Not this Crap Again!

Now I don't consider myself a masochist, quite the contrary, but today I saw some fair evidence against that image I have of my self.  I actually sat down and watched the entire first presidential debate.  The entire thing.  By choice!

There are only two reasons you are reading this right now: A) you want to read what I have to say or B) you are severely mentally ill.  I admit there is some overlap there.  So, here goes... kinda...

While I do have very strong opinions about which candidate should be president, I am only going to focus on a phrase that sent up all manner of red flags.  This was said by Romney at one point:

“We’re all children of the same God,”

Really, Mitt? Really?

While it is sadly true that most of this country is overtly religious, this is a remarkably stupid statement as well as a dangerous one.  What sent up further flags was that it came out of nowhere.  He was citing a line in the Declaration of Independence that says: "we are endowed by our Creator..." And then began to speak, thankfully briefly, about religious tolerance.  That wasn't even the question!

The Declaration of Independence is a political document.  It was written and supported by people who were trying to achieve a political goal.  As such, it had to conform, at least in part, to the language of the day.  If that were not the case a simple not written in large letters saying: "Fuck You, Limeys!  Take your shit and go home!"  While, admittedly, this would have been hilarious it would not have done just a whole lot to advance the cause of independence.  Instead, they used the parlance of the day which, like it or not, was riddled with the trappings of religion.

Similar progress, or lack there of, would have been made had they said that Thor had been the one who gave us these rights.  Regardless of what you believe, if you are trying to convince someone to do something you have to play up to your audience.  Royalty was conferred by divine right or at least having having killed the right people and telling every one that (insert your deity?deities here) had willed it to be so.

Not only did it have to deal the prejudices of the intended audience but it also had to deal with the prejudices of the people it was supposed to represent.  That whole Thor thing would most likely gone down rather poorly.

Like it or not the parlance of the day included inserting the Christian God into everything.  That is why on a lot of the correspondence from that time you will find the phrase :"in the year of our Lord..."  I have seen people attempt to prove that the founding fathers were Christian.

I am not going to debate, at this point, what, if any, religion the founding fathers subscribed to.  What I will say is that too much meaning can be read into the little ticks of social language that are used as a way to make discussion easier.

Having said all that, there is nothing like religion to control and/or destroy people.  I think that was what Romney was doing here.  In this case, control the way people vote.  Now, that is what a debate is for, however, ideally people should be swayed by well thought out arguments and reason.  Rather than reason, he pulled out the religion card.  It is kinda like the race card except less restrictive of who can play it.

All children of the same god?  What about people who don't believe in god?  What about those that believe in a pantheon of gods?  Which god is it that you think we are the children of?  Yahweh? Odin? Zeus?  The god that speaks in Eddie's head instructing him to shove rocks up his nose while bathing in the blood of pigeons?  That holy voice that commands us to kill the wabbit?

This is just a stupid, bigoted statement to be made during a debate.  Unfortunately, to a disturbing number of Americans, one of the criteria for voting for someone is that they believe a system of mythology that, at least for the most part, mirrors their own.  The real danger of this is that when a person is doing something because it is something that they believe it is what their god wants them to do, that is all the reason they need to do anything, no matter how heinous.  Don't believe me?  I point to holy wars, the inquisition, suicide bombers and the 9/11 attacks.  People tend to forget that last one as it hits so close to home and they want to distance themselves from it.  The uncomfortable fact is that it was carried out by very religious people.

Then again, I am only writing all of this is because god told me too.


Rant Over... for now