 |
| This blog is getting too damned heavy, James. Lighten up, man, or I'll... |
Apr 7, 2011
"Strangest Theology"
That phrase, used two TMR posts back, requires sturdier support than my neurological innards.
It also needs careful separation from the private religious practices of people who thoughtfully work out their personal relationships with Eternity and who feel no compulsion to force others to adopt their spiritual conclusions.
Kevin Phillips was far from the first to recognize that pentecostalism and premillenial dispensationalism* -- in their various forms -- drive the political behavior of vast swathes of people. But he was among the first to offer a comprehensive look at how modern vote whores exploit masses who derive their deepest beliefs from unusual and unverifiable interpretation of scriptures, Christian and otherwise.
His book on the subject is "American Theocracy" (2006). His research data and conclusions are likely to please no political partisans.
To summarize, perhaps dangerously so, Phillips suggests that the behavior of right-wing religio-statists can be explained by their broad constituency of people convinced that we live in end times, on the Rapture's verge. Planning for any sort of future other than that detailed by St. John the Divine therefore becomes unnecessary and perhaps even anti-God.
Phillips refuses to absolve secular statists of the left.
"Conservatives fixate on the provocations (vulgar popular culture, e.g.) and ignore the excesses visible in in the neo-puritan and rightest countertide, and liberals have reversed the error; keening over the religious threat while ignoring the secular provocation." (p. 209)
The excesses of state religiosity could include such things as recriminalizing private sexual behavior, transferring general tax revenues to religious bodies, and restricting the private spiritual practices of believers unfavored by the state.
The leftist secular excesses would continue the protracted fraud of free everything for all who "need" it, a Long March to the rule of the proletariat, supervised only by the new priesthood of selfless commissars.
---
"American Theocracy" is useful in a number of ways, particularly in the demographic maps and charts relating religious beliefs to voting behavior. It would be easy to disagree with some Phillips conclusions, but there's no denying that he brought an impressive amount of information to the table.
---
* That mouthful can be explained as the view that God has gone through several periods of relating more or less benignly to His human creatures but that He's now fed up and will, quite soon, implement the horrors and joys of Revelations.
It also needs careful separation from the private religious practices of people who thoughtfully work out their personal relationships with Eternity and who feel no compulsion to force others to adopt their spiritual conclusions.
Kevin Phillips was far from the first to recognize that pentecostalism and premillenial dispensationalism* -- in their various forms -- drive the political behavior of vast swathes of people. But he was among the first to offer a comprehensive look at how modern vote whores exploit masses who derive their deepest beliefs from unusual and unverifiable interpretation of scriptures, Christian and otherwise.
His book on the subject is "American Theocracy" (2006). His research data and conclusions are likely to please no political partisans.
To summarize, perhaps dangerously so, Phillips suggests that the behavior of right-wing religio-statists can be explained by their broad constituency of people convinced that we live in end times, on the Rapture's verge. Planning for any sort of future other than that detailed by St. John the Divine therefore becomes unnecessary and perhaps even anti-God.
Phillips refuses to absolve secular statists of the left.
"Conservatives fixate on the provocations (vulgar popular culture, e.g.) and ignore the excesses visible in in the neo-puritan and rightest countertide, and liberals have reversed the error; keening over the religious threat while ignoring the secular provocation." (p. 209)
The excesses of state religiosity could include such things as recriminalizing private sexual behavior, transferring general tax revenues to religious bodies, and restricting the private spiritual practices of believers unfavored by the state.
The leftist secular excesses would continue the protracted fraud of free everything for all who "need" it, a Long March to the rule of the proletariat, supervised only by the new priesthood of selfless commissars.
---
"American Theocracy" is useful in a number of ways, particularly in the demographic maps and charts relating religious beliefs to voting behavior. It would be easy to disagree with some Phillips conclusions, but there's no denying that he brought an impressive amount of information to the table.
---
* That mouthful can be explained as the view that God has gone through several periods of relating more or less benignly to His human creatures but that He's now fed up and will, quite soon, implement the horrors and joys of Revelations.
Apr 6, 2011
The looming government shutdown
I used "looming" because AP did. Pretty scary word. Anything that will loom over you will crap on you, eh?
But not too much. The National Journall adds color to to the notion that "OMG! A Shutdown!" is mostly hot halitosis designed to scare Hell out of you.
It also offers a tidy affirmation of what we've been saying around here forever:
"Executive agencies must submit lists of essential employees and "plans for an orderly shutdown in the event of the absence of appropriations" to OMB. But the contingency plans are difficult to come by, possibly because of the political implications of classifying government employees as 'nonessential.' "
That should be about all the illustration anyone needs that government as we know it makes sense only as a gigantic jobs program.
I'm not necessarily for a Washington shutdown, but a Washington shut up would be welcome.
But not too much. The National Journall adds color to to the notion that "OMG! A Shutdown!" is mostly hot halitosis designed to scare Hell out of you.
It also offers a tidy affirmation of what we've been saying around here forever:
"Executive agencies must submit lists of essential employees and "plans for an orderly shutdown in the event of the absence of appropriations" to OMB. But the contingency plans are difficult to come by, possibly because of the political implications of classifying government employees as 'nonessential.' "
That should be about all the illustration anyone needs that government as we know it makes sense only as a gigantic jobs program.
I'm not necessarily for a Washington shutdown, but a Washington shut up would be welcome.
Programs! Get your programs here! (con't.)
Chapter Two in the TMR tome subtitled, "Who Us Iowans Will Allow You to Vote For For President of Us and the Other 56 States." Chapter One covered five of the yawners, all nominally male though not necessarily testiculated.
The two girls in the running have wandered in over the past few months. One of them is attractive. The other is interesting.
Sarah Palin: Even in western Iowa, Sarah will probably never recover from claiming foreign policy credentials because of her ability to see Russia from Alaska. The same applies to her identification of Africa as a country. A plurality of Iowans is proud to know better.
Mrs.Palin is lovely, vivacious, and many of us lust for an invitation to help her hunt her moose. Unfortunately that's not enough to overcome an atavistic fear of turning the country over to someone whose library card is assessed an inactivity fee.
Her other problem is that she seems far more interested in being in the Fortune 500 than in the White House. (Her last Iowa appearance was a book-signing session in a Wal-Mart near me.)
Michelle Bachmann: It is presumptuous to write her off as "batshit crazy," even though her default mode is loaded with eye-rollers. The one-word descriptive is "ignorant." If Sarah's library card is dusty, Michelle never had one. If she attended high-school history classes, her teacher was the basketball coach.
But she is dead serious about becoming our president, concentrating on one of the great natural constituencies around here, the anti-gay, anti-abortion evangelicals. She talks to them all at every opportunity, knowing their power to pack and control the Iowa caucuses as they did in 2008 when we presented you with the Rev. Mr. Huckabee on a platter. If you require further proof of her ambition, she has just hired a guy named Wes Enos, Huckabee's 2008 Iowa political director.
I describe her as interesting because Michelle is a political flowering of some of the strangest theology ever to cross the minds of shamans anywhere, going back to the mystics of ancient history and continuing through moderns such as Tim LaHaye. I'm sure she doesn't know that, any more than she knows the location of the shot heard 'round the world. But she understands in the shrewdest possible way its vote-getting power in an age where our masters are supremely interested in engaging our emotions rather than our logical thought processes.
---
Yes, I will get around to Ron Paul before long. He is not being as bluntly snubbed as he was in the last go-round.
The two girls in the running have wandered in over the past few months. One of them is attractive. The other is interesting.
Sarah Palin: Even in western Iowa, Sarah will probably never recover from claiming foreign policy credentials because of her ability to see Russia from Alaska. The same applies to her identification of Africa as a country. A plurality of Iowans is proud to know better.
Mrs.Palin is lovely, vivacious, and many of us lust for an invitation to help her hunt her moose. Unfortunately that's not enough to overcome an atavistic fear of turning the country over to someone whose library card is assessed an inactivity fee.
Her other problem is that she seems far more interested in being in the Fortune 500 than in the White House. (Her last Iowa appearance was a book-signing session in a Wal-Mart near me.)
Michelle Bachmann: It is presumptuous to write her off as "batshit crazy," even though her default mode is loaded with eye-rollers. The one-word descriptive is "ignorant." If Sarah's library card is dusty, Michelle never had one. If she attended high-school history classes, her teacher was the basketball coach.
But she is dead serious about becoming our president, concentrating on one of the great natural constituencies around here, the anti-gay, anti-abortion evangelicals. She talks to them all at every opportunity, knowing their power to pack and control the Iowa caucuses as they did in 2008 when we presented you with the Rev. Mr. Huckabee on a platter. If you require further proof of her ambition, she has just hired a guy named Wes Enos, Huckabee's 2008 Iowa political director.
I describe her as interesting because Michelle is a political flowering of some of the strangest theology ever to cross the minds of shamans anywhere, going back to the mystics of ancient history and continuing through moderns such as Tim LaHaye. I'm sure she doesn't know that, any more than she knows the location of the shot heard 'round the world. But she understands in the shrewdest possible way its vote-getting power in an age where our masters are supremely interested in engaging our emotions rather than our logical thought processes.
---
Yes, I will get around to Ron Paul before long. He is not being as bluntly snubbed as he was in the last go-round.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)