Republican philosophy in a nutshell
And God commanded Adam and Eve not to touch or eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for they would become like God.
Their purpose was to exist and to do what God told them to.
But they ate the apple.
And gained Free Will. The ability to think for themselves. How interesting that this ability is seen as the greatest Fall from Grace ever? Because we gained the ability to make our own choices.
Now, some priests and theologians will say that without eating the apple, we were intrinsically good by nature, and it was only with the knowledge of what "good" and "evil" were that we became CAPABLE of evil.
But I call bullcrap on that explanation.
Because without Free Will, we are essentially animals. A bit higher developed, but animals nonetheless. And animals do what animals do without thought of "is this good" or "is this wrong" or anything like that. Pootie sees, Pootie pounces. Because that is the nature of Pootie.
But we are also human. We DO have free will. And it is a wonderful thing. It allows us to better ourselves. And, it also allows us to make horrible choices that can hurt, in extreme cases, millions of people. But it is our choice to make. We go through life learning to make these choices, and to try to make them well and wisely.
But religion, especially fundamentalist religion, is designed to take away that freedom and that choice. Witness the story of the Fall. Man's greatest sin was learning Free Will and obtaining the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Worshipers are told to "give themselves to God", to "Let Jesus come inside them". And naturally, the mouthpiece of what God and Jesus has to say is the preacher/leader.
This is why you get some communities that are so insular it's shocking. The levels of ignorance of the world, of science, of just basic fact. Because that is not what they're taught. They only mingle with their own kind. And now they have entire universities set up where they never have to leave the cocoon of their little Garden and never eat that Apple.
This is how the Republican Party works as well. They are a fundamentalist Party. They have tapped into this mindset. Do not be fooled by stories of "disarray". What you are seeing is a dominance fight. Once there is a winner, they will all follow in lockstep like the pre-Fall Adam and Eve. It's how groups like this have done things throughout history.
We've just had CPAC, and although Hunter will tell us that the Social Conservatives seem to be not as prominent, don't you believe it. For their philosophy of Obedience Without Question is the belief that permeates the party. It's Purity above all. The essence of fundamentalism. They shun those that seem the most reasonable to the rest of us in favor of those who most conform to their belief sets, no matter how screwed up they may be. As I've stated, all we are seeing is the fight between the factions--the Social Conservatives vs the Economic ones. And to be perfectly honest, they're ALL Social Conservatives. The young ones who are not will become either Libertarians or Democrats and leave the Party.
On the other side, you have groups like us. We are more social in our thinking--that is, we have more give and take, more discussion. We have leaders too, but they become leaders through merit, not through dominance struggle. And we certainly do not follow without question. If we follow at all. And yes, we have our Purity factions as well. The Left can be just as fundamentalist as the Right.
And in nature, and in history, these two groups have always clashed. And it always seems the Authoritarian/Fundamentalist group catches the other unprepared and disorganized.
But there's good news. While groups like this do come into power, we see through nature and history what happens. For a time, their reign is brutal and repressive. Obedience is the first order of these groups. Always has been, always will be. What the Leader says is Good. Only Approved things are learned. And if you are caught "eating the apple of knowledge of good and evil" you are punished. But their time is brief. Eventually those they oppress rise up and overthrow their oppressors. NO society based on total obedience and promotion of ignorance has survived for long.
But the damage will take years if not decades to undo.
Which path will you choose?