Here’s a thing: the faux news header is, :Where is the leader of Hezbollah hiding?”
Well, first of all, I think the answer is “In your Face.” What’s more though, is that the whole set up is obvious; the hiding, the chase, the inevitable spider whole, so called.
What these LOOZERS at the News Corporation are gonna get, real soon, is that this whole situation is way more fucked than they think.
To the point, I also do not think the old-money Republicans have half the control over the evangelicals that they would like. These people are cloud cuckoo crazy land. It’s going to be odd, but I think the modern youth-Christian movement is more likely to end sad or silly than scary, and I certainly hope so. I do not discount that the sad could indeed be very sad.
For the modern evangelicals, the simple thing many people are afraid to grapple with, both inside and outside the movement is that apocalyptic cults don’t usually end well. As with the idea of “Home” that I mentioned the other day in the isolationism discussion, the dynamic engaged by worship does indeed exist. Whatever you call it, even if you only acknowledge the reality shaped by behaviors, modeled on beliefs, it’s there. Personally I think there’s a strong argument that there’s a lot more, that it’s obvious there’s a lot more than the materialist analysis allows. But regardless, the modern evangelicals are dreaming a bad end.
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I have long been a surprisingly optimistic person, and I think that a big part of that is that I acknowledge that most of human history has been bloody.
It’s very sad. Eventually the sorrow of the world will stop the fighting for a while, again.
For our near future, though, I encourage everyone to begin practicing your cognitive stretching exercises. Thing can change dramatically in a very short time, that’s proven often enough through history, as well.
What does it mean to exercise? What does it mean, to change dramatically? This is a good exercise to start with: Imagine the most dramatic changes reasonably conceivable, try to find a variety, experiment with variations of every kind.
We can more easily accomplish what we can imagine.
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
As you can see by my sig line, my “imagine” tends to have been written years ago by John Lennon.
I’ve also been thinking this morning about the concept of “home.” Recently I read a speech by Bernice Johnson Reagon from the 1980’s where she talks about the difference between “home” and a “coalition.” As a real meta way of looking at things, I’ve been thinking that as globalization occurs, perhaps more and more people are looking for a narrow view of “home” that they can define and then defend. This splintering of people into those just like us and then fighting to the death to defend it is happening just at the moment that Lennon’s dream of “no countries to kill or die for” is right before our eyes.
Well, unfortunately, I think the mass of humanity is not ready just yet to give up the various identitiy labels we battle over.
The way I see it, the reality that our labels are based on is indeed shifting. Most people have a very hard time dealing with significant changes. To compensate for the instability they perceive in the world around them, they first associate and then cling with ever more fervor to increasingly narrow and rigid cultural identities.
To compensate for the instability they perceive in the world around them, they first associate and then cling with ever more fervor to increasingly narrow and rigid cultural identities.
Exactly chimneyswift. I think that is just what is happening. I just don’t know what to do about it. Seems as if the world needs a massive dose of calmness and comfort. And we’re just stuck in a cycle of chaors.
It seems to me that when chaos reaches some illusive point of no return, there isn’t always much that one can do except stay upright and ride it out. Then to be there when it burns itself out, ready to help pick up the pieces and build on a more solid foundation next time, hopefully.