----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 9:26 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] USA, dumb and dumber
This sort of uncomprehending contempt for American religious culture is quite dangerous. There are two great twentieth century examples of movements of political liberation being suppressed and returning as (fundamentalist) religious movements, American socialism and Arab nationalism. In these two vital domestic and foreign instances, American government policy successfully trammeled up the Debs and Nassers and drove the American working class and the Arab street into the religious institutions, where the rejection of capitalist modernity could continue. (In the US, it was particularly easy, because in contrast to Absolutist Europe, the churches had never been a department of government but rather a refuge from it.) When Israel financed the foundation of Hamas, it was simply enacting the policy it had learnt from its patron. --CGE
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Please don't assert/imply that I have an uncomprehending contempt for US religious culture. You have *no clue* as to my upbringing or religious education, experiences etc. Underdetermination is the order of the day on these complex issues.
The dangers of theism as [a] political movement[s] are every bit as pernicious as secularism or any other ism, including liberation-ism. Political liberation is an oxymoron.
Post-theistically,
Ian