Postmodern Angst

Note the lack of uproar over the ADL, a “civil rights” group, taking the decidedly un-American, un-Constitutional, intolerant stance of opposing the construction of the Cordoba Street Islamic Center in NYC. Nominally one could categorize the ADL’s position as “anti-American,” except that persecuting people for their religious belief has become very “American” lately.

Note the tremendous uproar opposing the religious freedom of Muslims in America. Note the complaints that it’s all about “Ground Zero” are empty lies – there are or have been protests against mosques being built in California, Florida, Oregon, Georgia, Maine, and Tennessee. Could you get a wider demographic?

The hatred harbored by so many Americans is beginning to bear fruit.

Note the very, very few attempts to prevent or even delay the harvest of this fruit.

Note the eagerness of certain groups to run into the fields, ahead of ripening even, and feed this fruit to the masses. Note their denials that this is race-based, ethnic-based hatred: they claim it is about ideology, not religion. Note their claims become empty lies in the face of their actions.

This country is going to destroy itself in an orgy of hatred and violence.

Note the number of people who look forward to that possibility. Note how all of them are either Christians or Jews. Note how their eagerness to cheer these wars and this hatred is based in the account of Armageddon provided by their holy book, in which they victoriously destroy everyone on Earth who is not a believer.

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism seem committed to destroying one another. Consider how that means they are committed to destroying or otherwise damaging the entire population of the planet, without discretion.

Note that is what they are in fact doing.

Note how few Americans are rising in defense of religious liberty. Religious leaders of American Muslims are tending to avoid counter-demonstrations: they are afraid they will be harmed or even killed if they stand up for their Constitutional rights. Should anyone in America be afraid to exercise their rights?

The dearth of protest from non-Muslim Americans can be taken as a sign of tacit approval.

Hatred of the alien or foreigner is alive and well in America. It is embodied now in the Arizona law, which seeks to impose unconstitutional standards in excess of federal controls, and the hatred exhibited by those Americans who protest mosques.

These are the very worst citizens among us. They would have a nation based not on liberty and law, but on vengeance and intolerance. They would have a “Christian nation” which murders and maims non-Christians. They would turn their backs on our laws, our history, our traditions, just to satisfy their blood-lust and fear.

They say Islam is trying to destroy America.

I say, Christians are trying to destroy America.

And they are doing a pretty good job so far, with the silent assent of other American Christians, who claim to oppose the hatred and destruction but cannot be found on the opposite side of the street from the racist signs and bigoted shouts. Many American Christians claim these hate-driven zealots are a minority – yet the ranks of the evangelicals, who dominate this dialogue of hate, swells while the population of “mainstream” denominations (who are theoretically more tolerant and accepting) shrinks.

These “liberal Christians” can be counted on at civil rights ceremonies honoring past heroes – but today Christian leaders are mostly silent in the face of contemporary persecution of an unpopular minority. When questioned about the absence of Christian opposition to anti-Muslim bigotry, these American Christians point to their past, where indeed honest Christians risked their lives and liberty in the struggle for abolition of slavery and the civil rights of all Americans. But where are their leaders today? Where is the strong Christian voice opposed to all this hatred?

The answer is quite sad and simple: the voices are there, but they are small and timid. They are unable to vigorously support the civil rights of American Muslims because American Christians, liberal and conservative alike, fear Islam – they fear the Other. They accept they must tolerate it – oh yes, that is the law – but deep down they also believe that Islam is an enemy of Christianity. What few Christians do possess the courage of faith and ideals, that shrinking minority who are not afraid of speaking out, are drowned out by the hate-driven drumbeat of the right-wing, empowered and supported by evangelical Christians. These rare people of good faith find themselves quickly at opposite sides from an apparent majority of other Christians. Many of these good people are struggling with their Christian identity, as hatred and fear become the predominant emotions of the Christian majority, rather than the love and hope expressed and invoked by their chief prophet.

It is clear from the non-religious perspective that American Christians are pushing themselves, or allowing themselves to be pushed, toward a strange kind of “holy war.” The rhetoric is pitched now – “Islam is trying to destroy America!” the zealots shout. Those who buy the rhetoric are in the streets, putting ideas and words into action. Those who claim to oppose it are sitting at home, decrying the bigotry but allowing that the bigots “have a point:” Muslims are “anti-woman,” they endorse child abuse, they use violence to spread their faith – why, it’s all there in the Quran! This is the “liberal Christian” view of Islam, the most tolerant view any religious American will hold.

Christianity is destroying America. Militant Christians are the in driver’s seat. Liberal Christians sit in the back seat, arguing whether to turn hard right, veer right, or simply let the driver run the car out of the right lane, off the road and into the ditch. Later they’ll all see a “Middle Eastern looking fella” down the road, thumbing for a ride, and while the backseat Christians argue over whether to give him a lift or just slow down and wave, the hateful drivers will simply mow him down.

Won’t they all be astonished when they get out and find they’ve run over Jesus?

Christians are destroying America. Christians are letting America be destroyed.

But who is going to stop them? After all, it’s a Christian Nation, right?

A Riverside man is accused of kidnapping and torturing a man who allegedly sent a naughty cellphone picture to the daughter of the would-be avenger.

Naughty cellphones photos are not news any more, of course. And I shouldn’t, I suppose, be surprised that the majority of voices in internet forums (and likely elsewhere) praise the father, who broke the law to get revenge when the district attorney declined to prosecute. The attacks on me (first in the letters, now arriving via email) are nothing new; I’ve had thick hide since the age of sixteen, and got far worse growing up Southern. Plus, the attacks are typical, blindly accusing me of  defending criminals, or even of being a pervert.

It’s a fine display of Ugly Americans and Ugly Americanism. My actual position is an endorsement and defense of law, order, and our system of justice – what used to be known as “the American way.” But because I prefer to defend law and justice rather than endorse the violent revenge-fantasies of so many Americans, I am therefore the anomaly, the bad guy, the “pervert.”

Clearly, the attackers are ignorant, overly emotional, and of course protected by a shield of anonymity. I shouldn’t take them seriously – and I really don’t, except enough to attempt to understand the how and why of their anger, what it is exactly that has pushed them so that they boast of their own desires to violate the law and commit violence against others. It’s surprising to many, who think of me as cynical, but I am always astonished by such outbursts from people.

I hope I never cease to be surprised or disgusted by such displays, and I hope I never find myself singing along with a chorus of such hateful Americans. I hope that, on the day I draw my last breath, people like this hate me and applaud my passing. (I really hope that by the time I die such ugliness and hatred will have receded to near-invisibility, but I don’t count on living that long.) I’m sure that my own anger and frustration have driven me to the point where I write somewhat crazed, mostly irrational screeds; I do understand. But I don’t excuse my ugliness, and I am sometimes (often) ashamed of it. That’s one reason I never hide behind another name: honesty is hard work, but it pays.

America and Americans are slowly but surely becoming the ugliest nation on Earth. Typical knee-jerk responses to this sentiment historically point to other nations – the ones that invade, torture, imprison, and do other nasty things – and contrast America with those destructive countries. But we are now one of those examples. We invade. We occupy. We torture. We kill civilians. And we express no remorse for it.

In The Untouchables, David Mamet provides Elliott Ness with a wonderfully pretentious line: referring to his own law-breaking in pursuit of law-breaker, Ness tells a possibly corrupt judge: “I have become what I beheld.” This is America in a nutshell: in an attempt to stamp out injustice, we have become one of the greatest purveyors of injustice.

Nietzsche famously warned of staring into the abyss and associating too long with monsters.

This is America now, the abyss and the monsters.

Will we be able to save ourselves from our own madness?

Why do I bother? Why is there some voice in me that insists on speaking? Why do I even think people will listen? Why does it seem people listen to you not to hear what you have to say but so they can have their say and say something themselves? Why then does this voice insist on shouting?

Why do they plug their ears? Why don’t they want to hear? Why are their minds made up? Why do those who listen seem the same?

Why does it matter? Why do they matter to me? Why do I care about people who don’t care about themselves? Why do I feel a desire to fight for the liberty of a man who has willingly surrendered his liberty? Why do they fight like drowning swimmers, threatening to pull you under with them? Why not slug them in the jaw and drag them senseless onto the beach, then kick them repeatedly until they start breathing on their own?

Why does it feel good to hurt someone when you’ve been hurt by someone else? Why does revenge taste so good? Why does it leave an empty stomach? Why doesn’t hate nourish?

Why do people excuse pain? Why do they let murder pass? Why do they do harm to others that they would most certainly resist and protest being done to them? Why do the violent prevail? Why isn’t peace stronger?

Why do you think I’m naïve for asking? Why aren’t you asking? Why aren’t you answering?

Why am I? Why do I?