|
Edited on Thu Jun-16-05 12:03 AM by ruggerson
The results of the Schiavo autopsy highlight the single main problem in our society today: that a major segment of the population, one that wields inordinate influence over one of the two major political parties, is not engaged with the world as it actually exists.
Pardon the pun, but this is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about: not politicians in Washington, not the media, not "mainstream" liberals or conservatives:
The glaring fact no one wants to discuss? That the religious rightwing is fully divorced from reality, science, common sense, logic and basic humanity.
Their obstinate, irrational, rigid, obsessive and disordered attachment to what they euphemestically refer to as their "faith" has profound implications for the safety of our children and the future of our great nation.
This illness (and there is clinical justification to consider that this kind of fundamentalist belief system is actually a form of personality disorder) has direct bearing on all the major issues of our day:
- The war in Iraq. We would not be there without the Christian fundamentalist prism through which they view the world. The President himself suffers from some of these delusions and it motivated much of his decision to wage an illogical war, wasting thousands of young lives and making the world a far more dangerous and unstable place.
- Education. Our entire education system is under attack by people who refuse to believe in science, fact or reason. Instead, they wish to mandate the teaching of their fantasies and package it as an "alternative truth."
- Health Care. The right to privacy, the right to dictate what happens to one's own body are all under attack from this small segment of society that has a major political party, with major political power, kowtowing to its most bizarre demands.
- Family/Privacy Issues. They brazenly conduct a relentless, heinously untruthful and dishonest war against gays and lesbians and the media participates and collaborates in the process by treating both "sides" of the question with moral equivalence: as it there actually WAS another side to questions of nature and science. And in so doing, they lend legitimacy to the destructive, magical rantings of the religious right just by giving them an equal stage to voice their destructive and malicious theology.
And the list grows. Every day, there is another part of our personal and civic lives they attempt to influence and control. They are methodical, organized and fiercely committed to their fantasies and their world view.
This is the big problem, folks. This is the single, big taboo subject that the media won't touch. The fundamentalists have the media and political classes cowed into submission by the clever tactic of trying to paint anyone who stands up to them as "anti-religion" or "anti-Christian." When the reality is that those who oppose their agenda are really sane individuals, both spiritual and non, who are anti-fundamentalist and anti-extremist.
The fundamentalist rightwing is a political movement that, unless forcibly confronted and stopped, will slowly destroy the vision laid out for us by Jefferson, Adams and Franklin. They are a cancer on our system, slowly and methodically killing off the soul of the nation.
Many of us are waiting for the courageous leadership we deserve; leadership which can confront this monster, this enemy of liberty and reason, and save our country in the process.
But the first step in combatting a cancer is to rationally, and without fear, draw the curtain back, acknowledge what it is and expose it.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
