If we are going to go deep, I think that we need to consider a few other aspects of what has been discussed in today’s piece. The part that evangelicals play is mentioned. However, there are more elemental ideas which undergird all of religion and large segments of our society as well as many other concepts which have had profound effec…
If we are going to go deep, I think that we need to consider a few other aspects of what has been discussed in today’s piece. The part that evangelicals play is mentioned. However, there are more elemental ideas which undergird all of religion and large segments of our society as well as many other concepts which have had profound effects. There is a moralism that feeds into exceptionalism, supremacy, and the inherent value of prosperity. The wealthy, along with millions of ordinary people, including many of the poorest are god-fearing, evil-hating persons - - evil-hating being defined as hating those miscreants who defy god’s authority or the authority of the special people ostensibly doing their particular god’s bidding, who defy others in high positions, and those who offend certain traditions or select values, such as strict and rigid notions about acting and behaving. They often do not identify as religious but they have narrowly defined, if rather nebulous or vague beliefs about everything from capitalism to cultural practices.
I think that the need to avoid disruptive change or any significant re-evaluation of the status quo and the structure of the social order is quite strongly motivating and irrational. Change and questioning authority or convention threatens certain people, frequently causing them to reflexively react without much conscious awareness of the dynamics, typically leading to alliances or identification with ultra-conservative/reactionary groups and causes.
Suffering and grueling work are also valued as subtle but steady producers of virtue, character, and superiority, ideas primarily generated by religion and religiosity or by those who are inclined to sacrifice everything to reign supreme or to defeat real or imagined competitors and enemies. Idle hands cause trouble and active critical minds lead to the sort of knowledge that has condemned women to subjugation and condemnation since Eve.
Conformity is king for many of these people. I’m afraid that woke voters may not be enough to get us out of the mess we are in. It’s starting to look as if we will have to see groups organizing like the French activist student group I recently read about called “Enrages” (translated “Angry People”) from 1967. They started out as a tiny group and quickly inspired thousands to raise holy hell, with large protests and riots until many of the social changes were forced which the French workers enjoy today.
This won’t happen here as long as conformity, good behavior, and the benevolence of authority are drilled into the brains of school students universally through compulsory indoctrination based on the Prussian academy model from the 1700’s or commercialized training academies for twelve formative years.
A democracy is only as good as its citizens. When we are cranking out drones and dumbed-down consumers and followers, we give the arrogant elites an excuse to step in as presumptuous problem solvers. Either citizens will learn democratic values by living them as children, or they will learn something else.
Funny coincidence, since Dickens is mentioned by Thom here. I just happen to be about 1/4 way thru Dickens' "Hard Times," which is excruciatingly about education of the young. Don't know if Dickens had the "Prussian academy model" in mind, but key characters are "Mr. Gradgrind" proprietor of the hellish school of stringent realism, and his star teacher, "Mr. McChoakumchild."
(Subtlety didn't sell serials, apparently.) In the context of this whole discussion, I am somewhat oppressed by the hoary, interminable perpetuity of the struggle we are talking about. I am not sure it is irrelevant to reflect back on the forever war to subjugate and discredit women. Riane Eisler's "The Chalice and the Blade" just popped into my mind. I don't imagine Dickens as a conscious feminist, but so far it looks like the key disruptive plot-mover in "Hard Times" is a girl.
I thought I had sent an answer to you. But I'm just seeing a notice that my reply didn't get posted. I think it may be lost but will see if I can locate it later. I'm not sure I will be able to reproduce it. My apologies.
If we are going to go deep, I think that we need to consider a few other aspects of what has been discussed in today’s piece. The part that evangelicals play is mentioned. However, there are more elemental ideas which undergird all of religion and large segments of our society as well as many other concepts which have had profound effects. There is a moralism that feeds into exceptionalism, supremacy, and the inherent value of prosperity. The wealthy, along with millions of ordinary people, including many of the poorest are god-fearing, evil-hating persons - - evil-hating being defined as hating those miscreants who defy god’s authority or the authority of the special people ostensibly doing their particular god’s bidding, who defy others in high positions, and those who offend certain traditions or select values, such as strict and rigid notions about acting and behaving. They often do not identify as religious but they have narrowly defined, if rather nebulous or vague beliefs about everything from capitalism to cultural practices.
I think that the need to avoid disruptive change or any significant re-evaluation of the status quo and the structure of the social order is quite strongly motivating and irrational. Change and questioning authority or convention threatens certain people, frequently causing them to reflexively react without much conscious awareness of the dynamics, typically leading to alliances or identification with ultra-conservative/reactionary groups and causes.
Suffering and grueling work are also valued as subtle but steady producers of virtue, character, and superiority, ideas primarily generated by religion and religiosity or by those who are inclined to sacrifice everything to reign supreme or to defeat real or imagined competitors and enemies. Idle hands cause trouble and active critical minds lead to the sort of knowledge that has condemned women to subjugation and condemnation since Eve.
Conformity is king for many of these people. I’m afraid that woke voters may not be enough to get us out of the mess we are in. It’s starting to look as if we will have to see groups organizing like the French activist student group I recently read about called “Enrages” (translated “Angry People”) from 1967. They started out as a tiny group and quickly inspired thousands to raise holy hell, with large protests and riots until many of the social changes were forced which the French workers enjoy today.
This won’t happen here as long as conformity, good behavior, and the benevolence of authority are drilled into the brains of school students universally through compulsory indoctrination based on the Prussian academy model from the 1700’s or commercialized training academies for twelve formative years.
A democracy is only as good as its citizens. When we are cranking out drones and dumbed-down consumers and followers, we give the arrogant elites an excuse to step in as presumptuous problem solvers. Either citizens will learn democratic values by living them as children, or they will learn something else.
Funny coincidence, since Dickens is mentioned by Thom here. I just happen to be about 1/4 way thru Dickens' "Hard Times," which is excruciatingly about education of the young. Don't know if Dickens had the "Prussian academy model" in mind, but key characters are "Mr. Gradgrind" proprietor of the hellish school of stringent realism, and his star teacher, "Mr. McChoakumchild."
(Subtlety didn't sell serials, apparently.) In the context of this whole discussion, I am somewhat oppressed by the hoary, interminable perpetuity of the struggle we are talking about. I am not sure it is irrelevant to reflect back on the forever war to subjugate and discredit women. Riane Eisler's "The Chalice and the Blade" just popped into my mind. I don't imagine Dickens as a conscious feminist, but so far it looks like the key disruptive plot-mover in "Hard Times" is a girl.
I thought I had sent an answer to you. But I'm just seeing a notice that my reply didn't get posted. I think it may be lost but will see if I can locate it later. I'm not sure I will be able to reproduce it. My apologies.