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Nov. 25th, 2003 06:45 pm
Faith-Based Initiatives
The Dark Ages are well named, for they were indeed dark and terrible times. Think about it. Even in those lands it had once ruled, deomcracy was long-dead. The rulers, although saying and perhaps (such is the power of self-delusion) believing they ruled in the interest of the people, were chiefly interested in starting petty wars and fleecing the land to benefit themselves and their cronies. The people had no real say in their government. Nevertheless, programmed by vicious propaganda, were more likely to side with their oppressors than rise against them.
Plagues threatened to depopulate entire continents, and it was accepted as the judgment of God. Moslems ravaged across the land murdering innocent Christians in the name of the God who was Merciful, while Christians ravaged right back murdering innocent Moslems in the name of the God who was Love. Painting, sculpture, music, and literature were lost arts. Entertainment might consist of some brain-damaged fool making bad jokes while stumbling around drooling on himself, or freaks in bizarre makeup and costumes performing weird gyrations, or small groups of ill-trained musicians playing songs of little interest and less merit.
Nevertheless, the Dark Ages also differed from today in several significant ways.
One of these is the place of the church. I don't think it's right to say that the Crusades, for example, were an expression of faith. Far from it. They were an expression of utter certainty, just as the earlier Moslem expansion by fire and sword across Asia, Africa, and half of Europe was an expression of a different utter certainty.
These systems of belief, which we today are pleased to call 'faiths,' were all the more certain because few ever questioned them. Among the general population they were accepted as absolute fact, because among the general population it wasn't known that any arguments against them even existed.
A lot of people get bent out of shape over the idea of "faith-based initiatives," as if good deeds done by someone hoping to earn brownie points in Heaven are somehow less good than those done by a social worker for money. I rather agree, I guess; mixing religion and government is a Bad Thing, and if it isn't a bad idea I don't know what is.
But religions aren't the faiths that worry me the most. It's the ones people don't know are faiths that are most dangerous. They lead to behavior which is perfectly rational, perfectly logical-- and perfectly stupid.
We believe, for example, and few ever seem to question this, that replacing a Bush with a Clinton or vice versi is really going to change things in any significant way. We believe that a President or a Prime Minister can control events, when they are for the most part straws swept away on the curents of history, as much as any of us.
We believe that the Federal Reserve can control the economy, when nobody in history has been able to control the economy. When in fact the entire economy, or even money itself, is just a con game we play on ourselves and each other, by mutual consent.
We believe we have a system of justice, when it's pretty clear that the whole thing is up for the highest bidder. We believe we control who rules over us, and ascribe the whims of weather, history, economy, and Heaven itself to their good or poor performance on the job.
We believe in Science. Think about that. Is there anything more wrong-headed than believing in a philosophical system whose fundamental principle is doubt? Yet we do, and those who in previous centuries were dragged off to heaven by angels or to hell by demons are now abducted by aliens in flying saucers.
Of course, it's good we have some silly beliefs. If we stopped believing in money, what would replace it? If we stopped believing that the justice system, basically, works, what would be the alternative? Go out and lynch the first dozen people who look guilty? Perhaps if you consider the alternatives, maintaining the illusion is even more important than fufilling a useful purpose.
Still, it makes me tremble sometimes, thinking what a house of cards our entire civilization is.
The Dark Ages are well named, for they were indeed dark and terrible times. Think about it. Even in those lands it had once ruled, deomcracy was long-dead. The rulers, although saying and perhaps (such is the power of self-delusion) believing they ruled in the interest of the people, were chiefly interested in starting petty wars and fleecing the land to benefit themselves and their cronies. The people had no real say in their government. Nevertheless, programmed by vicious propaganda, were more likely to side with their oppressors than rise against them.
Plagues threatened to depopulate entire continents, and it was accepted as the judgment of God. Moslems ravaged across the land murdering innocent Christians in the name of the God who was Merciful, while Christians ravaged right back murdering innocent Moslems in the name of the God who was Love. Painting, sculpture, music, and literature were lost arts. Entertainment might consist of some brain-damaged fool making bad jokes while stumbling around drooling on himself, or freaks in bizarre makeup and costumes performing weird gyrations, or small groups of ill-trained musicians playing songs of little interest and less merit.
Nevertheless, the Dark Ages also differed from today in several significant ways.
One of these is the place of the church. I don't think it's right to say that the Crusades, for example, were an expression of faith. Far from it. They were an expression of utter certainty, just as the earlier Moslem expansion by fire and sword across Asia, Africa, and half of Europe was an expression of a different utter certainty.
These systems of belief, which we today are pleased to call 'faiths,' were all the more certain because few ever questioned them. Among the general population they were accepted as absolute fact, because among the general population it wasn't known that any arguments against them even existed.
A lot of people get bent out of shape over the idea of "faith-based initiatives," as if good deeds done by someone hoping to earn brownie points in Heaven are somehow less good than those done by a social worker for money. I rather agree, I guess; mixing religion and government is a Bad Thing, and if it isn't a bad idea I don't know what is.
But religions aren't the faiths that worry me the most. It's the ones people don't know are faiths that are most dangerous. They lead to behavior which is perfectly rational, perfectly logical-- and perfectly stupid.
We believe, for example, and few ever seem to question this, that replacing a Bush with a Clinton or vice versi is really going to change things in any significant way. We believe that a President or a Prime Minister can control events, when they are for the most part straws swept away on the curents of history, as much as any of us.
We believe that the Federal Reserve can control the economy, when nobody in history has been able to control the economy. When in fact the entire economy, or even money itself, is just a con game we play on ourselves and each other, by mutual consent.
We believe we have a system of justice, when it's pretty clear that the whole thing is up for the highest bidder. We believe we control who rules over us, and ascribe the whims of weather, history, economy, and Heaven itself to their good or poor performance on the job.
We believe in Science. Think about that. Is there anything more wrong-headed than believing in a philosophical system whose fundamental principle is doubt? Yet we do, and those who in previous centuries were dragged off to heaven by angels or to hell by demons are now abducted by aliens in flying saucers.
Of course, it's good we have some silly beliefs. If we stopped believing in money, what would replace it? If we stopped believing that the justice system, basically, works, what would be the alternative? Go out and lynch the first dozen people who look guilty? Perhaps if you consider the alternatives, maintaining the illusion is even more important than fufilling a useful purpose.
Still, it makes me tremble sometimes, thinking what a house of cards our entire civilization is.
