Friday, April 07, 2006
The Evag Push-Back
Lately I've been filled with the powerful spirit of revolution. I've gotten all caught up in some of the exciting details of web design, and hopefully I'll have enough time in the next week to revamp the Atheist Seeker image as well as complete my taxes (I'd hate to have to choose one over the other.)
I'd also say that I've been like a spiritual surfer, catching a slice of the wave within our media that's crashing 'gainst the shores of evagelikalism. Just yesterday alone, I caught Kevin Phillip's on my local public radio station, flipped past a two-part History Channel skit on the Anti-Christ, read an article on just how unbelievably corrupt Ralph Reed is, and laughed along with John Stewart - "those 100 million evangelicals who you don't want to offend, but wouldn't ever want to have a conversation with" ; some tipping point has been reached and now the secular media will try to humiliate the evags back into submission. Like with right-wing radio, the target smeared on evags encourages members of the group to come up with the next great rip, similar to how such radio program's callers have been perfecting the blowjob joke for the last six years.
As anyone who reads my rants already knows, I've got no problem ripping into the born agains and their belief system. I've been doing it consistently on my, and others, blogs since way before it was cool.
I also believe that any honest assement has to lay the lion's share of responsibility for Bush's crimes at the doorstep of the suburban mega-churches. Obviously, every one of us American's has to shoulder some of the burden of that tragic war, yet without the evag's blind support to a man who didn't seem to me to have any redeeming qualities 'cept the ability to ape the behaviors of a born again he would not have won re-election or felt he had the support to violate international law and attack Iraq.
Evag's have a remarkably developed capacity for the selective absorbtion of information. They spend more time in the emotionally gratifying confines of their community than a commited pothead can spend high. They ridicule mainstream (secular, liberal) media and cleave to the 'christian' media empires that have been extensively developed over the last few decades. Without a diversity of opinion, they are far too easily manipulated by the cynical science of mass communications. Just look at the Abramoff, Scanlon, Reed trinity. Folks who truly believe that Noah and his progeny are the only humans to survive Yaweh's wrath, or who see a 'debate' on evolution as anything but a small fraction of %1 of 'scientists' who are using their media structure to make a buck - these folks can't participate with any usefulness in the complex debate over the future of our country.
This fable of the Anti-Christ really troubles me. All of what I consider to be the evils of the world require the dehumanization of others. You can't own slaves until you turn them into farm animals in your mind. You can't exterminate a native society until you have convinced yourself they are merely primitive pests. You can't be a member of a 'master' race until all other races are 'proved' to be inferior. The anti-christ image has been used to dehumanize groups for well over a thousand years. Christians vs. muslims, muslims vs. christians, both faiths vs. jews, christians vs. other christians, christians vs. pagans, ect., ect.
Now we have this highly detailed image of the antichrist that most evags can define with frightening consistency. A definition that don't bode well for the future of the planet. He'll come out of the United Nations, he'll bring Peace to the Middle East, he'll move us towards a world government.
A cabal of wealthy oil men intent of expanding the power of their own corporate interests and fuck anybody who gets in their way will certainly pander to a notion that sees the U.N. in such a light. International law, if it were ever enforced, might curtail American Empire. Neo-con ideology and antichrist myth sync up perfectly here. They never miss a chance to diss the U.N. or the silly notion that the U.S. might ever have to respect international law.
As for Peace in the Middle East? Yeah, that's just great. . . anybody who does work hard to try to resolve some of those issues and help improve the lot of those millions who suffer there - that person may talk peace but we know in his heart he's an evil, demon possessed, threat to the world. grr
In resolution, however, I want to just say that while I observe this push-back against the power of the evags, my voice has and shall continue to join in that secular chorus; this alone is not a solution. All cults revel in their persecution fantasys. One way to strengthen the bonds of community, bonds that pulsate with the endorphins of group membership, is to focus on an external enemy who wish to disrupt that bond. The portion of the bible they stole from the jews is all about persecution and times of trial. While the rest of America needs to be woken up to how radically fundamentalist these people are - too many of them do not base their descisions nor their interpetation of reality on . . . well, on reality. Kevin Phillips wrote a whole book on how an evag lust for a great war between Christ and the AntiChrist in the middle east contributed greatly to Bush's crusade in Iraq.
If we openly criticise them they will withdraw even further. They will spend even less time interacting with non-evags, and their media will take every critique out of context and use it to justify the 'war on Christians.'
On a day like today I need to remind myself that every single one of them is a sentient human being. The same pleasures I feel when I write something I'm proud of, or I share some love with my woman - evags have the same pleasures, they just unlock them and reference them in other ways. They have the same mind I do, capable of the same logical computations and flights of glorious imagination. We need to reach out to them and build bridges.
Perhaps we'll never be able to re-integrate them into liberal society until we achieve a culture that can provide the pleasures and the security that an evag fantasy does. Of course, a rant on the collapse of culture in the T.V. society will have to wait for another day.
I'd also say that I've been like a spiritual surfer, catching a slice of the wave within our media that's crashing 'gainst the shores of evagelikalism. Just yesterday alone, I caught Kevin Phillip's on my local public radio station, flipped past a two-part History Channel skit on the Anti-Christ, read an article on just how unbelievably corrupt Ralph Reed is, and laughed along with John Stewart - "those 100 million evangelicals who you don't want to offend, but wouldn't ever want to have a conversation with" ; some tipping point has been reached and now the secular media will try to humiliate the evags back into submission. Like with right-wing radio, the target smeared on evags encourages members of the group to come up with the next great rip, similar to how such radio program's callers have been perfecting the blowjob joke for the last six years.
As anyone who reads my rants already knows, I've got no problem ripping into the born agains and their belief system. I've been doing it consistently on my, and others, blogs since way before it was cool.
I also believe that any honest assement has to lay the lion's share of responsibility for Bush's crimes at the doorstep of the suburban mega-churches. Obviously, every one of us American's has to shoulder some of the burden of that tragic war, yet without the evag's blind support to a man who didn't seem to me to have any redeeming qualities 'cept the ability to ape the behaviors of a born again he would not have won re-election or felt he had the support to violate international law and attack Iraq.
Evag's have a remarkably developed capacity for the selective absorbtion of information. They spend more time in the emotionally gratifying confines of their community than a commited pothead can spend high. They ridicule mainstream (secular, liberal) media and cleave to the 'christian' media empires that have been extensively developed over the last few decades. Without a diversity of opinion, they are far too easily manipulated by the cynical science of mass communications. Just look at the Abramoff, Scanlon, Reed trinity. Folks who truly believe that Noah and his progeny are the only humans to survive Yaweh's wrath, or who see a 'debate' on evolution as anything but a small fraction of %1 of 'scientists' who are using their media structure to make a buck - these folks can't participate with any usefulness in the complex debate over the future of our country.
This fable of the Anti-Christ really troubles me. All of what I consider to be the evils of the world require the dehumanization of others. You can't own slaves until you turn them into farm animals in your mind. You can't exterminate a native society until you have convinced yourself they are merely primitive pests. You can't be a member of a 'master' race until all other races are 'proved' to be inferior. The anti-christ image has been used to dehumanize groups for well over a thousand years. Christians vs. muslims, muslims vs. christians, both faiths vs. jews, christians vs. other christians, christians vs. pagans, ect., ect.
Now we have this highly detailed image of the antichrist that most evags can define with frightening consistency. A definition that don't bode well for the future of the planet. He'll come out of the United Nations, he'll bring Peace to the Middle East, he'll move us towards a world government.
A cabal of wealthy oil men intent of expanding the power of their own corporate interests and fuck anybody who gets in their way will certainly pander to a notion that sees the U.N. in such a light. International law, if it were ever enforced, might curtail American Empire. Neo-con ideology and antichrist myth sync up perfectly here. They never miss a chance to diss the U.N. or the silly notion that the U.S. might ever have to respect international law.
As for Peace in the Middle East? Yeah, that's just great. . . anybody who does work hard to try to resolve some of those issues and help improve the lot of those millions who suffer there - that person may talk peace but we know in his heart he's an evil, demon possessed, threat to the world. grr
In resolution, however, I want to just say that while I observe this push-back against the power of the evags, my voice has and shall continue to join in that secular chorus; this alone is not a solution. All cults revel in their persecution fantasys. One way to strengthen the bonds of community, bonds that pulsate with the endorphins of group membership, is to focus on an external enemy who wish to disrupt that bond. The portion of the bible they stole from the jews is all about persecution and times of trial. While the rest of America needs to be woken up to how radically fundamentalist these people are - too many of them do not base their descisions nor their interpetation of reality on . . . well, on reality. Kevin Phillips wrote a whole book on how an evag lust for a great war between Christ and the AntiChrist in the middle east contributed greatly to Bush's crusade in Iraq.
If we openly criticise them they will withdraw even further. They will spend even less time interacting with non-evags, and their media will take every critique out of context and use it to justify the 'war on Christians.'
On a day like today I need to remind myself that every single one of them is a sentient human being. The same pleasures I feel when I write something I'm proud of, or I share some love with my woman - evags have the same pleasures, they just unlock them and reference them in other ways. They have the same mind I do, capable of the same logical computations and flights of glorious imagination. We need to reach out to them and build bridges.
Perhaps we'll never be able to re-integrate them into liberal society until we achieve a culture that can provide the pleasures and the security that an evag fantasy does. Of course, a rant on the collapse of culture in the T.V. society will have to wait for another day.
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i have typical redneck baptist cousins...when they (and they always do) ask me if i am born again...i say...'no, i did it right the first time'...they pray for me...all the time...when i told them i was a pagan and believed in a Goddess and not in a God and thought Jesus was a really nice guy, but not the son of God...oh man..they all took 3 steps back..waiting for lightning to strike....i think they hold vigils for me now..
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