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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
If you are a fundamentalist, a rightist, a dogmatist, you want to be fed your opinions. You want to be fed what to think, how to dress, how to act and how to operate in the world. All of that comes from submitting to the brainwashing as a child. Speak only when spoken to. Sit in the chair and react to the bell. Suffer the slap of the ruler or the hand at any sign of non compliance and of course, suffer the ultimate when your indiscretion extends beyond that. Suffer the agony of eternal burning in hell. Eternal.
You know that the rules governing everything seen, thought, felt are pre determined and there is little leeway in straying from that path if you want the carrot. Eternal salvation.
if you wrote this piece or you read it and find it thought provoking, either you did not grow up under the harsh spotlight of religion or you have suppressed the memories. If you find the piece disconcerting because it grates on your 'values' my guess is that more than likely you were subjected to that mental training from the earliest days of your ability to understand your native tongue. Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy etcetcetc.
I grew up in that environment. I remember nuns in my grammar school dragging a sobbing child through the hall after a good beating, routine use of the ruler and a life time spent looking over my shoulder for some invisible guy they called god. Trained to believe that there is only a small group of superior individuals who are 'blessed' with the knowledge of right and wrong and the ability to see it in the rest of society and to exercise their power over those who do not have the 'divine connection to the creator'.
This is in my opinion, the essence of what divides the left from the right. It's cultural conditioning that many have assumed away, forgotten about or remain fearful of understanding because of the threatened consequences.
How does it change?
Mandatory study of comparative religions in elementary schools. Children must be educated in the diversity of religious belief. Not so that they can choose one but so that they can choose none. So that they can see the absurdity of the fear and irrationality and grow to be adults who have the capacity to look, listen, learn and be self reliant in all manner of human discourse and endeavor.
We've finally gotten to the point in our society where ignorance has become strength. I've been working on a project this past week that has required listening to hours and hours of events around the 1964 Republican Convention. I'm no Republican, but I kept finding myself amazed at how far we've fallen as a people - the sheer eloquence of even the most vocal street demonstrator was breathtaking. It was as though I was hearing words spoken from another planet. This couldn't have been America. Were we ever like that? People spoke in sentences, articulated their feelings. The press however, were still viewed with jaundiced eyes, so I guess some things have never and will never change.
But what happened to us? Where did it go so terribly wrong? When did presenting yourself as a caricature of a person become the norm? When was it okay to present a lifelike replica of a human being as the real thing?
Palin reminds me of the High School Cheerleader running for Student Body President - all flash and perky adrenaline, signifying basically nothing. Just wants the attention, has really no clue what's required once she gets it. Thinks somehow no one will notice. Convinced the world really is naive and Americans can be fooled by anything, at least once and for long enough not to realize so much has been lost while we were being dazzled by secret winks and seductive smiles
Lately, it's become the norm in our society that presentation and flash have become all - substance is ridiculed, called "elitist" - as if having any knowledge is considered evil, daring to question is deemed unpatriotic. As if patriotism and blind obedience are bedmates.
I believe knowledge is power. The ability to rationally look at an issue and examine it is crucial, especially living in our society now in this precarious place. To see the con for what it is and question what's going on behind the curtain, to ask just what it is we're agreeing to. There's too much at stake to pretend, too much at stake to point ludicrous fingers and label people "elitist" because they have the nerve to question. There is no room for that, not now.
The people playing to the "Joe sixpacks"of the world know exactly what they're doing. Create diversion and trot out fluff and it blindsides everyone. Appoint the "babe soccer mom" to position of power, hoping no one will notice it's a con - a diversion tactic to put across a bogus claim of "maverick" and "Washington outsider" in order to achieve the darker motive. All the false modesty and "gee whiz" sham as a pretense of "tuning in" with a largely snowed and dazzled voter base - too busy imagining a file cabinet full of prurient teenage scenarios to be able to see what's being done under the guise of political change.
It's no change - it's the same old boss. But it's hoped you don't notice.
Yes, if I were a true conservative I would be in a state of abject despair. To find that my ideals were being trivialized and marketed as a con, an ugly sham would be horrible.
The Chinese curse has finally come to fruition - we are truly living in "interesting times".
I love how pseudo intellectuals go on and on and on.
They find that the mental sound of their words massaging their brains is the erotic experience they lack in the physical world.
FYI: I am an independant.
The republican vice presidents who were not dumb were Dick Chaney, Richard Nixon, G. Bush. Id rather see Palin.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
