On July 19th, 1692, the first five convicted of witchcraft are hanged in Salem, MA. George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor and John Willard paid with their lives, over the irrational rantings of a religiously feed bureaucracy, more concerned with a fast trial than a fair one. Later in September, Giles Cory is killed by pressing (heavy weight continually added onto the chest in order to make breathing difficult) as they tried to extract a plea from him over two days of this torture. More are hanged. By the time it was said and done, twenty people had been murdered by their own government, based on nothing more than testimony about dreams and visions – spectral evidence.
We look at these events today with a shake of the head and bewilderment. How is it that anyone could fall for such moronic beliefs? How could anyone view the world with such irrational eyes? We view ourselves as more enlightened than they were.
Are we?
In 1999, a full 307 years after the Salem witch trials, Brandi Blackbear, a 15 year old student in Union High School, in district nine of Oklahoma, was suspended for 19 days when the school accused the Wiccan girl of casting hexes on one of her teachers, causing the teacher’s illness. Afterward, her father and the ACLU sued the school district for their actions. Timothy Blackbear, Brandi’s father, was quoted as saying, “It’s hard for me to believe that in the year 2000 I am walking into court to defend my daughter against charges of witchcraft brought by her own school.”
This was not a decision based on the actions of one nut in the school. Defendants named in the lawsuit were Union Eighth Grade Center Principal Jack Ojala, Speech Therapist Catherine Miller, Union High School Assistant Principal Charlie Bushyhead (this name is a little too ironic) and Counselor Sandy Franklin. It was a decision of many.
Aside from the various asylums for the insane, this lack of logic, this absence of rational decision making, this delusional mindset is only found in one place in our modern American society: in radical Christians. Yet, these dangerously delusional individuals are not only holding places of importance in our society, such as school teachers and principals, they’re running our society’s government.
Currently we have a government body in this country, which consists of a good number of these zealots. The Bush administration has filled position after position of federal government with recruits from Regent University. In fact, at least 150 graduates of Pat Robertson’s school of Biblical interpretations of reality, have been placed by the Bush administration into high levels of government. This means that at least 150 people, with frighteningly delusional mindsets, have been put in charge of federal organizations that affect all of us. Even if you are a Christian (I’m very sorry, I can cure this for you if you’re willing to discuss actual evidence) it should worry you that so many in the radical fringe of the religion are in positions of power. These people, with their irrational views of reality, are supported by a mass of the same type of individuals in the country’s general populace. Together, they encompass an intolerant dogma, which would much rather destroy an opposing viewpoint than to discuss anything.
Like the torture of Giles Cory, they are willing to torture those who will not confess to crimes they haven’t committed. Like the bureaucracy of Salem in the 1600′s, they will lock people away, accusing them of crimes, based on less than even spectral evidence. Like that 300 year old government, they are more than willing to force their beliefs onto others by the muzzle of a gun, under the force of law. The trappings of this madness are seen in Guantánamo Bay, in the current terrorism legislation of spying and abduction based on hollow political labeling, the quest to “return” the USA to a theocracy and in the main-streaming of these ideals through the mass media. A good portion of the population is walking right along with it.
It leaves me to question what went wrong. Over the course of the twentieth century, this country was making steady progress in toppling the old and abusive social policies, the foolish delusions and working toward the embrace of logical, scientific analysis of events and subjects. It wasn’t perfect and it needed a lot more work, but it seems of the last decade that we’ve been sliding backward. Rational discourse is ignored for belabored ranting, based on “gut feelings” and unsubstantiated claims. Those who embrace logic and education have become pariahs, scorned for not following the established dogma. Currently those who are doing nothing more than questioning the official story of what happened on Sept. 11th, 2001, are ridiculed and attacked by those who will not accept even the possibility of error on the part of the commission’s report – as rabidly as a born again Christian rages against an atheist’s demands for evidence for their beliefs in Biblical accounts.
The new mindset is that of utter submission to authority.
What frightens me the most over this dynamic is not so much that people are embracing delusions, but that they are embracing them to the point of violence. This dynamic has been seen in history, time and time again and it never ends up leading to good. From the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic Inquisition, to the Nazi Third Reich and the Stalin Purges – this mindset of unquestioning obedience leads to tyranny and most often genocide. As if things couldn’t be worse, relate all of this to the fact that the largest majority of the enemy the Bush administration has chosen, are members of another radical, delusional religion – Islam – which just happens to be diametrically opposed to theirs! Two gigantic delusions coming head to head, with the body count rising on an hourly basis.
I have to wonder, as our military weakens and the resolve of the Iraqi “insurgents” rises, does our government keep this war going because of a lust for oil, or for the lust for an Armageddon they feel obliged to instigate? After all, a major part of the belief system of the radical Christians in America, is a belief that we are “in the End Times”. You can get some crazy behavior from people who think they’re about to die, so it stands to reason to find even more insane behavior from those who believe they are going to die for the honor and glory of their god.
In spite of all this, there are holdouts – those who do not blindly accept authority. Most of these individuals are well educated, intelligent in general and are fairly even keeled. However, a large majority of these people can be controlled, through the tool that fanatics have always resorted to when dealing with the masses – fear.
I have a horrible worry that we are going to see another “terrorist attack” in this country before long, as a tool to promote terror in those who would not support this administration’s actions otherwise. Fear is the Achilles Heel of the otherwise rational. Fear is the only tool at the disposal of the zealots to affect the thinking of the intelligent. The zealots, even in position of high power, are not numerous enough to control this mess without the support of the majority. With blind faith on behalf of the followers, and fear on behalf of the otherwise distanced, those who wish to manipulate the course of our culture will get their way.
It is not just a wise move, but I feel it is a duty, for those who are not blinded by the delusions of the faithful in authority, to resist the temptations of fearful response and keep their heads about them! Those of us who can think through things clearly and understand the manipulations being pulled, must resist the ease which comes in caving in to the weight of hasty response in the face of adversity. We must resist the urge to appease our fear through radical action. We must weigh our decisions carefully, logically and as emotionless as we can be be. If we can do this, then in spite of their current holdings, the delusional cannot drag the nation into their delusion.
Zealots, after all, will never quit, no matter what the personal damage suffered. If the rational succumb to fear, then the zealots win and all is lost.
Tags: christian, christianity, delusions, insanity
Your “Smarter than thou” pride is obvious.
Ray, do you have anything to add besides an opinion of my personality? If you think I’m being prideful, by all means speak out, but it would be nice to see actual issues being addressed here as well. What part of what I said do you disagree with? Why is that? What is wrong with my analysis? What data do you have to support such contention and/or your different opinion? What have I failed to account for?
That’s how debate works. That’s how discussions occur. I can call you names and run away too, but I’d rather have an open discourse of ideas. If you want to try that, I’m still here (well, I’m on vacation at the moment so I might not be able to answer again for a couple of weeks, but that’s incidental.)