Goose Stepping for God

[wcepler]

Goose Stepping for God

**********************************************************************
Haven't you noticed how interchangeable are the twitching audiences of television's glassy-eyed evangelists and the psychopathic German hordes of Adolph Hitler's torchlight parades?

This almost exact similarity should not be ignored. Political fascism and religious fanaticism are two sides of the same coin.

So let's see if we can shine a little light into this social puke.

It all comes down to fear of life, don't you think? People utterly terrified of the existential constants and challenges of life will suck their thumbs for the nearest cult leader who has infantile answers for infantile questions.

LEMMINGS; "How do I transcend the human condition?"

FASCISM/FANATICISM: Oh that's easy? Just do this or that. Read a pamphlet.

REALITY: You don't. You just make the best of it until you go the way of all flesh. You carry on.

LEMMINGS: "But there's so much pain and confusion in life; it's just too much for me!"

FASCISM/FANATICISM: Not to worry. Look at that man on the podium (it's almost always a man) and if you obey him absolutely, you'll be "lifted up" out of this human hell.

REALITY: In the first place, it's not all pain and confusion. Cherish art, honor science, and love your family. Does this "transcend" the universal challenges of life? Of course not, but only nut cases attempt to transcend the untranscendable.

LEMMINGS: "No, no, no, this is too much. I can't live like that. I want to be a child in a world of Mommy's and Daddy's who have a hot line to God!"

FASCISM/FANATICISM: Of course you do. That's natural, and this television evangelist and/or political "authority" (Sieg Heil!) knows more about EVERYTHING than you do. So shut up and march.

REALITY: Yeah, march over the cliff. Grow up. Be an adult. Stop pretending that only you are on the shore and everyone else is in what Goethe called the "flood of fate". A little advice: it's tough to swim in the existential flood of fate when you're pretending you're on the bank.

And the beat goes on.

Cults, human lemmings, Dictatorship of the Rich fascists, righteous fanatics (of all religions, no exceptions) are what they are -- as are Bush/Republicans. But this is beginning where we are, with precisely these diaper adults. The main thing is to SEE them for what they are: the dead weight of human civilization.

So, as always, it's up to the grownups.

Just as it also always comes down to fighting the good fight and keeping the faith.
************************************************************************

wcproteus

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Think of the religious cults and the fact that nazism was cult-like

evangelicals always skirted the cult status until recently when the took the step over the line and made it seem like it was not just normal but, essential.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Part of the rationale behind the appeal of these religions and political

movements: to avoid taking responsibility for one's decisions.

I knew two bright young women. One was considering Catholicism from Judaism, the other married a fundamentalist Christian. The former declared she wanted to convert so she wouldn't have to make any decisions as The Church always told you what to do and what to think. The latter professed that she had to ask her (new) husband how to decide for everything b/c their religion held her husband responsible for her sins as well as his after death; so she figured if she asked what to do and assuming that he was always right, he wouldn't be spending too much extra time in front of the Lord, answering for her transgressions.

I know. I wanted to puke too. But they were sincere in their pursuit of handing over their automonies to a third party and to remain a child in perpetuity.

[Kiouni]

3. so what's the solution?

I agree only to a point. The existential angst religious people feel is not so easily overcome with a nice discussion with reality.

also, and I know this is going to draw some fire, while Christianity/religious extremism may not be the answer, neither is atheism. Deistic religions serve a purpose because they are part of a logical thought process. Key word "process." Christianity is one of the more elementary steps but a step none the less and should be noted as such. Atheism/realism is a step also, a much further step but you cannot reach this understanding without renouncing the magic man in the sky.
You may say, "I never believed in a god" and maintain that your understandings of this world can be the first step, but as Goethe would point out you are not asking the right questions, "where did they come from?"

Maintaining that atheism is the final understanding and the end all be all of philosophical and theological thought is almost as short-sighted as saying that Christianity is.

[pnorman]

4. "Goose-stepping for God" --- Is that phrase yours?

That's the first time I've ever heard it. In any event, I'll "pirate" it!

pnorman
On edit: I came to this thread, mainly to "pirate" that phrase. However,it's certainly NOT far-fetched. Check out this video, "Life and Liberty for All Who Believe" at: http://www.theocracywatch.org/audio-video.htm Check out that book-burning scene near the beginning!

[wcepler]

7. thanks for the link

Yes, I cooked it up. Glad it works for you. The shoe sure fits the foot for me -- tragically.

Bill

[Xipe Totec]

5. The New Year 1938-39 - by Joseph Goebbels

(snip)

The most miraculous thing about miracles is that they always come when one does not simply wait for them, but works and fights for them. That is what has happened here. The Führer did not bring about the miracles of 1938 by waiting for them. He gathered and organized the strength of the nation and used it courageously. It paid off. There was certainly risk involved. Without big risks, history never grants big successes. This is further proof of the proverb that the world belongs to the brave.

(snip)

One cannot make history with such quivering people. They are only chaff in God's breath. Thankfully, they are only a thin intellectual or social upper class, particularly in the case of Germany. They are not an upper class in the sense that they govern the nation, but rather more a fact of nature like the bubbles of fat that always float on the surface of things.

Today, they seek to give good advice to National Socialist Germany from abroad. We do not have to ask them for it. They focus all their energies on the small problems that always are there, complain about the cost and believe that crises and unavoidable tensions are on the way. They are the complainers who never tire of bringing National Socialist Germany before the so-called court of world opinion. In the past they always found willing and thankful followers. Today, they only have a few backward intellectual Philistines in their camp.

(snip)

The year 1939 has been the most blessed year in Germany's history. May it be followed by a new year also filled with success and victory! May it bring our land and its people blessing and good fortune!

I greet all Germans, above all those who in the past year carried the heaviest burdens, deprivations, sorrows, and responsibilities. You have the thanks of the fatherland.

May God hold his hand of blessing over Germany in the future.

We join at the end of this year in a single prayer from all Germans to the Almighty:

May our people and Reich be eternal,
and long live the Führer!

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb16.htm

[MadMaddie]

6. Yea and we know how the Germany story ended...if America

is not careful and does not enforce the seperation of church and state we may very well be looking at tthe same fate...