|
Dissolve into Evergreens
|
||||
|
Meme's, their Origins and the Damage They Do What... Orcinus' David Neiwert is a much more authoritativ... The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page And the bald-... The Asshole Discount Right now I work in retail. ... “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl in Elevator” Title f... Political Compass Your political compass Economic ... Scientific American: Video Games Good for Visual S... This Land is My Land, Used to be Your Land I few ... Why Does it Cost so Much? The universe of opportu... Plucked from the Ether Posted by a Jordon over at... Justin Oldham - Politics and Patriotism
Wilco The Flaming Lips The New Radicals John Mayer Zero 7 Dream Theater Radiohead Death Cab for Cutie The Notwist O.S.I. Ani Difranco The Shins Elliott Smith Badly Drawn Boy Chroma Key Coheed and Cambria The Streets Andrew Bird Sufjan Stevens Atom Site Feed 
|
6.06.2003
Meme's, their Origins and the Damage They Do : Part 2 In my political discussion with people there seems to be two originating sources for most of the "content" out there. One is the Think Tank, which I covered in Part 1, whose domain is the media; newspapers and television. The second is the Pulpit, which speaks directly to people, on a weekly basis. What I mean by The Pulpit is political content that originates from a religious source. The Pulpit on occasion may only be a political source dressed up like a religious source. In reality, many religious organizations are not in the business of spreading a political agenda. At least not one apart from their religious message. In America the Pulpit has a distinctly Christian character but in other countries it takes other forms. It depends on the dominant religious mindset. The religious character of the content is nothing more than a carrier for the real message. The goal is to create ideological divides that destroy class unity. Like you learn in sports : "keep your eye on the ball". The ball in this situation is the economic issues that should unite people of the working classes. The Pulpit's goal is to create distractions. Nothing has worked better in the last few decades at taking our eyes off the ball than the abortion debate. The Pro-Life / Pro-Choice war, fueled in part by The Pulpit has driven a wedge right through the working class. Now politicians can line up behind the economic agenda of the Elites and divide themselves along abortion lines. While the abortion issue has been the most successful distraction fueled by the Pulpit it is by no means the only one. Debates about school prayer and evolution have been useful as well in driving people away from their economic concerns and into the arms of the elite-funded politicians who are more than willing to protect the world from the "heathens" at the door while they dismantle the working class institutions. Is it really going to help people to know that they are the divine creations of God, drafted in his image if they can't get access to decent health care, employment or education? But what do the Pulpits get out of subverting their religious message for political ends? They easy answer is money, tax deductible charitable contribution to be more precise. Its not hard to see that when the choice arises between which church will receive the charitable blessings of the wealthy that ones promoting a "wealth friendly" message are at a competitive advantage. Its hardly in your best interest as a church to spend too much time dwelling on the spiritual emptiness of vast material wealth if you plan on using charitable contributions from wealthy donors to pay the bills and expand. For the wealthy its a double good deal. On one hand you fund an organization which helps promote a political agenda, on the other hand you get to deduct the donations from your taxes. Its like tax deductible PR. The Pulpit and the Elites have a nice symbiotic relationship going. The Pulpit gets funding for its religious crusades and the Elites get the politically useful distractions and diversions created by those crusades. Specifically the GOP can recruit working class religious people into their decidedly pro-rich political party and the Democrats can use the abortion debate to scare people away from more class conscious alternatives. The working class loses again as we march to the polls to pull the levers for either a Pro-Choice or Pro-Life candidate, both of whom will be spending the next four years undermining our ability to survive. | |
About Me
Any Box 
|
||
|
Dissolve into Evergreens
|
||||
