**** Being a Guest Post by BJ****For your delectation****With a glass of port****And some fine Texas Cheese****Unabridged & Unaffected****
In a recent post, Jeff aptly described the dubious practice of Carbon Offsets as a modern form of the old church practice of indulgences, the paying of coin for alleviation of sins for those both living and dead. The practice took to extremes the foundational principle that the Roman Catholic Church, in its role as intercessor for the faithful, provided a divinely inspired service for the believer, greasing the skids, so to speak, for salvation. Martin Luther begged to differ in this and other doctrines, starting the firestorm of the Reformation. Based upon some of the recent postings on the acceptance of progressive/leftist dogma and the visibility and assumed authority of its declarers, I am moved to suggest the idea that their part of the political sphere has established, over many years, their own form of “evangelism†in the public policy debates currently roiling through our discussions.
The only thing missing are the tents and Holy Spirit seizures. However, they do have their versions of the really cool praise and worship bands.
Evangelism is a word both used and misused in many ways. Its literal meaning is “proclaiming the good news.†It is rooted in the idea that I have a divine insight that I wish to share with another, an insight achieved through both study and a profound acceptance of faith in the unseen. It is also, frankly, identified by the concept that I know something you don’t and you are incapable in your present mindset of a complete understanding. Strikingly, this very doctrine reflects so much of what we read in leftist thought. Substitute academic intelligence and classical enlightenment for an omnipotent authority and we are left with the Religion of Progressivism in its many forms and declarations. From environmental policy to gun control to antiwar movements to racial and sexual diversity, we are being proselytized not on a set of facts and logic but on a morally superior canon deeply embedded in intellectual authoritarianism.
I’ll anticipate the howling on the left by stating that they don’t believe in an “unseen†power behind their preaching nor is the entire progressive movement tainted by this association with an “academic divine.†Many of the intelligentsia would declare that their proclamations are deeply buttressed by academic discipline and keen study. They have accepted the human centered notion that the building of irrefutable moral imperatives is logically produced by a combination of superior intellect, inspired caring and moral equivalency. Yet this notion of “we know better than you†almost inevitably casts its shadow with a sizable dollop of academic elitism and moral totalitarianism. In other words if the moral foundations are unassailable, then so is the “critical thinking†that brought our evangelists to their present state of authority. How often have we seen a variation of that same argument applied to “Right Wing Evangelicals,†to the degree of comparing them to Iranian Theocrats?
My comparison falls short in one key concept: Rather than relying on the “evangel†of good news they, in fact, are moved by the perception of unmitigated and endless horror imposed on our nation and the world by those (re. conservatives/Libertarians/Classical Liberals) who refuse to see the light and acknowledge the left’s moral triumphalism. Nishizono once referred to the UN as “misery pimps.†Perhaps a better description for our progressive fighting monks would be The First Church of the Progressive Misery Pimpage. No amount of progress or alleviation will ever stem the mighty crusade to continuously preach about our national and global “care†failings, blame the evil Capitalists and Christianists for these failings and establish the left’s own moral ascendancy.
The results of this canon can be seen within our own little corner of the blogosphere. Dr. Brod evangelizes Global Warming and suggests that we all bow in reverence to the chosen oracles of truth. Professor Farred sermonizes on the narrative of racial and sexual victimization as transcending law, demonizing a victim in the process. Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan proselytize the ethical ascendancy of peace at all costs. Mona sets herself up as the disciple of totalitarian discourse where opposing views are subject to the divine imperative of squashing the evil of Conservatism or Classical Liberalism. All of these and others are powered by a fervor of fundamentalist proportions; a faith based certainty that they are smarter, better educated, more enlightened and morally superior to those who would not pay indulgences to their misery pimpage. Thus they are divinely justified in any and all rhetorical flourishes, deeply committed to the “truth in power†catechism, our own modern, leftist intercessors.
FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHILDREN!
The end result is a level of discourse that is both religious in its belief and immaturely superior in its presentation. If one is operating under the fevered assurance that morality and intelligent insight are wholly yours then it is unnecessary to consider those having opposing views as rhetorical humans. The use of scatological language, the clearly displayed bitterness and the shallow dismissals of attempted engagement continue to reflect a doctrinal rigidity that might just shame the most ardent fundamentalist end-timer. The difference is most fundamentalists understand their incomplete grasp of the unseen divine while the disciples of misery lay back upon their beds of superior intellect and certain knowledge. To egregiously insult those who refuse to partake of the leftist communion makes one edgy, righteous and authoritative; logic, facts and critical thinking be damned.
The irony is many of these same progressive church goers are dismissive and contemptuous of religion and the idea of faith based initiatives. They are completely blind to their own conversion and indifferent to the totalitarian nature of their arrogance. The idea that they represent a church and are preaching a religion would cause a black hole like event in the structured quarters of their houses of faith. Priests and saints will continued to be worshipped uncritically while political demons are marginalized, castigated and, they “prayâ€Â, utterly defeated. Need we look any further than Hugo Chavez and his “satanizing†of President Bush? Feel free to borrow from religion those tenets that espouse the “truthiness†while subjugating the unenlightened, broken egged opposition.
Progressive omelet, anyone? Although, I must say, the thought of Noam Chomsky dressed in Alb and Mitre wielding a censer makes me giggle… (Photoshop opportunity!)
KNOW YOUR PHILOSOPHERS:
Chomsky
Chumley
*sigh*
Here I have shredded my thesaurus to create this post and what do I get from Collins?
CARTOONS! (Chumley, heh!)
BTW: This should be enjoyed with a good Portuguese rose.
FOR THE MULTICULTURALISM!
There’s nothing right with the world that postmodernism can’t fix!
For the children, or rather, the omnipotent infant in all of us..
You DARE use irony against the Enlightened?? Well, you–
–um–
–um–
–um–
–YOU’RE FAT!
And, um, HALLIBURTON!
Tennessee Tuxedo.
Who would be Mr. Whoopee?
Oh, come now, Dan… what does the ‘progressive’ movement have EXCEPT ‘unseen’ powers? Why else would they cling to a theory of economics and government that has failed in every nation where it has ever been implemented? Why else are they so prepared to accept or manufacture vast hidden conspiracies and plots while ignoring the same collusions in their own self-appointed priesthoods?
But where’s the good news?
Penguins have come a long way since Tennessee Tuxedo, huh?
Nice post, BJTxs. The religion of the impending/desired/comforting Unified State. My local rag is chock full every day with the simple assumption that government has one job, which is to provide. Utterly unquestioned.
Would have been handy had the founders inserted something about a separation of collectivist philosophies and State instead of that part trying to keep the CoE out of politics or whatever it was they intended.
So, “religion” = philosophy of government as Higher Power? That would make a great SC case, if it could think on such things.
What you said plus intolerant, mule-headed, religiose thinking, which is to say, sanctimony, blind fear, appearance, wish, ignorance and arrogance.
All the components of bad religion. Best question to ask them is where they got all those “rights” from.
This is as stark an example as you can get of the cul-de-sac the left seems unable to avoid. The rhetoric not only makes retreat impossible, but they can’t further their critique in any rhetorically meaningful way. The only outlet for their progressivism is to expand the pantheon of the satanic against which they are in opposition. Large retail chains, cigarettes in movies (unless made of marijuana), donuts, “performance-enhancing drugs”, coffee at market prices, SUVs, Fox News, world trade, trade embargoes, nuclear energy, irradiated food, high school football, sun tans, NASCAR…
Just playing what if. But what if the proselytizing the left is embracing is less a function of a totalitarian agenda and more the inexorable result of a feedback loop described by the relative success of those messages that the media is most likely to pick up and amplify?
…Texas Cheese?
TP: long79horns?
I used them for Christmas last year. The lady on the phone was very sweet. She was making cheese while we talked.
Well, as some may already know, I don’t have much ‘truck’ with labels like ‘progressivism’. It is a DELIBERATELY OBFUSCATING label. It’s because Americans are loath to utter S.O.C.I.A.L.I.S.T in public, for fear of being chased by the ghost of McCarthy. Marx [e.g.Communist Manifesto, 1848] laid out the groundwork for all that you see here, all of them, from Code Pink to Pelosi. He described the tenets of : (1) feminism (NOT women’s equality), (2) anti-globalization, (3) progressive taxation, (4) moral relativism, (5)anti-militarism, (6)hatred for Republicans (’Bourgeoisie’
, (7) pro internationalism, (8)massive government, (9) use of intellectuals to help overthrow the state… need I go on?
More
THE KEY ISSUE is the role of discourse. True liberal democracies MUST have productive discourse, debate, and argument because it is the engine of democracy. Democracies need it to adapt and change and improve. When a governmental crisis appears, democracies argue vigorously about the best course of action, vote on it, and move on.
SOCIALISM IS NOT DESIGNED TO TOLERATE DISSENT. Socialists have a vision, they do not what to change it, and they confront and destroy anyone who challenges them. Controversy and debate will undermine their political goals of large, top-down, controlling government. Disagreement is not permitted.
THAT’S WHY CODE PINK YELLS AT EVERYONE.
my sisteris a proffesional student @ Harvard
and has a 4.0/ She’s runnig out of courses to take [she is an expert on ancient languages/sumerian] They made her a ‘teaching
assistant’ I paint….walls..in office buildings…with my new south of the border buddies.,I’m kinda learning spanish We get along really well ‘ceptin’ politics,when it get’s quite heated. The last ‘discussion ended with her saying “how can you be so happy?” [after her list of truly awful things that were happening or gonna happen or.. well I just looked at her and laughed and laughed. It was kinda sad though because i’m intersted in the “news” so I could parry her thrusty talking points, and that is why you have to learn history.
‘
If you learn history, Mike, you can’t be a ‘progressive’, because then you have no excuse for repeating the same mistakes generation after generation…
Fight the Anorexarchy, people!
Should we start refering to college as the seminary?
‘Cuz it seems that’s where most of the progressive (oops, excuse me DemocracyRules, socialist) indoctrination takes place.
the paint fumes got to me/and allthat typing/
I was meandering to the point that she only had a glossy reading of current 24 hr latest poll bulls*t newscycle garbage and I’m intersted in newsy stuff so I spend an hour or two following certain threads[cuz i like it] like the fake photoshopped mideast Israel war/ the YOUTHS in france a rioting/ and in Sweden the city of Malmo the rape stats are thru the roof/ and it goes on and on and on…like the latest hit job about the niger thingy..Italian letter, I saw the author being interstroked on some Pbs show and Im waing for the stroker to ask the difference between the word bought and sought/ never happened/ maybe palistine micky can help…so, all these stories,bam bam bam off the news cycle and Id say to sister, as I say to anyone, it’s howyou frame the arguement./ opponent argue the we’ve been in Iraq longer than ww2/my rebuttal is to ask if you went to war, what would be an acceptable casulty rate? make them answer, get right back in their faces- but of course those bastards[u know who i’m talking about] they woudn’t take a stand unless it was on dry land and the next day they could have a press conference with a neck brace on holding their touch futbol trophy / where the hell are the republicans for crying out loud! get mad/ the dems would cry and moan every day- get in their faces at least bring it up/ the chicago heat wave killed more minorities than katrina durin clinton;bil, bring it up/ feinstein/ schumers letters to att gen/ his staffs Steele breakin watergate affair/ scream at these bastards today cuz it’s goin down memory lane/ 2700 soldiers sent a letter to congrees- talk about it/ don’t argue in their perspective/ get in their face/ I wish someone would get in medias face every time they asked a stupid question/ paint fumes ….must …continue…thank god the voting..ma….chines are finally fixed
parry her thrusty talking points
tweaking the sacred output knobs
Separated at birth?
I was trying to push the religious metaphor but I could have said “unproven” as in doctrine rather than “unseen” as in God. Your point is well taken; continuously pushing ideals and societal structures which have no history of successful implementation and operation borders on the cultish. BTW: Figure out who wrote this?
I don’t disagree with that notion but it wasn’t the thrust of the post. I operate under the assumption that most here understand that Social Progressivism and Socialism are similar branches from the same tree. Many true-to-heart Socialists hide themselves behind the progressive label which allows them to be more palatable to some “true” progressives leery of the whole Totalitarian thing.
Wow! Great point! Expand the mataphor and substitute “demon alchohol,” “provocative miniskirts,” “adult bookstores.” The most extreme fundamentalist finds his doppleganger in the nannystate worshipping Socialist/Progressive.
I’d say one hand washes the other. The totalitarian attitude towards opposition discourse is fed by the continuous media loop for Socialist/Progressive canon, which strengthens the desire to stifle dissent. Several timesd I’ve rerad leftists state that the MSM is biased towards conservatives a clear reflection of their desire to control the message even as the major outletsgenerally support their views!
Some anyway! The post graduate work in Advanced Government Centered Post Modern Socialist Theology can also be done within leftist organizations and honed on the proliferation of lefty blogs. Also. I would point out there are some seminaries who will gladly serve you a heady, post modern cocktail of Radical Feminism, Liberation Theology and Environmental Theology, among others.
– It all makes for good grundge for the time being, but needs must the opposition to the opposition make hey while the fad shines.
– Enevitably, “sameness” moss will begin to gather, trumpeting the death of the current movement, and suddenly, when it’s no longer in or posh, but most importantly when the progressive moongirls stop putting out, we’ll most likely be treated to a generation of great Gadsby’s next, and thats just no fun.
TW: This months winners of the “Global warming marathon dance is couple91….congrats, and we have some great parting gifts to go with your award….