Atheist Meditations

'Two men think they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong. . ."
- Dire Straits, Industrial Disease


Thus the simplest of wisdom is preserved for the next generation in a catchy tune. Of course, it just might be possible that neither of them are the Second Coming incarnate, but that's a blog of another color.

I'm still simmering with an ice cold fire in regards to that one third of the American population who believes that the United States Government's involvement in 9/11 far exceeds mere incompetence. Those special souls who willingly participate in the sort of mental masturbation that is found in the 'documentary' Loose Change.

This film's third and 'final cut' (I sure hope they apologize to Roger Waters) was released on Sunday - with a premier right here in our sister city of Minneapolis. I was tempted to go and see it myself, and then write a review. I couldn't get over the notion that paying money was sort of like giving L. Ron Hubbard a few grand to discover first hand that his program is a load of poor fiction. Fortunately, U-tube has plenty of clips from the previous release. I devoted most of my Sunday morning to these viewings ( We Atheists are always finding productive things to do with that extra morning we get every week.) I was not converted.

Let me say to anyone who has taken this burgeoning mythology seriously: Do not feel ashamed. These things can be seductive, and those of us who are a bit more creative, a bit more worldly, a bit more willing to zig where others zag . . . this conspiracy is like the huge shot-glass of vodka that the little voice in your head tells you not to hit but you want to do it anyway. Bush is an absolutely terrible President and human being, and one could easily imagine him guilty of all sorts of vile acts. Slamming the Loose Change shooter is like going to see a Saw sequel, it is a walk on the dark side, and as Camus said, 'it is essential to know the night.'

Yet now we must travel back.

Towards the end of Loose Change, while discussing the validity of cell phone use on those doomed flights, the narrator makes a relatively unequivocal statement: "The cell phone calls were faked, no 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts'." Yet within barely five minutes, the narrator summarizes the film's arguments while the camera rolls through a hazy scene of debris and the strong, angular shapes of first-responders in uniform. After a clumsy attempt at rhetoric, where the government's reports are the true conspiracy theory, he encourages his viewers to stand up to their tyrannical government with the same heroism of Todd Beamer when he shouted 'Let's Roll!'

Two men think they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong.

Either the phone calls were faked as part of a CIA plot to create a story regarding what happened on 9/11 - to incriminate the hapless catspaws on Al-Queida - or, Todd Beamer was a hero who helped lead a tragically noble charge to reclaim that plane from murderous fanatics. One or the other. You can't disparage the man and everyone else on that plane on one hand, and use him as an emotional icon with the other. Unfortunately, such glaring lapses are just one example of the contempt this film holds for the thinking power of its viewers.

Perhaps the filmmakers are true believers who just happen to make sloppy arguments. More likely they are shameless exploiters to National Tragedy seeking profit and attention. Either way, I will not tolerate this asinine conspiracy theory anywhere near the Ideals of the Left that I still hold dear.

I know myself well enough by 32 to know that I'm a hopeless Idealist. These days I'm inclined to believe that a condition within my brain causes me to obsess over morality and the best life. I refuse to give up on the notion that we can, by making choices about society based on pragmatism and open discussion, create a system that strives to maximize the number of winners and minimize the losers. The exact opposite of the model which now prevails, where a handful at the top profit immensely off the maximum number of losers in the economy.

This fight is not over. Not the fight to save souls, to allow human beings to at least try to grapple with the awesomeness of consciousness without some religious prick retarding their understanding. Not the fight to have some say in the shape of this world and this economy, to fight for the liberties and opportunities that still are at the heart of Liberalism. And certainly not the fight to keep these defeatist, conspiracy-nuts from soiling both the name and the direction of Modern Left.

I expect I'll be getting yelled at a lot and getting called a fair number of impolite names in the next few months. That's o.k., I'm an Atheist. I can take it.

Labels: Loose Change, pseudo-inspirational, Skepticism