Tuesday, October 18, 2005
more on i.d., neo-nazi, conservatives (recovery post; uncertain about some items)
what a co-inky-dink, i was just reading that. or maybe it was His1 doing ;-)
my favorite quote:
"Behe, who was expected to resume testifying Tuesday, compared the outcry over intelligent design to the early criticism of the big-bang theory some 70 years ago.
"Many people thought it had philosophical and even theological implications that they did not like," he said. "
equating i.d. with big bang. what a dope. so, do you have any of those bozo buttons left ? sounds like this guy needs one.
i picked up dragons of eden to read (again) and early on, in this 1975 book, there is sagan calmly and clearly explaining that evolution is a self-evident fact, while any theory surrounding this fact has to do with its mechanism. i am amazed when reading material from that era - say, late 50's to early 70's - how rational and compassionate people sounded as compared to so-called “christians” of today. i recently ran into that huge difference in tone and substance while researching the roots of social security while thzat debate was hot.
in somewhat related recent news, riots broke out over a neo-nazi march in toledo. most hilarious video clip: a couple dozen people from 2005 wearing german world war ii uniforms yelling "sieg heil!". i was rolling. couldn't help picturing a bunch of counter-demonstrators wearing american world war uniforms yelling "i like ike!", or whatever they said back then. and look - here comes the native american tribe around the corner !
more news: a conservative think tank boots out one of its own [sorry, that's a nyt link, it's not a heavily covered story, search google news for more] for writing a book critical of the bush administration. the scary part of this is that the conservatives are mistaking the symbol for the symbolized. it is a standard psychological warfare ploy to demonize a member of the opposition, as many have been doing with bush, in order to discredit the opposition's agenda without alienating the masses associated with them, since they need to be co-opted, not hardened. however, at least some of the conservatives appear to be jettisoning their figurehead, who is increasingly seen as a liability. the thing they don't seem to get is that it's their ideology that's fucked up. well, at least there is no single rallying point, and maybe their natural fractitiousness will keep them off balance. yet, the removal of that point of focus affects everyone, making that dysfunctional fascism harder to strike at. still, i think that a number of groups will be glad of a clear opportunity to dissociate themselves from a neo-con-baggage-laden set of policies that they only went along with in order to further their own often less extreme agendas. i think this applies across the political spectrum, left, right, center, fsm, whatever. well, one can only hope.
so how can we avoid these sorts of ideological disasters in the future ? there is still a huge portion of the population given to this sort of mindless behavior and lack of critical thinking. just because the fascists and their dupes are scattered doesn't mean they have disappeared. the thing to do is recognize a continuing counter-rational ideological insurgency (to use current popular metaphors) and fight it at its roots, never allowing it full expression again. it's the same thing we are fighting overseas. to paraphrase pogo yet again, "we have found the enemy, and he is (among) us".
ziti, heil !
1 all hail the flying spaghetti monster, for we shall stay sauced !