Religious Truth(s)

But each new year brings a whole new batch of scandals.  The underlying problem is never solved.  And this problem is obvious: people rely on corrupt individuals to act as mediators with non-existent supernatural forces.  And it is the fundamental nature of religious institutions to demand absolute faith and complete credulity when it comes to matters of belief.  The independent thinker is, by definition, a heretic.  And, of course, all heretics deserve to be stoned to death (where permitted by law) or at least the full vitriolic hatred of the True Believer.

            The national news media regularly try to show religion in a positive light.  Except in covering those cases that are so notorious that they can't be white-washed, the news media tries of play down corruption of these religious institutions.  Their motivations are both greed and fear.  Recently, when a newspaper in Nigeria suggested that Prophet Mohammed might (if he lived today) take a beauty queen as a wife, the local Moslems went on a rampage, attacked the newspaper office, and started a riot in which over four hundred people were killed.  This crime is, however, only a minor footnote to many thousands of other crimes of Islam, from the murder of non-believers to the systematic oppression of women.

            But the press knows which side of the bread is buttered.  Local televisions stations make millions of dollars from broadcasting religious programming.  People who are religious, in a conventional sense, are probably also easily manipulated by advertising.  The media can't afford to alienate their best customers.  For most of these people, religious "Truth" takes priority over factual "truth."   

As we struggle with the threat of economic collapse, we can take heart in the fact that Wall Street seems very happy with the idea of economic instability.  After all, that's what makes "playing the Market" so profitable... and fun.

"The Bankrupt State"

Here is my blog entry from Tuesday, September 23, 2008

enter "The Bankrupt State"

There is a little known plan created by the Neo-conservative think tanks called "The Bankrupt State." The plan is to get control of the government, with a Republican President and Congress, and then spend the federal government into bankruptcy. It doesn't matter what they spend the money on—though of course they want to channel as much of the money as they can into the pockets of their political supporters—it only matters that they essentially bankrupt the government by creating an enormous national debt. This plan was carried out under Reagan, Bush, & Bush II.

The point of this plan is to so hobble the federal government with debt that it will have to focus on essential functions of government. Other needs, like the environment, social services, oversight of corporations, social justice will not be funded. The big corporations--who support the Republicans—are especially concerned to stop investigations of corporate corruption. Recently it was disclosed that the Justice Dept. is actively investigating only 10% of major corporate crimes. Of that 10% only a tiny fraction will ever go to trial.

The administration of George W. Bush has pursued this plan with a vengeance. This is the primary reason we went to war with Iraq. The quickest way to spend money is on a war. The Bush administration has squandered many billions in Iraq and much of this money went into the pockets of Defense contractors and Bush's (and especially Cheney's) political friends. It is in the best interests of Bush's friends to prolong the war in Iraq for as long as possible, in order to squeeze every last nickel out of the war contracts. So don't look for an end to the war anytime soon. If the Democrats do get control of the House or Senate, look for Bush to block any investigation of war profiteering in the name of "national security."

 

Here is a revised and updated version from 9/15/11

Most people view the Bush administration as a failure. But, in fact, his was one of the most successful presidents in history-- from the point of view of his neo-con buddies.

There is a little known plan created by the Neo-conservative think tanks called "The Bankrupt State." The plan is to get control of the government, with a Republican President and Congress, and then spend the federal government into bankruptcy. It doesn't matter what they spend the money on—though of course they want to channel as much of the money as they can into the pockets of their political supporters—it only matters that they essentially bankrupt the government by creating an enormous national debt. This plan was carried out under Reagan, Bush, & Bush II. Right-wing pundits call this "starving the beast."

The point of this plan is to so hobble the federal government with debt that it will have to focus on essential functions of government. Other needs, like the environment, social services, oversight of corporations, health care, public education (K-12 and Higher Ed), federal highway construction, and social justice will not be funded.

In addition to presiding over this collapse of the federal government, a second goal is to collapse the Middle Class. The Elites have decided that the U.S. no longer needs a Middle Class to act as a buffer against an uprising of the lower classes. With media consolidation (almost all media outlets owned and controlled by less than a dozen corporations) the Elite can control this country without a Middle Class. Fox News is a favorite of the Corporate Elite in large part because of its lower middle-class audience and its focus on blaming the government instead of the corporations.

In the process, the Elites are presiding over the greatest transfer of wealth in history, by forcing the Middle Class into 401k retirement plans, and then collapsing the stock market. This inflating and collapsing of the Market will happen over and over again, as more and more money is siphoned off into the pockets of the Elites who can influence and predict the Market's ups and downs.

Then, to top it off (icing on the cake) they get to use these economic collapses as an excuse to funnel even more billions and billions into the multinational banks and corporations through tax breaks and incentives....

Lovely ....

The Congress and Corporate Media are currently hyping the "Debt Ceiling Crisis" as the next step in implementing the Shock Doctrine and trying to further destroy the Middle Class in America. The big banks and corporations have already positioned themselves to exploit this phony crisis.

The two parties will struggle for a few days to place blame on each other, but they are committed to undermining the Middle Class while shoveling money into the pockets of the wealthy oligarchs.

 

And here is a further update (Feb 27, 2013) :

It looks like the next step of the overall plan in now going into place.  Using the economic and political techniques set forth in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, the ruling establishment has continued in its goal of politically and economically dominating this country.

The plan of outsourcing jobs to China has pretty much run its course. It was part of the overall plan to weaken and destabilize the Middle Class, to damage public and private unions, and to defund and marginalize any groups that might oppose the bigger plan.

The bigger plan is to depopulate and “hollow out” the Midwest until the only things left are corporate farms, feedlots, commercial forests and coal mines. The Northeast and Southern California will be spared most of this planned economic collapse, but only because that’s where the wealthy want to live—and you don’t crap in your own back yard.

Right now the state governments in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Louisiana, etc., etc., are working to decimate the Middle Class in these states, as part of the overall plan to transform the Ohio & Mississippi Valley Regions into something resembling a 3rd world economic system.

The Values of "Religious Values"

The media attempt to show established religions in a positive light, but over and over again the leaders of these religions prove themselves to be bigoted, corrupt, vile, and venial.  This is the case, more often than not, and the people who aspire to leadership in any particular church are typically those who aspire to wealth and power, including the absolute servile obedience of the church members.  Few people have heard, for example, of the bank scandal that took place in Springfield, Missouri, and involved the leader of a large protestant denomination—it didn't make the national news.

In recent years, the scandals of Christianity have become so numerous that even True Believers must occasionally pause in wonder.  The errant holy men of just the last twenty years include such luminaries as Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, Rev. Jim Bakker, Rev. Oral Roberts, Rev. Pat Robertson—and these are just the evangelical Christians who have a national television following.  Their crimes range from sexual peccadilloes to supporting African dictators. 

The Catholic Church is no better.  For example, it could easily be said of Mother Teresa that she never met a third-world dictator that she didn't like, or at least that she wouldn't take money from—even the mass-murderer Slobodan Milosovic.  Now Mother Teresa has been fast tracked to sainthood, as was the vile Nazi-sympathizer Pope Pius XII.  And as bad as Milosovic is, his evil pales by comparison with that of Adolf Hitler, who remained in good standing with the Catholic Church up to the time of his suicide. According to a witness, Hitler paused to pray to the Christian god before committing suicide in his bunker in Berlin. He was a good Christian, right up to the end.

Adolf Hitler and the German Churches

Over the last fifty years, efforts have been made to cast Adolph Hitler in the role of a skeptic, or even an atheist.  These claims are based on a book of Hitler's "table-talk"—conversations recorded by one of his close followers during his lifetime.  Recently, however, it has been shown that the English translation of Hitler's statements was badly skewed to make him sound like an atheist.  In fact, comparison with the original German shows that we have been had by (still another) pious fraud.  Hitler's comments were badly distorted by Christian translator to create the impression that he was ambivalent about the Christian churches.  

In fact, Hitler supported the churches and the German churches supported Hitler, with only a few exceptions. There is plenty of evidence for the religious leanings of the Nazis, including such things as having “Gott Mit Uns” (meaning “God With Us”—much like our own “In God We Trust”) put on uniforms, coins, banners, etc., and these actions clearly demonstrate the religious nature of Fascism. Following in Martin Luther's footsteps, Hitler hated the Jews and wanted to see them all dead, or at least sterilized so they could no longer "contaminate" the pure Aryan bloodline.

Similarly, Pope Pius XII disliked the Jews and had no real problems with the idea of killing as many as could be found.  It was only when the Jews in Rome were being rounded up to be sent to the death camps that the Pope—finding some spark of humanity still burning in his cold, dead soul—began a half-hearted effort to stop what was happening.  These were, after all "his Jews" and he didn't appreciate the German effort to take them away from him.  It appears that the Pope viewed the Jews of Rome with a certain sentimental fondness, much as you might feel toward a small dog that regularly relieved itself on your favorite rug.  He certainly felt that the Jews deserved whatever punishment fell to them, as "The Killers of the Christ"—but they were still his. And simply taking them away? That was too much, even for Pope Pius.

The Mind of “the Bible-believer”

In trying to understand the mind of “the Bible-believer” it is perhaps interesting to look toward what we know from the social sciences.   Some people look on organized religion as a kind of Ponzi scheme.  In the classic Ponzi scam, the swindler gets together a group of investors and cons them into recruiting more investors.  He pays off the early investors with money coming in from the later investors, so that the swindler and the people who got into the game early can make a lot of money.  Ultimately, however, the game runs out of people who can be persuaded to invest, and the whole game collapses in on itself.

      Unlike the classic Ponzi game, organized religion is a con game that never really ends. With organized religion you are not dealing with cash, but with something much more valuable: Faith.  The goal of the game is not to grab large amounts of cash quickly, but to entangle people emotionally in a religious organization centered on a religious belief system. The game doesn't end because none of the members get paid with real money--they only get their gold bricks when they die and go to "Heaven."

     Of course, the game is not just about money (though there is often plenty of that) but about drawing on people's time, money and other resources, including mental and physical resources.

      When Rev. Pat Robertson began his 700 club, he started by putting together 700 people who could each donate a thousand dollars.  From this small (relatively-speaking) beginning he built both a religious empire—including a Christian university in Virginia—and a commercial empire that included a cable channel, the Christian Broadcasting Network.  Robertson later sold the cable channel for millions (renamed "The Family Channel") to Rupert Murdoch.  Murdoch (who has never once been accused of being "Christian" in his values) has added this channel to his media empire, which includes the notoriously right-wing Fox News.

      The lines between Robertson's commercial empire and his religious empire are rather loosely drawn.  For example, Robertson has been criticized for using planes belonging to one of his religious charities to haul mining equipment for one of his commercial ventures in Africa.  Robertson also has a powerful political empire, with strong ties to right-wing Republicans and to several third-world dictators.  Rev. Pat Robertson represents, in one person, everything that is wrong with evangelical Christianity.  While constantly calling on his followers to search for spiritual renewal and make sacrifices (especially monetary sacrifices) Robertson himself is morally no better than some of the most notorious traveling fakirs of India.

      In Old Testament times, a person’s religious standing (Righteousness) was measured in the amount of money, property and servants you could accumulate. This still seems to be the measure used today, along with the number of “followers” or “tithing members” you lead.

      In the 19^th century (as with the O.T. Patriarchs) the Mormon Church also looked to the number of wives you had access to (as in, regularly get to boink) as a quick measure of your proximity to God’s Love.

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Earl Lee is the author of Libraries in the Age of Mediocrity (McFarland 2001)