(no subject)
I thought I was familiar with all of the shiboleths and epithets that people on the left use to describe conservatives (in the English language at least, since I'm not a hyperpolyglot), but then I came across the word pollutocrat in George Monbiot's latest column. I immediately loved it. It's the perfect label for those people in the ruling elite who pursue wealth and power at the expense of the rest of us and our environment. I thought Monbiot had coined it himself until I typed it into an Internet search engine. I guess the term has been around for a while, but it's escaped my attention until now.
Conservatism and context both start with the same three letters, but I think their affinities end there. Conservatives have the same disregard for context in religion as they do in politics.
The strictest Christian views on birth control are that it should be condemned. The Bible says so. Forget that during the time the Bible was written, people had shorter lifespans, less food security, higher infant mortality, and so forth--in other words, a combination of conditions that would most likely leave even the most fruitful family considerably smaller than those freak families you hear about on the news once in a while, with the mother who's given birth to 16 children and the God-intoxicated father who sees no reason to stop now. He's doing what the Bible says!
Likewise, there are political conservatives who want to reduce government to the size and simplicity it once had in colonial times (with one or two exceptions, like the military and police forces). Things like westward expansion, the Industrial Revolution, or the fact that the U.S. population has grown by hundreds of millions of people are all irrelevant.
The funny thing is that conservatives often consider us the Luddites, when we oppose things like genetic engineering or corporate globalization.
Conservatism and context both start with the same three letters, but I think their affinities end there. Conservatives have the same disregard for context in religion as they do in politics.
The strictest Christian views on birth control are that it should be condemned. The Bible says so. Forget that during the time the Bible was written, people had shorter lifespans, less food security, higher infant mortality, and so forth--in other words, a combination of conditions that would most likely leave even the most fruitful family considerably smaller than those freak families you hear about on the news once in a while, with the mother who's given birth to 16 children and the God-intoxicated father who sees no reason to stop now. He's doing what the Bible says!
Likewise, there are political conservatives who want to reduce government to the size and simplicity it once had in colonial times (with one or two exceptions, like the military and police forces). Things like westward expansion, the Industrial Revolution, or the fact that the U.S. population has grown by hundreds of millions of people are all irrelevant.
The funny thing is that conservatives often consider us the Luddites, when we oppose things like genetic engineering or corporate globalization.