ENCOURAGING THE KERRY CAMPAIGN

Author's Note	07/20/2004
Human friendship and forgiveness are needed everywhere to absorb fundamentalist beliefs now threatening to blow this species apart.

ENCOURAGING THE KERRY CAMPAIGN

Please keep hammering away at the authoritarian style among ideological usurpers of my favorite Grand Ole Party. They remind me of the "Ugly American" dominating national consciousness during the Cold War in my youth.

In those days, of course, their brand of crusading militancy was probably required to confront the likes of Joe Stalin. Now that the world threat has shifted into new ideological dimensions though, a more subtle response is required.

Young John Kerry
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More friendship is now needed with Moslems--especially moderates--as they deal with extremists in their own ranks. Their fundamentalist beliefs pose the critical threat. It would demand diplomatic delicacy from a new Kerry Administration; having domestic problems of its own with fundamentalist troublemakers. International cooperation could alleviate social injustice that fosters and flows from their militancy everywhere.

Emphatically, an honest brokerage of peace in Israel would relieve extremist pressure throughout Islam. That would at least reassure moderates of American good faith in seeking peaceful justice for all; including self-government.

Of course Americans cannot dictate Moslem measures to alleviate mainly the ideological confusion that breeds fundamentalist discontent. We could nonetheless provide our own example of approaching this principal problem; by reconsidering old presuppositions, prejudices and privileges prompting those disgruntled to constantly attack their own kind (with words and projectiles).

Brute force to sort out the most incorrigible militants should be a last recourse, it seems; after exhausting more diplomatic measures. Current experiments with amnesty in Saudi Arabia (and proposed in Iraq) are worth watching.

THE PHONY VALUES WAR

John Kerry said something around 13 July that could sustain a campaign strategy. Radical "right" ideologues had been attacking his values along a broad front of the "culture war" (which they instigated decades ago to turn back the 60's).

Kerry suggested that the ideologues are stirring trouble to impose their own peculiar values. Partisan ones (verbally restricted around retrograde belief systems resurgent among fundamentalists). Consider, for example, their cleverly fragmented rhetoric about the marriage amendment; and other "wedge" issues currently distracting voters. Are they really expressing broadly American values? Enduring and authentic?

Anyway Kerry said he would emphasize real values. Common ones: presumably including principles on which this nation was founded. One revolutionary idea--of Jefferson especially--was to overcome the very belief systems that had long divided humanity against itself (notably into enclaves of power and privilege versus suffering masses).

These divisive belief systems can arise among elitists in any population. Selfish minorities impose them on everyone else. Similarly, self-appointed "bosses" impose authoritarian fantasies fomenting various forms of tyranny; historically including too many religious authorities.

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BELIEF-BASED "VALUES"

Angry fundamentalists throughout western civilization typically believe--down deep--that the rest of humanity deserves punishment for inherent "evil" (flowing from some "original sin" which no one really remembers committing). For centuries this has been an underlying attitude--"value"--derived from dogma and lodged at ghoulish levels of our weakest minds.

The softest-minded preachers--called "black robes" by the Indians--variably blight bewildered populations and suck out their vitality. A pall of guilt spreads across gloomy people always glancing fearfully over their shoulders. They become deadly serious. Fun fades.

It is past time to trot out this touchy topic critically concerning our quality of life and politics.

Radical fundamentalists obviously comprise, therefore, a pathological fringe--beyond the spectrum along which rational discourse between genuine conservatives and liberals maintains an even keel for human development. Radical right believers preferably operate beyond this Marketplace of Ideas. Anyone who disagrees with their "values" must be wrong.

Coalitions of this pathological type--eschewing rational compromise--have taken over the
Republican Party to an alarming degree. They include too many hypocritical haters. It is time for decent folks--normally moderate Americans, including real Republicans remaining--to greet the usurpers' "values" first with outrage. Then a harder challenge arises:

Friendship and forgiveness could be extended to assimilate these troubled children into the body-politic of an increasingly rational people growing up to heed the pragmatic imperative of justice; which has been envisioned since Plato at the heart of a New Republic allowing everyone to live (and let-live) the Good Life.