Letters to the Editor
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religion
Bravo Salon for providing this content. And thanks to kim evins and mdrayton for early thread reminders of how Marx (who seems closer to what Christ was about than those calling themselves Christians) can inform deconstruction of “religion” and “Christianity”. The point made by Hedges that this is to be understood as a psychological phenomenon also is fundamental.
Patriarchy (insecure males stop reading here) is driven (for biological reasons that make an interesting discussion) to control resources needed for survival and procreation. Capitalism expresses this drive applied to material resources and social capital. Religion, as a construction of patriarchy, expresses this selected drive applied to the reproductive resource, hence the focus on prescription of (female) sexual behavior, marriage and heterosexuality as normative, etc.
Most fundamentally, religion seeks to maintain control of group behavior (ultimately and unconsciously driven by safety needs), and the hook, the inducement for conformity, is escape from horrible anxiety which would otherwise accompany development of autonomy and moral choice, with accompanying deviance. What could be more powerful a protection scheme than providing institutionalized and sanctified escape from culpability while simultaneously allowing the "saved" to continue to reap benefits from their antisocial and amoral behaviors?
It’s not the Christian right, but institutionalized religion itself, preying on underlying fears, which allows escape from moral development, and it seems to have no need of crisis.
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Kirby, they come here because we go there
"We come here because you go there." That was the slogan among embattled immigrants (legal and otherwise) in the UK in the 1970s. It meant that the military, diplomatic and economic policies of the UK were leaving people with no option but to try and immigrate to the First World. That describes our situation perfectly. Do you know anything about the history of how the U.S. has treated Latin America, from the moment the Spanish/Portuguese/French/Dutch/British etc. left until the present day? Don't blame the victims.
Do you want me to elaborate? I can be more specific if you want.
Regarding health care: Isn't it a bit disingenuous to always cite the UK as a bad example, given the degree to which they underspend? Of course, the solution to health care problems, along with everything else, is anarchism. Put the doctors, nurses, technicians, and other staff in charge of the hospitals and clinics. They do the work. Eliminate the suits and eliminate the state.
Regarding Europe's demographics: The Muslims aren't going to take over. Europe's ruling class won't allow labor shortages if they can help it, and so if they need immigrants, they'll get them from Latin America. Spain and Portugal already do this, to a very large degree, and it will only spread. Remember, urban and suburban Latin Americans are part of the "West," and I think that sort of immigration will be far more palatable than Middle Easterners. It's a win-win situation, for Europe and Latin America.
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the implication that the US and the first world generally owes immigrants the right
to come here because without the history of colonial exploitation everything would be perfect for them at home is a gift to the right wing. For a start who specifically do we owe this to? All the poor people in the world? If not then who is owed and who isn't?
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Killers for Khrist?
From Mr. R.J. "Looney" Rushdoony himself, Mr. Christian Reconstructionist (CR) and Institutes of Biblical Law -- the Mein Kampf of Christian fascism (this first quote was in relation to the killing of Dr. Gunn at the abortion clinic in Florida)...
"The sixth commandment reads, "Thou shalt not kill" (Ex. 20:13). The God who mandates this is also the God who ordered the total annihilation of the Canaanites (Deut. 7:16), so this verse cannot legitimately be interpreted as a defense of pacifism." "What is murder, biblically speaking? It is the slaying of a human being by someone who has not been authorized to do so as a covenantal agent ...the authorization to execute a transgressor under the Mosaic covenant was ordained by God and revealed in His law."
"God in His law requires the death penalty for homosexuals."
Seems pretty clear that at least the CR clerical fascists have no problem with killing unbelievers, sinners, heretics, apostates, blasphemers, and infidels when it comes to it. You can't have holy war (or Culture War) without breaking a few heads, if people get serious enough about it.
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, I guess.
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blame it on whitey
Do you know anything about the history of how the U.S. has treated Latin America, from the moment the Spanish/Portuguese/French/Dutch/British etc. left until the present day? Don't blame the victims.
A large part of the problem of third world countries is the harsh mistreatment of women, something males are reluctant to own up to. It is easier to look outside oneself and blame countries like the US for all their problems instead of looking in the mirror. Women in most third world countries have no rights to vote, own property, or get paid for their labor. Most lack access to birth contol or even rudimentary education. And the men like it that way. They like using organized religion, which they themselves don't follow, to remind women of their place. Keep them barefoot and pregnant. This keeps them overbreeding, and in a sociiety that breeds faster than they can accomadate for, this sends the society endlessly north to take jobs. Wars begin when one society consumes more than its society has resources for, which is what Mexico does. And the cycle is just kicking in. Their population doubles every generation. If you think we have a problem with latino migrants now, you haven't seen nothing yet. There overpopulation will be blamed on us, not of their use of the Catholic Religion as an excuse to keep their women from using birth control. But the men themselves manufacture methamphetamine, form gangs, hustle drug, but won't let their females use anything to control the amount of offspring they must raise, often by themselves.
The problem isn't with gringos, its with their mistreatment of half of their population. Western societies require universtal education for both memebers, which is why they are affluent. These women can keep the population down, provide education for the next generation down, and generate wealth and jobs. Keeping 50% of you population down and citing "cultural reasons" for doing so seems to be a guarantee of a societies poverty. Blaming the US isn't the answer.