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DANGEROUS
BELIEFS
In 1950 Eric Hoffer's
masterpiece, THE TRUE BELIEVER, identified a grave threat to
civilization posed by soft-minded troublemakers. It originates in their
susceptibility to mind-closing belief
systems. They range, for
example, along an ideological spectrum from self-righteous preachers
and pundits to bomb-throwing anarchists.
In
Hoffer's day the worst troublemakers were probably left-wingers. These
days they tend to cluster as a lunatic fringe on the far "right" wing.
His
catchy phrase has become universally useful though, whatever the era,
for colloquially designating dangerously childish types among us;
starting with outright criminals.
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They all selfishly
substitute personal deductions from preconceived belief systems for
realistic thinking; which entails tough-minded but empathetic appraisal
of ever-changing human
conditions. Beguiling belief
was notably called a "lower" mental faculty in Plato's Riddle
of the Line (introduced at the
close of Book 6 REPUBLIC). It tends to drown out our "higher" faculties
of reason and understanding.
Weak minds are
especially drawn to this trap for the unwary. The true believer can
become thus a self-appointed messiah--resolving to "correct"
humanity--typically in the name of God.
BUSH
VERSUS ''EVILDOERS''
The President's war
rhetoric has been pathologically primitive. It derives, of course, from
the sharp scriptural distinction between good and evil. They have
become "separate things" in our religious lexicon. All three western
religions have consequently blown evil
out of proportion as an overwhelming "force" in-itself. It supposedly infects
humans inherently.
Each western religion
sports a set of Holy Scriptures prescribing institutional controls and
pieties more or less designed--naively-- to exorcise inherent evil
altogether. (Superstitiously.) Fundamentalists in all three allege that
the Old-Testament God "personally" authored their scriptures. They
start fighting though about the authenticity of conflicting claims that
the two younger religions share and/or supplant the "chosen-elect"
entitlement of Hebrews alone to receive these special messages.
Fundamentalist
fury is righteously aroused further, toward violence, by doctrinal
disagreements about Divine intent supposedly disclosed in particular
passages of older and younger scripture.
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The war of words and
projectiles periodically intensifies--ironically-- around the Holy city
of Jerusalem; increasingly dragging in the rest of a world held
"hostage" to the fuss.
Come on now, people.
This massive illogic is downright silly. "Faith" is transformed from a
generic wellspring of universal hope into an excuse for wishfully
believing fanciful hearsay told by religious "authorities."
The real enemy is
fundamentalism itself. The brunt of its "absolute" that we are
inherently evil can be turned around under more flexible suggestions
from classical philosophy based on Natural Law. Consider notably the
emphasis on education in Plato's REPUBLIC. It enables a more realistic
assessment of ourselves as mainly immature.
Obviously the human
species is quite young. We are saddled with bodies of yearning flesh
exploding with animal impulses. We are only slowly learning to control
them. In the meantime they lead inevitably to injustice and what we
have been calling "evil" ways.
One logical alternative
to fundamentalism would balance evil--against
the manifestly stronger "force" of
love--toward more maturity in
living the Good
Life; which all people want most down deep. The balance could be sealed
with our naturally-imposed conscience.
Genuinely humanitarian efforts to educate suffering populations
accordingly about these tools of nature, and help better their
condition, would obviously proceed further toward peace than brute
force deployed to exterminate "evildoers."
It is recommended
therefore that President Bush appeal more pragmatically to a
compassionate core of all major religions; beneath whatever veneer of
righteous belligerency.
His
brand of "Christianity" currently neglects a deeper message of love and
forgiveness; which could be instrumental in achieving a New Republic.
It
waits for folks to simply grow up and administer rationally the
marvelous institutional framework that has been established over the
centuries.
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Everything needed for
Plato's Good Life is now available; once humans realize that only the
old war (within and) among ourselves stands in the way of a really
Brave New World . . .
© Jim McCord
June 21, 2004
Email Jim McCord
mac@jimmccord.com
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