27 March 2005 - 10:33am
"Babies are born bad"
There seem to be two schools of thought in this world about ourselves.
One theory goes like this: People are born bad. Babies are badness. As such, they must be beaten and controlled and trained to be good. "Spare the rod, spoil the child." I cannot think of a more reprehensible, offensive, nasty -- evil -- view of the world. If there's a devil, this is how the devil would think.
Then there is the other view: People are born innocent. Babies are good. As they are exposed to this world, they are exposed to badness. Given their innate strengths and weaknesses, some are tempted by it, even beyond the age when they know better. Given this, it makes sense to me that it's only good to nurture the child, giving love.
Personally I cannot fathom the "babies born bad" view of the world. It certainly goes against all my experience. Babies are bundles of love and trust. They have to be taught pettiness and abusiveness. They have to be taught envy and pride. I don't see how beating the child does anything but improve this teaching. Children need to be taught hate -- and they are. Hate the Jews. Hate the gays. Hate the Yanks. Hate the French. Hate the Arabs. Hate hate hate.
Now the "babies born bad" people are running our government. And their attitudes about the nature of life are showing up in their legislation. "We the People" are now considered inherently bad. "We the People" are not to be trusted. "We the People" are one step from "evil incarnate" -- and unless the "babies born bad" folks take steps to keep "We the People" in line, well, all hell will break loose -- literally.
This strikes me as patently un-American. Who are these "babies born bad" people to claim authority over all of our lives? Did our ancestors, our Founding Fathers, fight and die for Freedom just to have a bunch of self-appointed evil-seers take the place of the King?
What is really telling to those of us who went to Sunday school is how these "babies born bad" folks seem to live lives in diametric opposition to the teachings of Jesus, whom they claim to worship. The Jesus I studied taught of love and peace. The Jesus I studied taught of compassion and giving. The Jesus I studied taught of acceptance of others.
Later, when I became acquainted with other faiths around the world, I saw how Jesus' teachings were so much like Buddha's and so many others. It's a global faith in love and peace.
How did we end up here? There is so much beauty and wonder in the world. Nature is magnificent in its richness and mystery. It is our cradle. And there is so much beauty and wonder in our own creations. Look at the marvels of our civilizations. Our cities, our great public works, our architecture, our institutions for caring for the people in need.
And yet we fall so short. This is our failing. Starvation, epidemics, wars, poverty -- these are our failings.
So what are we to do? Get out the rod and beat on these people? Beat on the poor to get them in line? Beat on the ill to get them in line? Beat on the elderly to get them in line? That seems to be the approach of those "people born bad" folks leading our government. And it's all an extension of this basic notion they've learned to embrace: People are born bad!
What an awful way to view ourselves. What an awful way to try to run the world.
Shouldn't "We the People" do better? Doesn't the world deserve better?
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"I am born bad - so bad that I have to be saved or I'm going to Hell. I have to be told what to do, and I have to make you do it, too, or I'll never be good enough."
It's sad, really, but we are paying for their self-loathing. Remember that these people lack the faculty for abstract thinking. They only know what they can touch, and they can't conceive of the idea that someone else has different thoughts or feelings. They have no understanding of the relative nature of sytems of morality. They think a baby is the punishment for having sex outside of marriage. They think being poor means you are undisciplined and lazy. They believe there's not enough of anything to go around, so they have to get theirs before you.
Yes, the world deserves better. It distresses me that we have the capability to improve the lives of everyone on the planet and we aren't doing it. It bothers me that they are abusing Jesus' name to justify political and social actions that would horrify him. It bothers me that people can't consider, even for a moment, that their beliefs might just be wrong.
Now the question is, what do we do about it. I believe the first step for us on the net is to organize, and create a cohesive movement against the Dominant Death Cult.
Right now, we are functioning as separate interests. Feminists and liberal men need to band together; Atheists, Pagans, and actual Christians of all types need to get together with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and others because we ALL want to be free to live as we choose; Blacks need to work with Feminists and Gays and Hispanics. Instead of being a buch of little groups, we need to get over our divisions in the interest of the overarching causes of Freedom and Justice for ALL. We'll never get it individually. Solidarity is the key. If one of us is not free, then none of us is free.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
The mainstream media, the politocracy, the corporatocracy all don't want this to happen. They want us all to be fighting each other. For the MSM, it means easy entertainment programming. For the politocracy, it means the party establishments remain in power. For the corporatocracy, it means we're not paying attention to how they're raping the country, its resources and its people.
I think the conservatives think that they can control this three-headed beast. I feel that this unholy alliance threatens to run this country right into the dustbin of history.
With your assessment of the danger. I also feel as if we need to give up hope that the Democrats will do anything to help us. They're owned by the same corporate interests as the Republicans and they've shown very little willingness to oppose the Religious Reich even when they are so clearly out of bounds.
I have no doubt that the underclasses have to organize - I'm just not sure how to do it.
But I'm working on it.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
Thanks to Morgaine and praise to the Goddess for this proclamation; "We must band together:" to resist evil, to join in creating good: to join together.
I have long felt that we have allowed our enemies to divide us so they may rule us; "divide and rule" destroyed the workers, the Indians, Africans & African-Americans, women, "Orientals", and anybody who didn't see things "the right way". But there's tension in celebrating the richness of our differences and in standing together; we may have played this down too much. An Appalachian coal miner may find it hard to overcome his religious teaching when confronted by the absoluteness of a woman's sexual autonmy. I think of the struggles we actual Christians are facing in accepting GLBT members fully (not just "sit in the pew, give money, and stay away from any kids but your own." Group studies crossing ideological and social bases show the key is getting acquianted as human beings, as fellow creatures. Then it becomes "Fuck the theology. Fuck the power. We know them; we know their struggles, their good humor, their willingness to pitch in: they are one of us, and you'd better respect that."
I chose my examples in part to illustrate just how difficult this can be. Can we be patient with my made-up miner, while we stand with him against the company? Yeah, we must tell him, "Brother, we aint compromising on this; we gotta do it." when speaking of women's sacred right to be themselves. Then what?
My bishops, whom I care for deeply and respect, all participated in the consecration of an openly gay priest as the bishop of New Hampshire. This has thrown the entire communion into a crisis; many bishops & primates, especially in Africa where we are growing most rapidly, hate this. They sincerely believe it is a surrender to evil. Thus the Anglican Communion has asked U S bishops to voluntarily refrain from participating for a few years. There was no such request made to the Archbishop of Uganda who, not being satisfied with his victory, called in a press release for an immediate and total reversal of the U S church.
There's a side of me that wants to say "Fuck the evil bastards!"
and let them go. But what of the other African Archbishops, who are struggling to bring us together? What of the very real concerns of the Ugandan Archbishop who deals with Christian/ Muslim ethnic violence, with hundreds of casualties, or the indifference of the rich U S/ Europeans, who profit from third world debt and the international structures that create and maintain it? What of his people who say " we are accused of being morally lax because we do not condemn homosexuals. or other
free practices?" What of the agony of watching babies die before or just after Baptism, from AIDS, Malaria, or other disease, as the inadequate response swings, oh so slowly, into effect? It's not so easy to say "Fuck the Archbishop" or another; it is very hard to find a way not to say it when he is \
essentially saying it to us, but this is what solidarity requires. I know you as another child of God, and I support you with my whole heart in your struggles, which are not mine, BUT THIS REQUIRES THE SAME FROM YOU. I have struggles, which you can not share, but you must accept them as just. Easy on you helping me with mine, but not so on the other side, hey?
This is longer than I intended already; we are a struggle, and a celebration, in progress. Let us keep each other on track, and care for each other; it's hard work, but well worth it.
Love, caring, and peace to all
and then there are the ruled. There are the radical conservative leaders who play to people's fears, and then there are the people who are targeted to receive that rhetoric.
I don't really care about the Archbishops of the Holy Roman Empire. I do care about they people they try to control and sway. The Church will or won't find a heart of compassion. But as long as they see the womb and not the woman, I will consider them sadly lost and dangerously misguided.
Diversity is our strength. They use it against us because it threatens them. You are absolutely right, in my book.