Comments on: The Wisdom of Doubt, Part VII http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/ Exposing the ugly truths about the Bush Administration. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:50:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.1.3 by: The Mahablog » Over Rove http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-272012 Tue, 14 Aug 2007 18:36:29 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-272012 [...] A number of Karl Rove retrospectives online today give Rove credit for cobbling together a coalition of small government conservatives and religious conservatives, but I say not all that credit is deserved. As noted here, right-wing religion and right-wing politics have been fellow travelers in America since at least the 1930s. Richard Hofstadter wrote in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Vintage Books, 1962, p. 131): Their heightened sense of isolation and impotence helped to bring many of the dwindling but still numerically significant fundamentalists into the ranks of a fanatical right-wing opposition to the New Deal. The fundamentalism of the cross was now supplemented by a fundamentalism of the flag. Since the 1930’s, fundamentalism has been a significant component in the extreme right in American politics, whose cast of thought often shows strong fundamentalist filiations. [...] […] A number of Karl Rove retrospectives online today give Rove credit for cobbling together a coalition of small government conservatives and religious conservatives, but I say not all that credit is deserved. As noted here, right-wing religion and right-wing politics have been fellow travelers in America since at least the 1930s. Richard Hofstadter wrote in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Vintage Books, 1962, p. 131): Their heightened sense of isolation and impotence helped to bring many of the dwindling but still numerically significant fundamentalists into the ranks of a fanatical right-wing opposition to the New Deal. The fundamentalism of the cross was now supplemented by a fundamentalism of the flag. Since the 1930’s, fundamentalism has been a significant component in the extreme right in American politics, whose cast of thought often shows strong fundamentalist filiations. […]

]]> by: The Mahablog » The Wisdom of Doubt: The Series http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-269073 Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:37:26 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-269073 [...] Part VII: The “God Gap” is a myth. [...] […] Part VII: The “God Gap” is a myth. […]

]]> by: Pat http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-266038 Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:12:09 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-266038 "The Religious Right has an irrational fear of everything and everyone who isn’t Them. The perception that liberals and Democrats are hostile to religion grew out of their own fevered imaginations, not reality. Amy Sullivan wants to cater to their delusions. I say the nation needs to be freed from the grip of right-wing insanity. " There is a cultural war, but one largely waged by one side. To understand this better along with the apparent perception of persecution a sober assessment of a host of anxieties is in order. Frank Benedetti, a Unitarian, observes: "Our fears include escalating crime rates, drug addictions, natural disasters, runaway asteroids, genocides and new fatal diseases. A lot of us try to medicate ourselves from our past, present and future with drugs and alcohol. Because we are wary of our neighbors, we distance ourselves and live alone with no shared experiences. We are plugged into our IPods, afraid even to be alone with our own thoughts. In our self-service economy, we pump our own overpriced gas, check out our own groceries and hastily retreat back to the comfort of our SUVs which serve as mobile fortresses. When trying to reach companies on the phone, we traverse through an endless chain of punching in numbers so we can listen to recorded voices in various languages. On the computer, even sex has become available without human contact. Is it any wonder that people find solace in religions that provide a packaged set of beliefs designed to create a sense of family, comfort and stability?" ...and what reduces one's cognitive dissonance more than seeking out an external cause for the anxiety? You don't have to be fundamentalist to share these concerns. However, there are marked differences in the ways that fundamentlists and others address them. While some engage themselves in society, others withdraw from it and circle round the wagons as protection from those who might dilute the strength of religious conviction. “The Religious Right has an irrational fear of everything and everyone who isn’t Them. The perception that liberals and Democrats are hostile to religion grew out of their own fevered imaginations, not reality. Amy Sullivan wants to cater to their delusions. I say the nation needs to be freed from the grip of right-wing insanity. ”

There is a cultural war, but one largely waged by one side. To understand this better along with the apparent perception of persecution a sober assessment of a host of anxieties is in order.

Frank Benedetti, a Unitarian, observes:

“Our fears include escalating crime rates, drug addictions, natural disasters, runaway asteroids, genocides and new fatal diseases. A lot of us try to medicate ourselves from our past, present and future with drugs and alcohol. Because we are wary of our neighbors, we distance ourselves and live alone with no shared experiences. We are plugged into our IPods, afraid even to be alone with our own thoughts. In our self-service economy, we pump our own overpriced gas, check out our own groceries and hastily retreat back to the comfort of our SUVs which serve as mobile fortresses. When trying to reach companies on the phone, we traverse through an endless chain of punching in numbers so we can listen to recorded voices in various languages. On the computer, even sex has become available without human contact.

Is it any wonder that people find solace in religions that provide a packaged set of beliefs designed to create a sense of family, comfort and stability?”

…and what reduces one’s cognitive dissonance more than seeking out an external cause for the anxiety?

You don’t have to be fundamentalist to share these concerns. However, there are marked differences in the ways that fundamentlists and others address them. While some engage themselves in society, others withdraw from it and circle round the wagons as protection from those who might dilute the strength of religious conviction.

]]> by: The Mahablog » The Wisdom of Doubt, Part IX http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-264555 Sun, 22 Jul 2007 11:18:43 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-264555 [...] After Scopes, fundamentalists seethed with humiliation and resentment. Back in Part VII I quoted Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Vintage Books, 1962) Their heightened sense of isolation and impotence helped to bring many of the dwindling but still numerically significant fundamentalists into the ranks of a fanatical right-wing opposition to the New Deal. The fundamentalism of the cross was now supplemented by a fundamentalism of the flag. Since the 1930’s, fundamentalism has been a significant component in the extreme right in American politics, whose cast of thought often shows strong fundamentalist filiations. … [...] […] After Scopes, fundamentalists seethed with humiliation and resentment. Back in Part VII I quoted Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Vintage Books, 1962) Their heightened sense of isolation and impotence helped to bring many of the dwindling but still numerically significant fundamentalists into the ranks of a fanatical right-wing opposition to the New Deal. The fundamentalism of the cross was now supplemented by a fundamentalism of the flag. Since the 1930’s, fundamentalism has been a significant component in the extreme right in American politics, whose cast of thought often shows strong fundamentalist filiations. … […]

]]> by: maha http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263729 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:38:10 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263729 moonbat -- could you email me? The emails I'm sending you are bouncing. Thanks. moonbat — could you email me? The emails I’m sending you are bouncing. Thanks.

]]> by: moonbat http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263724 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:15:29 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263724 Comment 21, mamameow - that's the best story I've heard in a long time. Good for your customer claire and for all of us who have to endure (former) neurotics like her. Comment 21, mamameow - that’s the best story I’ve heard in a long time. Good for your customer claire and for all of us who have to endure (former) neurotics like her.

]]> by: Asbury Park http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263610 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:50:48 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263610 Wonderful essay. Amy Sullivan is an educated elite, & she writes & thinks like one. She's inside the Washington Beltway, her sensibility is K Street & Think Tank. But in a sense, she's a creation of the post-Reagan protestant right & is unable to get outside that "box." She's certainly not a visionary. Wonderful essay. Amy Sullivan is an educated elite, & she writes & thinks like one. She’s inside the Washington Beltway, her sensibility is K Street & Think Tank. But in a sense, she’s a creation of the post-Reagan protestant right & is unable to get outside that “box.” She’s certainly not a visionary.

]]> by: Doug Hughes http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263606 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:30:08 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263606 Re your comment mamemeow, sign me up. I will do my part. Seriously, it is a great series. If I was sitting across the table, I would ask your opinion on the thinking of the founding fathers in instituting the separation of Church & State. What were they trying to do? Have we allowed what the founding fathers feared? Is there any way of remining people that the separation was not the brainchild of religion? Re your comment mamemeow, sign me up. I will do my part.

Seriously, it is a great series. If I was sitting across the table, I would ask your opinion on the thinking of the founding fathers in instituting the separation of Church & State. What were they trying to do? Have we allowed what the founding fathers feared? Is there any way of remining people that the separation was not the brainchild of religion?

]]> by: mamameow http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263573 Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:10:42 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263573 maha, i have little different slant on these evangelical moombats. i own a day spa and do pedicures. last year my customer claire said how much christians are persecuted, she mentioned abortion, etc. i told her that was not persecution. persecution would be if all people with ugly feet had to have them amputated. that was persecution. she always seemed to be down and depressed, unhappy, no smiles. i figured this year i would not see her because of my treatment of her last year. this she came in all smiles, happy, satisfied. she said her husband has forbidden her to go to church except on sunday. someone else in the shop mentioned viagra. claire chirps "it really works" "it's great". i told her "claire you little tart you are getting laid". she said yes and life was wonderful!!!!!!!! so, i think these moonbats need to get laid, maha, i have little different slant on these evangelical moombats. i own a day spa and do pedicures. last year my customer claire said how much christians are persecuted, she mentioned abortion, etc. i told her that was not persecution. persecution would be if all people with ugly feet had to have them amputated. that was persecution. she always seemed to be down and depressed, unhappy, no smiles. i figured this year i would not see her because of my treatment of her last year. this she came in all smiles, happy, satisfied. she said her husband has forbidden her to go to church except on sunday. someone else in the shop mentioned viagra. claire chirps “it really works” “it’s great”. i told her “claire you little tart you are getting laid”. she said yes and life was wonderful!!!!!!!! so, i think these moonbats need to get laid,

]]> by: DoubleCinco http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263527 Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:08:28 +0000 http://www.mahablog.com/2007/07/18/the-wisdom-of-doubt-part-vii/#comment-263527 I have a notion that there are some significant differences between the kool-aid drinkers and the kool-aid mixers. The mixers frame the threat driven conflict and serve it up in impassioned doses of the sticky sweet dualism of "us and them". Emphasizing what a group is against helps to strengthen the group's identity and energize those inside the boundary that separates. But I wonder if they are as personally serious about the theology as they are about the money and power? I agree with you that the drinkers are truly at the pre-modern level of consciousness and not disposed to questioning authority or the "givens" of cultural and theological identity. I think they also more easily tend towards super-naturalism that buffers the duress of mundane lives. I have a notion that there are some significant differences between the kool-aid drinkers and the kool-aid mixers. The mixers frame the threat driven conflict and serve it up in impassioned doses of the sticky sweet dualism of “us and them”. Emphasizing what a group is against helps to strengthen the group’s identity and energize those inside the boundary that separates. But I wonder if they are as personally serious about the theology as they are about the money and power?

I agree with you that the drinkers are truly at the pre-modern level of consciousness and not disposed to questioning authority or the “givens” of cultural and theological identity. I think they also more easily tend towards super-naturalism that buffers the duress of mundane lives.

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