Our ancestors lived in a world where no thought that contradicted the church's dogma was allowed, where people were condemned to hell for looking in a mirror and a death sentence for believing that the earth wasn't at the center of the universe.Every culture has been vulnerable to being commandeered by a belief system. These beliefs structures our ancestors evolved can be calming and useful, but still just a tool. If we drop our vigilance and forget that we're looking through a self imposed veil, it can appear that all world around us is validating the worldview we believe in.
People have everything invested in their gods, their after-life mythology is far more important than even the biological drive to live. Muslim suicide bombers believe they have virgins waiting for them in heaven, Christians chose to be lion chow rather than disavow their beliefs. Whether its Japanese Kama-Kazi pilots, or Aztec priests, no epoch or corner of the world is immune to the disease of belief, religion is the only contagious psychosis.
The elites figured out long ago that real power lies in becoming the authority, the spokesman, the conduit and the judge of what does qualify, and what doesn't, as part of the hocus-pocus. From this pulpit of supposed moral authority, political authority is far easier to maintain.
"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas-
- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas-
A Time for Heresy by Bill Moyers
The "Cult of America" has taken on its own version of a state religion, with the president at its head. In the end, people want to believe the myths — we are great because we are good and therefore we are hated because of that. To question that is to question nationhood, the divine blessings of God upon the American people and, by extension, our own personhood.
The "Cult of America" has taken on its own version of a state religion, with the president at its head. In the end, people want to believe the myths — we are great because we are good and therefore we are hated because of that. To question that is to question nationhood, the divine blessings of God upon the American people and, by extension, our own personhood.
