On the Reagan
Revolution, and the Politicisation of Christianity
I have often gotten “in trouble” for calling out the
Religious Right.
Those riding in to the defense have usually been pretty Liberal minded, but were strongly Christian…and mistook my Ire for Anti-Christian-ism.
”Not all Christians are like that…you cannot lump us all together”….
I have countered that it ain’t me who Politicised Christianity, but a relatively small subsection of Christians, and their well funded and well organized allies.
To these good folks who have called me out, I have said,” Your Religion has been taken from You…it, really, is up to you to take it back”.
Here’s a great overview of how the Right of American Politics stole Christianity, and turned it into a Militant, Intolerant, ultimately Revolutionary Force for Bad.: http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v09n3-4/whynow.html
Those riding in to the defense have usually been pretty Liberal minded, but were strongly Christian…and mistook my Ire for Anti-Christian-ism.
”Not all Christians are like that…you cannot lump us all together”….
I have countered that it ain’t me who Politicised Christianity, but a relatively small subsection of Christians, and their well funded and well organized allies.
To these good folks who have called me out, I have said,” Your Religion has been taken from You…it, really, is up to you to take it back”.
Here’s a great overview of how the Right of American Politics stole Christianity, and turned it into a Militant, Intolerant, ultimately Revolutionary Force for Bad.: http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v09n3-4/whynow.html
Beginning around the Third Century,A.D., the Project of
Canonisation began, in earnest…but it wasn’t until Gutenburg that
Fundamentalism, and it’s Bibliolatry, became a force for Dogmatism and
Stagnation(2).
We’ve likely always had this tendency, but natural traits
can be manipulated.
With greater Understanding of the Universe, through Science, the world gets (from our perspective) more and more Complex….it was always so, we just know more and more about it, as the Inquiry proceeds.
”God”, and other Supernatural explanations for the Unknown, are pushed into narrower and narrower enclaves. For folks who do not understand Science, this is worrisome. It is even more so, for Folks who…for whatever reasons…Need a Protector…especially the transcendent kind. The Psychological(and Political, and Philosophical!) implications are large. Folks, understandably, React.
The Reaction takes many forms, from reluctant acceptance, to Modification, to outright Rejection of whatever new Knowledge is presented. This last has been artificially increased, for Political Ends.
Enter the Reagan Revolution…the Retrenchment of “Conservatism”///and all of the antiscientism, and antiintellectualism that accompanied it.
Instead of incorporating the New Knowledge, ever expanding, into a new Syncretism, the New Knowledge was/is (quite cynically) Denied, out of hand.
The Earth appears to be orders of magnitude Older than 6,000 years? It must be Satan, and his Minions at the University!!!
The Right used this Phenomenon for it’s own purposes…but now, after almost 40 years, it may be backfiring….reaching the point of Absurdity.
The Tiger the Rightist Leadership/controllers harnessed for political gain, has chewed through the reins….boxing the controllers in.
The Fundamentalism of Religion has been applied to Economics, as well as to Government.
This is a very Dangerous development.
Science tells us that the Climate is Changing, quite Dramatically. But we cannot respond, because almost half the population(the loudest half) Denies it….and regards such qualified assertions as an Attack on their Faith.
Objective Observation indicates that “Free Market Fundamentalism”(piss on Us) has Failed…but more than half the population Believes…and they cannot be dislodged by anything as “secular” as Evidence.
In the most important(objectively) areas of Modern Life, Dogmatic Mythology has replaced Reason and Thought.
Deliberately.
The Engineers of this Surreality at least some of them, must surely see the Problem, here.
But How to respond?!
They have backed themselves into a Corner, Ideologically, Rhetorically, and Politically.
Short Term Political Manipulation has Doomed all of us….unless We, in the “Reality Based Community”, find our Backbones and stand up to Ignorance and it’s deliberate manipulation.
With greater Understanding of the Universe, through Science, the world gets (from our perspective) more and more Complex….it was always so, we just know more and more about it, as the Inquiry proceeds.
”God”, and other Supernatural explanations for the Unknown, are pushed into narrower and narrower enclaves. For folks who do not understand Science, this is worrisome. It is even more so, for Folks who…for whatever reasons…Need a Protector…especially the transcendent kind. The Psychological(and Political, and Philosophical!) implications are large. Folks, understandably, React.
The Reaction takes many forms, from reluctant acceptance, to Modification, to outright Rejection of whatever new Knowledge is presented. This last has been artificially increased, for Political Ends.
Enter the Reagan Revolution…the Retrenchment of “Conservatism”///and all of the antiscientism, and antiintellectualism that accompanied it.
Instead of incorporating the New Knowledge, ever expanding, into a new Syncretism, the New Knowledge was/is (quite cynically) Denied, out of hand.
The Earth appears to be orders of magnitude Older than 6,000 years? It must be Satan, and his Minions at the University!!!
The Right used this Phenomenon for it’s own purposes…but now, after almost 40 years, it may be backfiring….reaching the point of Absurdity.
The Tiger the Rightist Leadership/controllers harnessed for political gain, has chewed through the reins….boxing the controllers in.
The Fundamentalism of Religion has been applied to Economics, as well as to Government.
This is a very Dangerous development.
Science tells us that the Climate is Changing, quite Dramatically. But we cannot respond, because almost half the population(the loudest half) Denies it….and regards such qualified assertions as an Attack on their Faith.
Objective Observation indicates that “Free Market Fundamentalism”(piss on Us) has Failed…but more than half the population Believes…and they cannot be dislodged by anything as “secular” as Evidence.
In the most important(objectively) areas of Modern Life, Dogmatic Mythology has replaced Reason and Thought.
Deliberately.
The Engineers of this Surreality at least some of them, must surely see the Problem, here.
But How to respond?!
They have backed themselves into a Corner, Ideologically, Rhetorically, and Politically.
Short Term Political Manipulation has Doomed all of us….unless We, in the “Reality Based Community”, find our Backbones and stand up to Ignorance and it’s deliberate manipulation.
“Some scholars have suggested that fundamentalism had its
birth in the invention of the printing press, and that its spread across the
planet region by region, religion by religion, has paralleled the growth of
literacy.”
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