointed to a high level position in the Republican Party to oversee the National Republican Party Victory Fund which were funds for McCain and other candidates. McCain praised her as a “good friend of his” in a letter introducing her as the chair of the Victory Fund 2008. There was early “talk” about her being considered as McCain’s Vice Presidential choice.
During her own campaign for Senate, it was revealed in the California media that she only voted in five of the eighteen preceding elections. According to www.capoliticalnews.com, July 11,2009, records showed that her Fiorina Foundation had never registered with the IRS or the state Attorney General’s Charitable Trust division, which tax exempt charities are required to do.
She ran against a Republican candidate with more demonstrated conservative credentials in the primary election to challenge Senator Barbara Boxer in the general election. It was conjectured that a woman with name identification would be a better candidate to challenge Boxer. Fiorina and Meg Whitman (running for Governor) endedup being the two female former tech titans who both lost.
Fiorina’s loss may have reflected the fact of her being possibly the most disliked personin the public eye after running the iconic Hewlett-Packard Corporation into the ground resulting in massive joblosses. The family members of the founders of H-P refused to endorse her candidacy for Senate, they actively worked against her campaign by sending out letters explaining why.
However, all of the above hardly being a picture resembling anyone’s traditional “conservative,” is minor compared to what came to light in an article about a speech delivered by Fiorina at the Progress and Freedom Foundation Seventh Annual Summit at Aspen, CO in 2001. The San Jose Mercury reported: “Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Executive Officer, Carly Fiorina, opened the conference with a scholarly address. She did not give interviews, but she did mention a reporter in her speech—a young guy who couldn’t spell the name of the 19th Century philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (as in “Hegel you know, the process of Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis? I use it every day,” said Fiorina). (San Jose Mercury 8/27/2001-Jennifer Files reporter).
The San Jose Mercury published this writer’s following letterto the editor in response to the article. (9/2/2001)
“Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina’s reported “Getaway to Aspen parallels valley lifestyle, mindset” makes an astonishing remark in her opening address to a recent conference of tech leaders in Aspen, Colorado. Hailing the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s dialectic process, she claims to ‘use it every day. Karl Marx preached it, Nicolai Lenin implemented it in Russia in the early 20th Century and now we have Hegel’s dialectic preached and practiced in 21st Century high–tech industry. And all this time we were led to believe communism was dead! —Mary Thonpson
The reporter only touched the tip of the iceberg of the entire speech in which Fiorina elaborated re: her devotion the idea of the Hegelian Dialectic as a tool for decision making. She suggested the synthesis of the status of schools to be “charter schools.” The entire speech is still available on line.
If anyone had a residual doubt that there exists a ”right” which has been commandeered by forcesmore attuned to what has been identified with the “left,” the ACU appointing an admirer of Hegel should dispel those doubts.
The Hegelian Dialectical Process lurks around the tech industry. It is a “systems” theory in and of itself. It has no fixed immutable “givens.” The Delphi Technique is related to it and PPBS fits the concept as well.
The Hegelian Dialectic Process itself precludes a practitioner from holding fixed principles. A thesis (idea) is pitted against an antithesis (opposing idea) to arrive at a synthesis (an idea resembling neither the thesis nor the antithesis, but a “third way.” The “third way” then becomes the “Thesis” and the Process starts all over again. It is never ending. A practitioner of the Dialectical Process can never commit to decisions based on established fact or objective sources or fixed documents. Hegelian Dialectic is a thought process of “shifting sand” never ending sequences of “syntheses.” The Bible has a description for it. “…ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ”(II Timothy 3:7)
The permeating influence of Hegel’s dialectic in the 21st Century can’t be overestimated. The breakdown of the concept of “givens” for any foundation of society is being accomplished. In religion, Hegel’s influence is reflected in the Historical Critical method of Biblical study, resulting in the idea of man’s influence over Scripture as opposed to the idea of the writers’ of God’s Word being inspired of God. The state of organized churches and the incessant stream of ever changing Bible translations reflect that.
The collectivism of Hegel’s ideas has played out and continues to plague individuals and constitutions written to protect the interests of the individual. The 19th Century devotes’ of Hegel’s dialecticwere classified as the “Hegelian Right” and the “Hegelian Left.” Are we seeing the prongs of Hegelian followers now also representing a “Hegelian Right” as well as a “Hegelian Left”? It would seem so!
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As the terminology, whether organizations or individuals, defining themselves as “Conservatives” is no longer definitive, we need to begin to ask and observe….[1] Are organizations and/or individuals traditional constitutional conservatives who accept the constitution as the founderswrote and intended it ? [2] Do they express and defend principles based on objective proven sources? [3] Are they practitioners of the “Hegelian Right”?
But first, self- identified “conservatives” had better bone up on some 19th Century German historical figures and history to discern 21st Century trends still being influenced by them and being manifested by both right and left in the USA today.
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