Evangelism

Evangelism ranks right up there with the drive for power and territorial greed in creating human misery.

The rationale for religious evangelism, Christian and otherwise, is supposedly to save people's souls. Like... I see you are walking down the street and there's a deep hole in the ground you can't see. I need to step up and guide you around that hole in order to save you. In other words I can see something you can't and/or I know something you don't.

Because I know something you don't-- I know better than you do what is best for you -- I am justified in intervening in your life and either persuading or forcing you to conform to my prescription for you.

My cousin's oldest daughter and two of her fellow evangelists went a few years ago to Israel to save the Jews. They failed to save any souls. Others have been more successful. Mohammad did so with the sword, converting more to his faith than any other evangelist in history. Christian missionaries to less advanced societies have been somewhat successful in converting heathens. One explanation could be that the heathens may have thought if they converted they too could have all the Things the missionaries brought with them.

If I know what is best for your soul, I probably, as the thinking often has gone, know what is best for you in other ways, as well. This is a rationale for an almost endless list of choices and decisions I must make on your behalf. For one, I know of a better system of economics and societal organization. I've dubbed it Communism. On another occasion, the idea of creating an Aryan society was convincing to a few people. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, as the King said.

Right now, I'm looking over my shoulder at the growing conviction that it is more productive and less painful for the government to do things for us than if I had to do them for myself. Sounds good, doesn't it?

Ideal-ology-itis

Conservative politicians in the U.S. have campaigned tirelessly for less regulation of the financial industry, among others. Their rationale includes claims that regulation stymies the growth of the economy and that the banks, for example, can police themselves far better than the government. Mr. Greenspan said he believed that bankers were honest enough to keep things on an even, safe, keel.

Well... look at what the f__k that far right ideology got us. All my income taxes for all my life have been diverted to banks and bankers' pockets. Meanwhile, they are charging me 17.5% interest on my credit card and paying me 1.5% interest on my savings.

Right wingers -- who will NEVER admit that their deregulation of the banking system was a primary cause of the failure of 2008 -- aren't the only fools.

Communists got a completely failed experiment in the USSR. Lefties and socialists delighted that China was thoroughly socialist/communist, and now look at that bastion of free market capitalism. Very clearly, though, the economic ideals in both cases were contaminated by despotic governments unable to manage when they got what so many liberals had wished for.

In all three examples, the failed reality illustrates what happens when ideologies prevail over common sense. Why do we tend so easily to get hung up on a line of thinking that might seem useful at first glance, then ride it straight into hellish intellectual extremes? Philosophers do it, economists do it, politicians do it, theologians do it. Who doesn't?

Idealogy-itis -- the infection by a commitment to a set of ideals no matter what happens out there in the real world -- is a sickness of intellectuals and dunces alike.

New Blog for Clyde Hopkins' Thoughts

This is a blog created for Clyde Hopkins to air his thoughts, grievances, cherished ideas, and special ruminations. More posts in days to come.