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Originally Posted by peter12
Well, I think if we take a step back to the cultural significance of millenarianism and Wilsonian doctrine, I could make the case for there being a significant affect upon the cultural foundations of the United States and hence it's government.
To begin, your understanding of millennial movements is incomplete as it only describes a religious millenarian movement. As I would see it, a millenarian movement is one that views present society as dualistic, good against evil. There is a struggle which brings society towards a monistic finality in which human nature is perfected. In the case of a religious movement, you have the Kingdom of God on Earth. The notion that the divine will intervene on behalf of the righteous to enter in the final age. Of course, dispensationalism, premillenialism etc.. are all parts of this world view.
In the secular sense, this struggle is more influenced either by rationalistic Enlightenment thinking or by left-Hegalian doctrine. Namely that through purely atheistic human action, an end of history can be achieved. Thomas Paine, the ultimate American Revolution apologist, coined it perfectly when he said, "We have the power to make the world anew". That's pure millenarianism. It's reflected in things like Manifest Destiny, which STILL have an impact upon American policy and thought.
The US has deep cultural roots in all kinds of millenarianism, whether it be Wilson's idealism, the Scofield Bible, or Moody's Bible Institute. To put a complex theory crudely, it has certainly impacted the American crusade to bring democracy to the world.
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Wonderfully stated, and still a load of hooey. If you think for a second that anyone in the real government thinks about anything but expansion of power and wealth you're kidding yourself. It's wonderful to quote the founding fathers, as their ideals were brilliant, but we have to understand context. In their time their "world" was "new" and the majority of it had not been discovered. Our "world" is substantially different and we know a lot more than we did then. The millenarianism belief had much more support during the time of Paine, but we have grown past that. Heck, even by Wilson's time millenarianism was on the wane, and things were pretty primative then. Those who believe in millenarianism are on the very fringe of society, and not trusted by those in positions of authority. Millenarianism and Wilsonian beliefs may have had a place in formulating American foreign policy in the past, but those days are dead and gone. Again, US actions internationally speak louder than all the rhetoric in the world.