John, Nice post. And not boring at all. As usual, made for a good read.
I can’t say much about Republican vs Democrats being a resident of India. My few years in the US were pretty busy with the kids and I didn’t give a thought to politics. Not that I do otherwise. :-) Your points on religion are pretty similar to mine. I have to add that religion is mostly used as a tool to aid regional patriotism & politics, IMHO. The only thing is that the region keeps growing as the religion spreads. And as the region grows, the other regions/religions start going crazy. This takes me back to Asimov’s Foundation series. 1. If humanity survives another 10,000 years, what will those humans think of us? 2. Will we be remembered just like how we remember the cave men? 3. Will they laugh at our religion based politics/divisions and lack of unity? 4. And will these stupid religions be taken to other planets if we colonize them? Regards, Venkat On Sun, 12 Jan 2020 at 6:30 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > My experience this year was similar to Krishna's (see post below). > > With the following corollaries: > > A) I changed my mind about the Republican Party in the USA; in > particular about Republicans in Congress. I'm 67 years old and I first > voted when I became eligible to vote at age 18 (George McGovern Vs > Richard Nixon). Since then I've voted in dozens of elections: local, > state, national. In all that time I've only voted for a Republican 3 > times (the same person in 3 successive elections): the District Attorney > for southeastern Massachusetts, who had a good reputation as a > corruption-fighter & fair-minded prosecutor. I hold & have always held > extremely negative views of virtually all nationally prominent > Republicans of my adult lifetime, including Nixon, Reagan, both > Presidents Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain & many others. So I've never > had particularly positive feelings about the Republican Party, either > its policies/philosophy/legislative agenda, or its prominent > representatives. > > BUT!! > > But until this year I did feel that at least some Republicans shared > with me a common conception of the meaning of the United States of > America — who we are, what our values are, what we stand for — and I > believed that our understandings of the meaning of "patriotism" had at > least some overlap. I no longer believe these things to be true. > > I now believe that the Republican Party is a white-supremacist > patriarchal, nihilistic, kleptocratic death cult strongly influenced by > evangelical Christian eschatology/grifting & organized along the lines > of a Sicilian-American mafia crime family but largely controlled by a > clique of trans-national/non-national/post-national oligarchs. I believe > that white-supremacist revanchism is the core organizing motive of > rank-and-file Republicans. (The Republican oligarchs in charge care > little about such things; they don't care about religion or race or any > of that stuff; they care about money and power. But they know how to > harness the strong resentments of the common volk & are applying the > latest & greatest AI-based tools to that task.) > > This nihilistic/(Christian) death-cult foundation explains the > Republican antipathy to science, in particular to climate science, but > also to things like the "anti-vax" movement and the categorical refusal > to apply U.S. tax dollars to study the epidemic of mass murder in the > USA using the proven tools of social science. The role of the NRA as a > launderer of foreign money, pretty much exclusively from Russia, in > exchange for promoting this anti-science, pro white-supremacy movement > has been largely under-studied and under-reported. > > Summary: to assume that any Republican Senator or Representative in > Congress has any fealty to their oath of office, or to the United States > of America itself, is naive at best & arguably derelict or complicit. > Mitch McConnell, for example, is -- himself, a single person -- a > greater threat to the continued existence of the United States of > America than was The Confederate States of America, with all her armies. > > I apologize for sounding like I'm pitching an over-the-top screenplay > for another James Bond movie, but this is my actual feeling about the > political situation in the United States, and it has changed > considerably since last year. > > B) I've changed my mind about religion in general. I now think it's all > mostly bullshit, and more harmful than helpful. I think its time has > finally passed and that humans need to leave religion behind. > > I grew up Catholic; baptized & confirmed. I a was an altar boy for about > 4 years during those years when the Catholic Mass was still said in > Latin. As a graduate of a very highly-regarded Jesuit high school, I got > a full dose of deep Catholic theology, including, for example, reading > the works of St. Augustine & other early "church fathers" & theologians > in the original Latin. > > I'm still kind of obsessed with that stuff. It still pervades my novels. > I'm intrigued by the deep ideas that motivated men to leave the > "material world" & go live in remote monasteries high atop thousand-foot > high rocky outcroppings & spend their lives in hard (celebrate) work & > prayer. (See, for example, my novella "The Pains"). > > But I think it's all bullshit. Although I myself pretty much abandoned > all belief in the Catholic worldview in which I was raised starting > about age 18, I still maintained some affection for the Church & the > Christian fable that the Church preserved. & I had similar divided but > generally positive attitudes about Judaism & Islam, based on my own > personal experience & study. > > Obviously religion is a reality in the world today. It means a lot to > billions of people. People fight & die over it. It's not going away any > time soon. > > But, in 2019, I changed my mind about it. Before I was a-religious, but > I believed it was OK if religion stuck around; it was not concern of > mine so long as it didn't step on my toes. > > Now, 2019, after 40 years as a somewhat disinterested student of > religion as a curious sociological phenomenon, I'm pretty much > anti-religion. I think it's all pretty much superstition, tribalism & > bullshit. And I'm especially against religions premised on a believe in > an "afterlife". I believe that after-life-based theologies are the > source of unspeakable, immeasurable suffering. Because (pardon me if I > state the obvious), if you believe that, for example, your horrible > cruelty in "this life" will be "forgiven" & that you'll be granted a > pass to infinite paradise in "the next life," what's to stop you from > being a monster according to the rules of your particular fairy-tale > religion? Conversely, what's to motivate you to prevent, for example, > the murder of beautiful, distinct, actual, real children — each an > actual human person; each from a family that will never recover from > their murder — in their classrooms, if you really believe that their > being murdered sends them to heaven to hang out all day ("Angels too > soon!")(doing what, exactly?) with a very benevolent "caucasian" (i.e. > European, long-haired, bearded, generally unmuscular) Jesus. > > OK this post is far too long and may generate (or not?) a lot of flack. > > Also, it's been a few years, I think, since I posted here, although I'm > a regular lurker. > > To those of you who've joined this list since my most recent post (2 or > 3 years ago?): Hello! Nice to meet you. > > Comments welcome. > > (Unless and until & I feel the need to go hide in a cave to avoid > replies.) > > Happy New Year to all, > > Please forgive any obvious typos or lost thoughts, and, as our friend & > guide Udhay has had occasion to remind me, "assume goodwill." > > jrs > > > > > > > On 2020-01-09 05:29, Krishna Udayasankar wrote: > > So this may seem obvious to many, but it was a fairly big deal for me > > - to realise (actually, accept) that there are individuals who cannot > > be moved by reason and logic - be it on political odayissues or > > personal > > issues. I suppose I'd always viewed their imperviousness as having > > some limit, some breaking point, but I was forced to accept that I > > might be chasing the infinite here (Was it Einstein who said...?) > > > > It's one thing to state this as I do, it has been completely another > > to reconcile to it as a fact and to learn to change my expectations > > and operations accordingly. You might say that this was (and still is > > in some ways) a shift in world-view that led to a existential crisis > > (pardon me for sounding like an angsty teenager). If reason is not > > supreme, then what is? How does one continue to interact with people > > if reason is not what connects us, and how does one operate knowing > > that reason cannot work, will not triumph (PS. Autocorrect just filled > > that as "trump" which, while not incorrect, is a step on the road to > > the place where irony goes to die. > > > > -End of rant- > > ---------------------------------------- > > Krishna Udayasankar, PhD. > > > > > >
