Bill Moyers discusses America’s cultural divide with Jonathan Haidt

From Moyers & Company, Bill Moyers discusses our contentious culture with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. Here is my summary of the excellent conversation, in which Haidt offers a roadmap for those of us weary from years of unproductive cultural clashes: Groupish tribalism is generally good because it ramps up cooperation among those in the ingroup while animosity toward outsiders is usually minimal. But tribalism evolved for purposes of "war," so that when a certain intensity is reached, "a switch is flipped, the other side is evil. They are not just our opponents. They are evil. And once you think they are evil, the ends justify the means and you can break laws and you can do anything because it is in service of fighting evil." (min 4:30). Haidt argues that though "morality" often makes us do things we think of as good, it also makes us do things we think of as bad. In the end, we are all born to be hypocrites. Our minds didn't evolve simply to allow to know the truth. In social settings, our minds are not designed to really let us know who did what to whom. "They are finely tuned navigational machines to work through a complicated social network in which you've got to maintain your alliances and reputation. And as Machiavelli told us long ago, it matters far more what people think of you than what the reality is. And we are experts at manipulating our self-presentation; we are so good at it that we believe the nonsense we say to other people."

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Iraq redux

Ralph Nader sees the "danger" of Iran for what it is:

The same neocons who persuaded George W. Bush and crew to, in Ron Paul's inimitable words, "lie their way into invading Iraq" in 2003, are beating the drums of war more loudly these days to attack Iran. It is remarkable how many of these war-mongers are former draft dodgers who wanted other Americans to fight the war in Vietnam.

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The price of our adventure in Iraq

At Huffpo, law professor Marjorie Cohn adds up the horrendous damage incurred by the soldiers and citizens of the United States and by citizens of Iraq, as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is good that she sums up these costs, because President Obama and other politicians are mightily spinning Iraq as a just war honestly began and the results as somehow worthwhile.

When he announced that the last U.S. troops would leave Iraq by year's end, President Barack Obama declared the nine-year war a "success" and "an extraordinary achievement." He failed to mention why he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. He didn't say that it was built on lies about mushroom clouds and non-existent ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. Obama didn't cite the Bush administration's "Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq," drawn up months before 9/11, about which Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill reported that actual plans "were already being discussed to take over Iraq and occupy it - complete with disposition of oil fields, peacekeeping forces, and war crimes tribunals - carrying forward an unspoken doctrine of preemptive war."
While our politicians continue to lie to us about Iraq, a man who wanted the citizens of the United States to know the truth about Iraq is being treated as dangerous:
The U.S. government considers Manning one of America's most dangerous traitors. Months ago, Obama spoke of Manning as if he had been proved guilty, saying, "he broke the law." But Manning has not been tried, and is presumed innocent in the eyes of the law. If Manning had committed war crimes instead of exposing them, he would be a free man today. If he had murdered civilians and skinned them alive, he would not be facing the death penalty. Besides helping to end the Iraq war, the leaked cables helped spark the Arab Spring. When people in Tunisia read cables revealing corruption by the ruling family there, they took to the streets. If Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should not be tried as a criminal. He should be hailed as a national hero, much like Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers helped to expose the government's lies and end the Vietnam War.

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Turning to God and away from people

At Experimental Theology, Richard Beck discusses what it means in modern America to "work on" one's relations with "God."

The trouble with contemporary Christianity is that a massive bait and switch is going on. "Christianity" has essentially become a mechanism for allowing millions of people to replace being a decent human being with something else, an endorsed "spiritual" substitute. For example, rather than being a decent human being the following is a list of some commonly acceptable substitutes:

  • Going to church
  • Worship
  • Praying
  • Spiritual disciplines (e.g., fasting)
  • Bible study
  • Voting Republican
  • Going on spiritual retreats
  • Reading religious books
  • Arguing with evolutionists
  • Sending your child to a Christian school or providing education at home
  • Using religious language
  • Avoiding R-rated movies
  • Not reading Harry Potter.

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Trump Bashing

Lawrence O'Donnell has made some stunning claims about Donald Trump. While Trump was "running for president," why weren't these issues front and center for the media?   After all, there's a long way to fall from successful billionaire to financial failure-liar.   I don't know how accurate O'Donnell is, but he looks every bit as confident as Trump looked when Trump was allegedly running for president.    If there is truth to O'Donnell's claim that Trump is a billionaire, why did the media so readily call him "billionaire" as opposed to "alleged billionaire"?   I'll be watching to hear more about these allegations, but I suspect that they are true based upon a gut feeling and based on ample evidence that the modern American media excels at serving as the stenographer for (allegedly) powerful media-savvy people.

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