It's not paranoia if they're really financing campaigns against you
Some people find my pseudo-sociological rants about America compelling, some don't. You know where you stand, and if you wanna skip this, that's cool.
So I'm upstate, not doing much, and I see the may issue of Harper's just lying around. I've really liked Harper's ever since they ran a hilarious and devastating attack on literary pundit Jonathan Franzen in one of their summer issues, so I pick it up and start reading. What do I find but two articles on the state of Dominionism. Dominionism, for my godless secular homies, is a plucky, can-do American religious movement whose membership consists of such disparate sects as Southern Baptists, Catholics and Pentecostals, all of whom are willing to put aside their differences for the sake of establishing an American theocracy.
These articles can be found here or here, but they probably won't tell you more than you know already: there are a lot of people in this country with a lot of money and organizing capability, and they want to have a little talk with your senator about a guy called Jesus.
What I'm getting from all of this is something I probably should have realized sooner: we no longer live in a time where simply valuing empirical logic is apolitical. Maybe I just shouldn't read Harper's after midnight, but it seems to me that what all of these movements are really trying to spread is a system of values in which justification for action relies upon the Bible above all else. Logical evaluation based upon the evidence of the senses is subservient to faith. There are lawyers and lobbyists actively trying to codify this system into law. To champion logic, then, is to be politically opposed to this movement. It's one of those things that's so obvious that no one bothers to make a big deal out of it. Being keen on the advancement of humanity since the Enlightenment seems like a really basic thing, which is why they have a well-organized movement and we don't. So... what do we do? Do we form a Logician Coalition? Do we pull a Gama Islamiya and start providing services in the impoverished areas of this country, winning the people's favor in the places where the government has the least influence? Focus on the individual goals that can be extrapolated from a counter-system, like gay rights and evolution? Make livestrong bracelets about it? Honestly, I don't know what needs to happen, but there needs to be some kind of political mobilization. This is something that everyone from the scientific community to the nation's teachers to the shiny unwashed masses should care about, and a lot of them do care, so maybe they should hang out together. If something like what I'm describing exists already, let me know.
Ugh, tired. On the unrelated, I want more music. Send me a mix & I'll send you one back.
So I'm upstate, not doing much, and I see the may issue of Harper's just lying around. I've really liked Harper's ever since they ran a hilarious and devastating attack on literary pundit Jonathan Franzen in one of their summer issues, so I pick it up and start reading. What do I find but two articles on the state of Dominionism. Dominionism, for my godless secular homies, is a plucky, can-do American religious movement whose membership consists of such disparate sects as Southern Baptists, Catholics and Pentecostals, all of whom are willing to put aside their differences for the sake of establishing an American theocracy.
These articles can be found here or here, but they probably won't tell you more than you know already: there are a lot of people in this country with a lot of money and organizing capability, and they want to have a little talk with your senator about a guy called Jesus.
What I'm getting from all of this is something I probably should have realized sooner: we no longer live in a time where simply valuing empirical logic is apolitical. Maybe I just shouldn't read Harper's after midnight, but it seems to me that what all of these movements are really trying to spread is a system of values in which justification for action relies upon the Bible above all else. Logical evaluation based upon the evidence of the senses is subservient to faith. There are lawyers and lobbyists actively trying to codify this system into law. To champion logic, then, is to be politically opposed to this movement. It's one of those things that's so obvious that no one bothers to make a big deal out of it. Being keen on the advancement of humanity since the Enlightenment seems like a really basic thing, which is why they have a well-organized movement and we don't. So... what do we do? Do we form a Logician Coalition? Do we pull a Gama Islamiya and start providing services in the impoverished areas of this country, winning the people's favor in the places where the government has the least influence? Focus on the individual goals that can be extrapolated from a counter-system, like gay rights and evolution? Make livestrong bracelets about it? Honestly, I don't know what needs to happen, but there needs to be some kind of political mobilization. This is something that everyone from the scientific community to the nation's teachers to the shiny unwashed masses should care about, and a lot of them do care, so maybe they should hang out together. If something like what I'm describing exists already, let me know.
Ugh, tired. On the unrelated, I want more music. Send me a mix & I'll send you one back.