As our nation celebrates its two
hundred thirty-sixth birthday, I am reminded as much of the progress
our nation has made across two centuries as the recession of that
progress in the days since our founding. Values which were first
realized in the United States: individual rights,
intellectual independence and the freedom to succeed (or fail) are
losing their prominence on the national scene. I am not a partisan die hard who believes that a return to the past is what will make us
great. Nor am I a champion of either political party. I write this
post from a cafe in the heart of the bible belt, where the greatest
portion of my twenty-two years has been spent.
The present incorporation of the
democratic party represents a threat to our freedom – the freedom
of our bodies. Taxes that redistribute income take from one person
and give to another, solely on the basis of need, which is no form of
merit. It is easy to see how such a policy is a threat to the freedom
of our body. The work of our minds belongs to us, the reward should
as well, yet it is wrenched from us by force. This is a type of
mysticism, it is the pretense that work does not create wealth, that
those who do not work can achieve success without working by riding
on the backs of those who do work. Success is not mystical, it is
systematic. Yet 'liberal' policy makers and politicians pretend that
success is a mystic process which some will never realize. The irony
is that many never will succeed on their own as long as we continue
to teach them that success comes from thievery.
But the mystics of the mind, not the
mystics of the body, rule this part of the nation. Southern
republicans, people who supposedly cherish their freedom, are quick
to arch their backs against threats to their freedom. Guns, god and
gold are the holy triad of conservatism in this corner of the union.
But what many self-labeled republicans are not aware of is the fact
that faith (or god) is as large a threat to their freedom as Barack
Obama. The Christian faith encourages people to depend on a higher
power, to give up control and place their lives in the hands of the
divine. The better sort of Christians admit that this will not always
bring success because their god is not concerned with giving them
success so much as doing what is best for them.
God is the ultimate tyrant, the tyrant
of the mind, though no longer the body. John Milton glimpsed as much
in Paradise Lost but perhaps lacked the courage to admit it to
himself or others. Having faith in god to solve your problems is very
nearly the same as having faith in government to do so except that
government exists, god does not. The danger of surrendering your mind
to god is that you have surrendered to a false premise and even if
you manage to hit at some other truths, your thought process will not
be unified as long as you defend that false premise. Defending a
false premise with logic is like defending an uncooperative
non-combatant who cannot see the danger in the middle of a firefight.
How can Christians, who are supposed
to be models of the altruistic, neighbor-loving citizens protest the
theft of their money in the form of taxes when it is going toward
such a good cause – care for the needy? The simple answer is that
if they understand Christianity for what it is, they cannot. Freedom
from god is freedom from false premises, the freedom to stand on your
own two feet, the freedom to pursue the truth no matter the
consequences. Christianity demands devoted slaves to Christ's reason
– faithful followers who do not and cannot understand their
master's true intentions. This is a recipe for disaster especially
given the fact that their master does not exist and they are all
following each other or their leader (who does not really know what
he is doing either ).
But not all leaders in the Christian
church are so blind, many see the money that is to be made from
pretending as though you know what is going on – these are the Joel
Olsteins of the world. The truth is, Joel Olstein is less dangerous
than the small-town pastor who blindly follows an often contradictory
corpus of literature written thousands of years ago and the voice of
the 'spirit.' The very mentality which fosters tyranny in politics,
is the same mentality which controls the mind of the average
parishioner. That mentality is fear. The fear of the unknown and the
fear of thinking for oneself. The same fear which leads people to
band together to legally rob the strong of this world is the
mentality which leads them to band together as a defense against the
unknown, in devotion to the unknowable.
The world is knowable, this should be
a source of comfort to our minds but it is presently a source of fear
to many people because so much of it is unknown to them. To me, this
represents a challenge, the challenge to know! I have no special
malice against god (only an insane person would hate someone who does
not exist) or against Christians particularly – only against the
mystics of the mind and body, those who would enslave us as workers
and as thinkers.
What America needs, two hundred and
thirty-six years after its founding is people who will take risks and who have the freedom to do so - entrepreneurs of the mind and body. What America has is faithful
followers everywhere who are afraid of such risks and witch-doctors
who fan the flames of their fear - intellectual cowards and thieves. These forces could combine to see
America in a somewhat European conundrum, fifty to one hundred years
from now. It is the pioneering spirit of the intellect, which led us
to span a continent, that will reinvigorate our nation, our politics
and our economy one individual at a time.
