Political Quotes

[Snoopy]

The Triumph of Religion over Reason


With the reelection of George W. Bush, and the prospect of long-term Republican hegemony over American politics, it seems likely that American civilization is now transitioning from the twilight phase I wrote about several years ago in The Twilight of American Culture to an actual dark age. Indeed, the British historian Charles Freeman published an extended discussion of this transition as it occurred during the late Roman Empire, the title of which could serve as a capsule summary of our current president: The Closing of the Western Mind. Mr. Bush, God knows, is no Augustine; but Freeman points to the latter as the epitome of a more general process that was under way in the fourth century: namely, "the gradual subjection of reason to faith and authority." This is what we are seeing today, and it is a process that no society can undergo and still remain free. Yet it is a process of which administration officials, along with much of the American population, are aggressively proud. Interviewing a number of policy advisers and people who had known or been close to Mr. Bush at one time, journalist Ron Suskind discovered a consensus among them: they felt the president -- along with his evangelical base -- believes he is on a mission from God and that faith trumps empirical evidence. "A writ of infallibility ... guides the inner life of the White House," writes Suskind. Thus a senior adviser to Bush said that the White House regards people like Suskind as living in "the reality-based community" -- i.e., among people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." But, he went on, "that's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."


And so, where are we now? Early in 2005 the New York Times reported that increasingly, across the nation, secondary school teachers were leaving the subject of evolution out of the curriculum because they'd get in trouble with their principal if he or she found out they were teaching it. Even when evolution is listed in the curriculum, it may not make it into the classroom. Many administrators discourage teachers from discussing it, and teachers often avoid the topic out of fear of protests from fundamentalist parents. Add to this the pervasive hostility toward science on the part of the current administration (e.g., stem cell research), and we get a clear picture of the Enlightenment being steadily rolled back.


Religion also shows up in the current American tendency to explain world events (in particular, terrorist attacks) as part of a cosmic conflict between Good and Evil, rather than in terms of political processes. This is hardly limited to the White House. Manichaeanism rules across the United States. According to a poll taken by Time magazine -- can this really be correct? -- 59 percent of Americans believe that John's apocalyptic prophecies in the Book of Revelation will be fulfilled, and nearly all of these believe that the faithful will be taken up into heaven in the "Rapture" (the latter discussed in Thessalonians). According to the Book of Revelation, God is going to punish the nonbelievers with various plagues, after which Christ will return to earth -- with a sword in his mouth -- for the final showdown between Good and Evil (the battle of Armageddon).'

The vengeful quality of the apocalyptic vision comes across quite clearly in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye (one of the founders of the Moral Majority) and Jerry Jenkins, which had, by early 2003, sold more than 62 million copies. One in eight Americans reads these books, and they are a favorite with American soldiers in Iraq. The Book of Revelation is pretty much the road map for the novels, and the worldview is reassuringly black-and-white, with "good" triumphing in the end. At the end of the series, Jews who have persisted in their faith are consigned to the Everlasting Fire, along with Catholics, Muslims, Hindus, and devotees of other "aberrant religions." Seas turn to blood; locusts torment the unbelievers; and 200 million demonic horsemen wipe out a third of the planet -- a kind of cosmic ethnic cleansing, as it were. It doesn't get much darker than this.

Morris Berman – “Dark Ages America - The Final Phase of Empire.”

[Snoopy]

The Breakdown of Education and Critical Thinking


Increasingly, the evidence piles up that intellectually speaking, this nation is very obviously "living in the dark." What is one to make of the fact (reported in the New York Times early in 2005) that a number of school districts around the country are now making sobriety tests a regular feature of the school day? Or that millions of American adults are ignorant of the most elementary facts, such as the identity of our enemy in World War II? Or that more often than not, our children graduate from university not knowing the difference between an argument and an assertion, are unable to reason clearly, and don't really know what evidence is? One listens to a radio interview with a travel agent in Arizona who relates how numerous customers ask him questions such as whether it would be cheaper to take the train to Hawaii rather than the plane; or one reads that 11 percent of young adults can't find the United States on a world map, and that only 13 percent of them can locate Iraq. It turns out that only 12 percent of Americans own a passport, that more than 50 percent were (prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall) unaware that Germany had been split into eastern and western sectors in the aftermath of World War II, and that 45 percent believe that space aliens have visited the earth.

As in the Middle Ages, when most individuals got their understanding of the world from a mass source -- i.e., the Church -- most Americans get their "understanding" from another mass source: television. Political and historical "analysis," on this basis, typically amounts to a few slogans they picked up the day before from broadcast news or even from a late-night comedy show. No surprise, then, that on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, 42 percent believed Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11 attacks, and 32 percent believed that he had personally planned them.

Morris Berman – “Dark Ages America - The Final Phase of Empire.”

[Snoopy]

Legalization of Torture


More than anything else, I suppose, torture evokes the culture of the Dark and Middle Ages. We associate these eras with barbarism, with "cruel and unusual punishment," and use phrases such as "medieval torture chamber" to characterize them. As we observed, nothing, for Voltaire, was more representative of pre-Enlightenment regimes. What, then, are the implications of Abu Ghraib, which, along with Afghanistan and GuantanamoBay, constitutes only "part of an American gulag," as Al Gore candidly put it? Just to understand the larger picture, for a moment: Not only are we supporting governments that routinely practice torture, but in the wake of 9/11 we began transferring suspected terrorists to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and Morocco to do our dirty work for us, which includes hanging prisoners from the ceiling, subjecting them to electric shocks, forcing objects up their rectums, tearing their fingernails out, and fracturing their spines. It seemed, though, as time went on, that we were willing to be pretty brutal ourselves. Since Abu Ghraib, there have been periodic revelations in the press about American-led torture being worse, and more widespread, than previously thought. Articles began appearing with headlines such as "The US. Military Archipelago," or "Secret World of US. Interrogation." Phrases used in these unflinching reports include "worldwide constellation of detention centers," "elaborate CIA and military infrastructure," and "global detention system run by the Pentagon."


In fact, writes Mark Danner, the author of Torture and Truth, America has been transformed "from a country that condemned torture and forbade its use to one that practices torture routinely." Americans began torturing prisoners after 9/11 and never really stopped. For example, the near drowning of suspects, or "water-boarding," a technique long used in Latin American dictatorships, is now common to us. Yet there was no outcry over any of this, and the few congressional hearings that took place were "distinguished by their lack of seriousness." And what should we make of the post-2004 election outcome of all this, that Alberto Gonzales, the man who wrote the legal briefs justifying the use of torture, is now, in Orwellian fashion, head of the Department of Justice? Add to this the substantial evidence that many of these practices are a standard feature of the domestic prison system, and our return to the Dark Ages would seem to be complete.

Morris Berman – “Dark Ages America - The Final Phase of Empire.”

[Snoopy]

Marginalization of the United States on the World Stage


Would you believe it if I were to tell you that the U.S. infant mortality rate is among the highest for developed democracies, and that the World Health Organization rates our health care system as thirty-seventh best in the world, well behind that of Saudi Arabia (which came in as twenty sixth)? That the American legal system, at one time the world standard, is now regarded by many other nations as outmoded and provincial, or even barbaric, given our use of the death penalty? That we have lost our edge in science to Europe, that our annual trade deficit (half a trillion dollars) reveals a nation that is industrially weak, and that the US economy is being kept afloat by huge foreign loans ($4 billion a day during 2003)? What do you think will happen when America's creditors decide to pull the plug, or when OPEC members begin selling oil in euros instead of dollars? The Boston Globe actually compared our habit of borrowing against the future to that of ancient Rome, and an International Monetary Fund report of 2004 concluded that the United States was "careening toward insolvency." Meanwhile, while America is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on phony wars, the money is piling up in Europe and Asia, and in 2003 China finally supplanted the United States as the number one destination for worldwide foreign investment, with France weighing in as number two. Almost any of our domestic economic problems, writes the Washington Post, "is a greater threat to the economy than virtually any imaginable form of terrorism." And in response, we do nothing about it.

Morris Berman – “Dark Ages America - The Final Phase of Empire.”

[Pathless]

Heavy, Snoopy.

Thanks for posting.

[flowperson]

Thanks Snoopy...as one who has sadly followed this decline in the American spiritual foundations over the years, I can tell you that I mourn daily for the fate of the future generations in the U.S. who don't have a clue. Mainly because most of us have become victims of false images and not practitioners of substantive progress. All is maya.

There are rays of light to focus on however. Democracy Now is a daily news program available on a podcast at the itunes store, and at independent broadcast outlets around the U.S. It's an opportunity for everyone to get a dose of the truth on a regular basis. It has been doing this for over ten years now...remarkable. I suggest that all Americans who really care about all of this to tune in as often as possible.

And thank you pathless for helping to awaken the sleepers.

flow....

[Pathless]

"The Sleeper must awaken."

[flowperson]

Pathless...May the force be with you, young believer.

flow....

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by Pathless

"The Sleeper must awaken."

Boy I just read all of that link and there's some wacky stuff in there.

[Tao_Equus]

A lot of Dubya quotes here. Heres one that makes me think of him.

Among politicians the esteem of religeon is profitable; the principles of it are troublesome. Benjamin Whichote

Some more I like:

Madness may be rare in idividuals... but in groups, political parties, nations and eras its the norm. Friedrich Nietzsche

Although he is regularly asked to do so, God does not take sides in American politics. George J Mitchell

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. Groucho Marx


This one shows that things have not changed much over the pond there for a long time:

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet. Mark Twain

And this one is truly prophetic:

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. Sinclair Lewis


Great idea for a thread by the way

[Pathless]

Originally Posted by Tao_Equus

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. Sinclair Lewis

Bingo BOingo!!

Imperial March begins to play

[cyberpi]

Originally Posted by Tao_Equus

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. Sinclair Lewis

October 11, 1492

[Pathless]

"Demandingly obvious is our insistent need to develop a new curriculum based up on the inescapable fact that the survival of humankind is threatened as never before, and that we must discover how to create practical ways of living humanely together as one family of people in a culturally pluralist world existing precariously on this little Spaceship Earth.

Meanwhile we may expect that during the coming decades millions of America's college, high school, and middle school youth will become alienated from traditional values and patterns of American life. Perhaps they should be alienated from our society's obsession with material things, economic growth, status symbols, power and money, and cults of violence, racism and nationalism. They might then become attuned to newer value systems and life styles essential for the new age: the socially moral requirements of universal human empathy, limitations upon human growth, sweeping transformation of present modes of production and distribution of goods and services, drastic reduction in population, development of world political authority, and the like."

From Life-Centering Education by Edward G. Olsen and Phillip A. Clark, published in 1977

[Pathless]

Here's an excerpt from an interview with Nixon and reporter David Frost in 1977:

Frost: "So ... what ... you're saying is that there are certain situations ... where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal."

Nixon: "Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal."

Frost: " By definition."

Nixon: "Exactly, exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security ... then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating a law."

[17th Angel]

"You cannot go to a 7/11 or a Dunkin' Donuts, unless you have a slight Indian accent, I'm not joking.." - Sen, J Biden.
---------------------------
"god is the one who chooses our rulers." Rep, K harris,

Explaining why the separation of church and state is "a lie." harris also said;

"If you are not electing christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin..."
-------------------------
"I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day." --New Orleans Mayor R Nagin
--------------------------------
"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005
----------------------
"See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s**t, and it's over." --chomping on a dinner roll while talking about the Middle East crisis with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 summit, St. Petersburg, Russia, July 17, 2006
(lol SIMPLE!! I can't believe no one else has thought of that.... With a bloke like bush on your team, your safe.)