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My fellow DU'ers. I'm not a proffesional writer or researcher so bare with me here, but I want to share some thoughts I've had after reading DU for the last several months.
Religion, well organized religion in any case, tends to lend itself towards a hierarchal structure as with any large organization. I cannot fault religions for organizing themselves as they do, or for people in following those religious organizations. It is a tendency of all human populations once they pass a certain population density to organize themselves in such a manner. However through out the ages this simple form of teaching to others submission to a “greater” from a “lesser” has been played for the benefit of those in power to stay in power and for the rich to get richer. This trend has not ceased to this day even though most would like to say that it has.
I read a post on here that was showing how the CIA had manipulated local regions of the Islamic faith in the late '70's into creating the very fanatics that cause so many issues for the world today in order to swell the ranks of the mujahideen. I don't have a link for that, but what it did was really start me thinking about the pattern of abuse that governments have been abusing for centuries.
Human beings as a whole are a very xenophobic species. We originated in small bands living very locally to where we were raised in situations where everyone was related to one another. Outsiders were mistrusted and often meetings between strangers of different bands ended violently. Many examples of this can be found in Jared Diamond's books such as “Guns, Germs, and Steel”. He demonstrates this tendency by showing the lives of stone age natives of New Guinea and their social structures up until the point of first contact with Eurasion cultures.
Not only is it a human trait to form into ever more hierarchal forms of government and religions given population density, belief in a higher power plays directly into our xenophobism. We tend to need a very strong sense of “Us” vs “Them” to hold us together into cohesive groups. If you look at large nations through time you'll see that there has always been that “Us” vs “Them” mentality. In our recent history it was Us vs the Native Americans. Then Us vs Britain. Then Us vs Spain... Mexico... Germany... Japan... the long protracted “cold war” with the USSR... the list goes on and on. After the fall of the Soviet Union in the late '80's early '90's America was left without a “Them”.
This led to a decade of prosperity for us and relative peace. There was a sense of well being among the citizens who felt free to spend their money and invest in risky ventures. This can be seen as good or bad, but in my opinion it is mostly good. What it was doing however, was scaring the pants off those traditionally in power. How do you control the masses without a “Them”?
While the traditions of faith continued, their influence was greatly waning among the general population. The “Them” couldn't be some invisible Devil. It had to be something tangible. The foundations for obedience were, however, still laid very firmly in the psyche's of those that attended an organized religion, or had been raised by parents who had.
Given that the religious tenets themselves had weakened, I feel that those in power looked around and asked themselves “What really bonds all Americans together?”. We are a multi national, multi faith, multi economic leveled society. This question can be very difficult to answer. I'm sure that at some point however, someone looked back at the “Homefront” during WWII and how people were willing to sacrifice and pull together for a common cause, pride in America itself and fear for loss of our freedoms.
In its very essence, our national patriotism is a faith unto itself. Its blind trust in leaders who are playing with forces most of us will not understand and will never see the results of directly. If only there was a way to use our patriotism and current world affairs to create a “Them” to put Americans firmly back into the scared sheep waiting for a shepherd mode of thinking.
Why not combine the success of radical Islam, with our need for a “Them” and let the chips fall where they may? As Michael Moore said in F9/11, keep them afraid and on edge and people will agree to sign away nearly anything to regain their feeling of safety again.
We've been duped by using the very basis of human nature against itself. Fear, xenophobia, patriotism, belief in powers that are not to be questioned, we were just a disaster waiting to happen. If only they could engineer a situation that would scare the US to our core, and then prop up a religious warrior to put blind faith in. I think you see where this is going.
The rest is history. Here we are with an idiot shill with a messianic complex, the rest of the world quickly organizing into a “Them” to our “Us” as we are now their “Them”, and those of us who see through the smoke and mirrors have to wonder what do we do now?
Just my 2 cents.
KareBear
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