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Did you hear this recently?
The best way to gage a conservative is NOT by salary anymore.
A more reliable gage is by how many times one attends church???!!!
We’ve been following the steady inroads the neocons have been making reversing the separation of church and state. I haven’t seen statistics on how many votes they’ve picked up over the years with their phony diatribe of conservative religious ideals….but the whole thing is started to make some grizzly sense to me now.
Consider why religion, particularly the psycho religious right strain, is having such a growing fellowship with neoconservativism and its warped view of success and capitalism:
We’ve all seen those stuffed suits go to church every Sunday and then stab their fellow workers in the back Monday morning. I’ve always thought such people basically wanted to impress others with their “bridal party” Sunday attire…or perhaps get a quick forgiveness for their week’s misdeeds, but now I’m thinking there’s much more going on here than meets the eye. Our new hollow corporate greed monster has found a way to brush its morally corrupt actions under the rug and fill its hollow moral heart with visions of success, using religion as an increasingly viable vehicle to do so. Similarly, the psycho religious right has found a wonderful ideological match with the greed monster.
The psycho religious right movement is a true psychological fit with business when you think of how the right wing neocons approach life, in terms of their “eyes focused forward” formula for success. The religious right’s interpretation of religion may appear to endorse Christ, but nothing could be further than the truth. They actually take on more of an Old Testament view of religion in that religious rewards are basically bestowed on the “chosen people”.
While the truest forms of Christianity concentrate on actually “being like Christ”, the people we’re talking about here would rather take a pragmatic approach to religion. After all, they would reasons, in the modern world we live in it’s impractical to be like Christ. One of the key parts of their rationalization provides that the world is flawed and imperfect, so anything which rises above this God forsaken mess must have something going for it. Thus we find the modern capitalistic “formula for success” being morphed together with their religious ideals. This belief in success suddenly allows them to maneuver within the capitalistic system…. or perhaps even operate as a corporate level if need be.
Another important part of their religious interpretation is that God essentially micromanages every little thing in the world, providing us with winners and losers. Those that do adopt an air of success and who generally believe that it is the BELIEF in success that gets you there (Limbaughism)….suddenly find a wonderful companion in religion because this must mean that God is looking down with glowing eyes on your success! We must also note that as time approaches Armageddon, these people are actually looking at their success as possibly giving them a better seat at the front of the bus.
Never mind that Christ said a camel would more easily pass through a needle’s eye than a rich man would pass through the gates of heaven. In the mind of the modern religious right, and particularly those Reconstructionist level right wingers that view the world as one which should be conquered, there is a sense that one better be practical about spreading capitalism, linked of course to the church. This also immediately translates into a national level belief for them in terms of America’s overall success as having to be inextricably linked to a direct endorsement by God himself. All this provides a wonderful self-feeding, heart inspiring effect. You see, we ARE spreading his truth throughout the world. Just look at what we’ve accomplished!
Having concluded that we are proceeding with God’s will, they are careful to note the important guiding lights and symbols that got them there. A focus on ideals and symbols of those ideals are not only important to the way that they rationalize life itself but to how they specifically believe we should live our lives. The symbols take precedence over one’s individualistic appeals. It is interesting to note that the symbols of success provide a vehicle to carry out one’s work, whatever that might entail, while also enabling one to be strategically shielded by the potential misdeeds that might occur!
To them Christ is actually a SYMBOL of a number of things, rather than the giver of a monumental philosophical message that has the potential to unleash each individual’s full thought process. They view religious insight not as something which empowers one to do good deeds, but to more superficially become part of the “formula for success”. The moral symbolizations generally turn off a true thought process or anything which would be viewed as misguided philosophy. For instance, they don’t think of the direct religious illogic of the death penalty, or its specific individual by individual catastrophic loss, they concentrate on the symbolism of punishment. They don’t think of the neocons in power or the war as representing any specific misdeeds ….they think of these things in terms of symbols of hope for our spread of success throughout the world. Let’s not philosophize about this or that issue. This represents inefficiency and confusion, with eyes out of focus. What’s happening is generally under the direction of God. He will guide us and maintain our spirit as long we hold up the hollow symbols of moral value and success.
We find a similar situation has evolved in the corporate world, where those who carry out their misdeeds are shielded by their important symbols of success. Thus you see those in the business world have developed an unusual camaraderie in their adornment of corporate symbols of success….to the level of it being a religious level experience which melds seamlessly with right wing religious ideals….whether it be working hard, obeying authority, or not stepping out of line. These symbols of success guide and motivate, and keep one’s eyes looking forward so as not to notice the wreckage underneath.
Respect for higher authority: Let’s not forget that those that essential have to be preached to generally have to have the meaning of their lives explained to them and who tend to enjoy this form of indoctrination. They are not very content with thinking things out for themselves. Never mind Christ’s essential message that nearly shook the old testament right out of the Bible….ie….YOU have the power to make it happen. Yes you, you poor slob, can RECEIVE a bounty of knowledge and understanding by thinking things out, if only you open your heart to it (and by the way AVOID being distracted by what others say are ICONS of truth). How revolutionary the concept that man himself has the necessary attributes to find ways to make life livable on earth!
Not so for the religious right. They interpret life as a brief stay prior to eternal life in heaven. Let’s not agonize so much about how to make the world some kind of true planet in which the human condition can progressively evolve, when true bliss is only truly attainable in heaven. Furthermore, let’s not waste our time listening to anyone who purports to have any such worldly answers to making the planet a very livable and enjoyable place. Only God himself has such answers. As a matter of fact, such people could be held in CONTEMPT for appearing to act as if THEY actually had some kind of divine knowledge.
And the neocons have actually succeeded in making management science out of this. Pick up any of the various new texts on management theory or organizational theory. Most go almost completely counter to the wonderful new concepts of human resource management in terms of trying to unleash the true creative power in people and put them in environments which spur improved working relationships and so forth. You see, this is where we have evolved in our approach to profit making. Following orders and keeping one’s eye on the ball also generally fits with one’s general paranoia about potentially losing one’s job if you step out of line. Better to accept the situation as being “right” and obey and even develop a religious level sense of allegiance.
Yes, quite clearly, the religious right movement is directly feeding into blind capitalism, our overall moral degradation, our THINKING degradation, and the inevitable goalless output which is created through being overly focused on hollow ideals. We are becoming an ever increasingly SICK society because of these religious wackos with stuffed suits. We have the leading neocon right wing force of the Republican party essentially in a dysfunctional religious level trance, operating on a set of ideals and morals which are considered to be religiously correct and success oriented. Problem is, as high and mighty as they might think their ideals are, they endorse a basic “formula for success” which is anti-social and actually quite insane in that it provides no logically basis on which to justify their actions. Curiously, they also seem to have a wonderful knack of getting involved with crooked deals and IMMORAL behavior. How could that be possible you say? Well it’s no wonder when you think about it, if you’re blind to true thought itself or any true morals in the first place.
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