[lbo-talk] Re: Bush & his God

Brian Charles Dauth magcomm at ix.netcom.com
Sun Jun 13 20:26:35 PDT 2004


Dear List:

Chuck0 wrote:


> So, what can we do to reverse these numbers and make this country more
secular? There are way to many churches out here in Kansas City and my return to the Midwest has convinced me that organized religion is the root cause of much of what makes Americanism offensive to the rest of the world. I don't want to hear any more of this bullshit that we on the left need to be more tolerant of religion. I'm pretty damn tolerant of progressive religions--which aren't the problem--but organized religion is responsible for all kinds of backward, right-wing beliefs.

Whether the country is secular or religious is a MacGuffin -- a question that only serves to distract people from the real problem which is the rise of individualism and materialism.

A century ago William James pointed out that progressive (both religious and non-religious) liberalism was fatally divided against itself. It promoted both "social righteousness" and a dedication to individualism and materialism. Then (like now) there was an unquestioned faith in progress as bolstering the self through the practice of materialism.

Both the left and the right accepted this notion of progress with the main difference being that the left also included a concern for other people. The left is now paying for this error. If it goes back and corrects its mistake, it comes off as a spoilsport -- down on desire and down on pleasure: the anti-fun outlook.

So the left continues to believe in individualism/materialism, but with the corollary that doing good for others is actually doing good for oneself. But the corollary does not help much. The escalating needs of self demand increasingly less attention paid to the needs of others.

The backward belief that must be abandoned is a belief in self which all Western religions, whether progressive or reactionary, subscribe to. Since asceticism is a hard sell in our materialistic culture, the left settles for promoting compassionate individualism which is just as meaningless and empty as compassionate conservatism.

Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister



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