I haven’t posted anything like this in forever because I haven’t figured out the right words to illustrate the concerns I have. But the more I think, the more I want to change my name and go further underground. Working on finding a right way to do this. When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.
The more I listen to the rhetoric of the conservative Right, the more I think we’re moving way past the Fascists of the 1930s and 1940s and straight back to the Inquisitions of the middle ages.
Censorship, questions of faith, rule of right based on the Christian bible rather than Muslim, Jewish or other faith structures, torture, indefinite imprisonment without evidence or due process… Oversimplification? Couldn’t happen here?
It *is* happening and this time the Catholics are only a tiny part of the movement. Go listen and hear what the presidential candidates are saying about the things they’ll do if they can just be elected to office. No, seriously. Listen. Read what the Inquisitions activities were and what they did and remember that now we have the Internet and self-publication, all sorts of ways to out ourselves as heretics, plus all sorts of ways in which the state can discover what we do in the privacy of our homes.
And then think about this: According to the candidates and to many of the voices out there in charge of the media, it’s fine and dandy to restrict the public’s right to exercise control over our choices of partners, when and how we should have sexual intercourse, how we should educate our children and what we should believe in religion. This viewpoint of “Your views are fine so long as they’re the same as mine. If not, you’re going to hell,” comes straight from the mouths of several more popular conservative right candidates. Isolationism leads just as quickly to expulsion for failure to believe the correct thing.
It occurs to me that we’re ripe for the next Inquisition. I’ve heard from more sources than I can count that people should just be doing the right thing (based on the Bible) and that if we only followed those rules, everything would be right with the world: No need to teach sex education because no individual would partake unless married and no sex would occur unless the purpose would be to procreate. No further need for abortions.
Nobody would commit crime because nobody would covet any of what their neighbors have and so theft would stop. Nobody would commit adultery, so no more need for divorce. You just have to choose right or live with the choice once you’ve made it, and hope that your partner can produce children because, hey, that’s what marriage (and sex) are for anyway.
No reason to read books because you’re too busy working to make sure you are contributing to society so that you can have a roof over your head (and your family’s), and someone’s got to work in those factories and fields. Can’t have education because if we have that, we won’t want to do those menial tasks. After all, robots can’t sew clothing all that well without help from people and people who are educated won’t want to do those jobs.
No reason to worry about the environment since we will all be taken care of when the time comes and we’re just treading water until we get to the promised land anyway. Who cares what happens to the world we live in now when there’s something better waiting after we die.
Just follow the rules and keep out of other countries and we’ll do Just Fine.
Okay – this is an oversimplification but these are the things I am hearing as a citizen and I’m really good at connecting the dots.
Can’t happen here. We have checks and balances in place. We have systems of elections and ways to express our opinions that should matter to the people in power. Really. We do.
Except that we have something the prior Inquisitions didn’t: Corporations that concentrate wealth in the hands of a very few – consider them the Bourgeoisie of the 21st Century. Not entitled by blood but acquisition. Corporate PERSONS who can determine policy that suits their needs best. That keep us well or kill us at whim, depending on how much is in it for them. And these corporations, in fear for the bottom line, control the people in charge who want us to be good citizens and just follow their rules.
The more we put out there to identify ourselves, the quicker our doors will get pounded on.
If you’re not afraid by now, you’re not paying attention. You’re spending too much time listening to hateful speech and hearing what you want to hear because “they” can’t possibly know the right thing to do – “they” are non-believers.
And they are being supported, at least in part, by a “community organizer” who disagrees with just enough of our policies that we have to get rid of him or face…what? The obliteration of our faith? The destruction of our society? It’s already too late and we’re just not getting it. He’s Pandora trying to close the box after everything else has escaped. Hope? It’s all we’ve got left.
I am thinking about all this stuff and am considering what to do about it. I don’t have any brilliant insights and I don’t have enough money to run for office, so I suppose I should just go back to bed. Too bad I can’t sleep…