Maybe we’re feebleminded

As a nation, we seem to be making one boneheaded decision after another.

Iraq has to be the top of that list. We attacked Iraq because we couldn’t let “them” get away with what “they” did on September 11. I have heard numerous seemingly intelligent people utter this other nonsense. The only way this justification works, however, is if all people living in the Middle East are the same. There’s no basis for believing that everyone in the Middle East is “the same,” yet this truly seems to be the foundation of the thought process of many people. Someone from the Middle East attacked us, therefore we must attack someone in the Middle East. And by someone they mean anyone.

By this same logic, when someone in my neighborhood steals my car, I am justified asking the police to throw anyone from my neighborhood in prison. Anyone at all! The important thing is that I am mad or frustrated or embarrassed and I want to cast judgment some more quickly and see something done.

It’s truly amazing that intelligent people can fall for this kind of thinking, but many of us do.

Perhaps it’s because we have trouble categorizing. Take, for instance, the category “the poor.” I know many right-leaning people who claim that all poor people are deservedly poor. And they are lazy, as well as immoral and stupid. This allows many social conservatives to justify social Darwinism at the highest levels of government.

On the other hand, I …

Share

Continue ReadingMaybe we’re feebleminded

World War II and Modern Politics

Recent comments in response to posts on Dangerous Intersection have led me to write this screed.  Screed is to be the operative word for this, for it has been born out impatience and anger.  The biggest danger we face in the long run is the basic ignorance people bring to…

Continue ReadingWorld War II and Modern Politics

The dangers of mythic consciousness

My country, India, claims to be a multi-cultural, multi-religious country. Though there is a sizeable Muslim and Christian population here, 80% of Indians are Hindu by faith. And unlike Christianity or Islam, the tenets of Hinduism are not put down in a book like the Bible or Q’oran. In fact, the Hindu religion has no specific tenets. Religious beliefs, customs, rites, and rituals, vary from region to region (and in some cases family to family). And unlike followers of other major religions of the world, Hindus do not worship any particular god. In India, it is very common for one Hindu to ask another, “Which God do you worship?”  While Hinduism does have its mythology, there is no “official” version put down in Book X or Book Y. You simply believe that a certain god exists, and believe your community’s version of the life history of that particular god.
 
This mythic form of religion contrasts strongly to the rigid and institutionalized religions of the west. One could also say that Hindu beliefs are transmitted through a ‘mythic consciousness’, as opposed to western religions which rely on a consciousness that is linear in nature. While science requires tangible evidence to confirm an event or object to be true or ‘real’, western religions such as Christianity or Islam consider any mention of that event or object in their holy book to be evidence for truth or ‘existence’ of that event or object. Note that western religions still rely on the principle of …

Share

Continue ReadingThe dangers of mythic consciousness

Sore or orities

A sorority at De Pauw University booted out a bunch of its pledges and it made the news.  Here is the link to the story.

Before I continue, I wish to make my own sentiments perfectly clear.  I detest the notion of fraternities and sororities.  They are, to me, childish things which people belong to out of some desire to be special without having to rely on their own abilities–special by association.  Pass the initiation, become accepted as a member, and you then can “borrow” the prestige of the group.

Or be tainted by it, as with, say, the John Birch Society or the KKK. 

This is not to say I see no reason for many of these associations to exist–unions are a very loose form of such things, and I would argue that they serve a positive purpose, although they share the same capacity for abuse of the individual as any large organization, corporate, religious, or social.  They are, to put it in as simple terms as I can, a necessary evil.

My prejudice in this regard stems from one of the more persistent myths underlying American culture–that of the coherent and independent individual.  I say myth because it is patently untrue–likely an impossibility–and yet we struggle collectively toward instantiating the model through our laws, our national ethos, and our image of ourselves as individuals.

Which makes joing a fraternity or a sorority a particularly perplexing contradiction.

One joins such organizations for numerous reasons all of which center or …

Share

Continue ReadingSore or orities

How to teach religion in public schools

It's a matter of "how" rather than "whether" to teach religion in public schools, according to the panel over at "On Faith."  The question put to the panel was whether religion should be taught in public schools.  There was one naysayer (a retired episcopal priest), who argues that trying to teach religion objectively is too prone…

Continue ReadingHow to teach religion in public schools