Double play
To borrow some baseball lingo, I pulled off a double play. I managed to thumb my nose at both pillars of authority this month.
The Church: Earlier this month I was in Des Moines for a wedding. It was a branch of my family I hadn't seen in 15 years. I haven't been to church for many years ... though I still attend the occasional wedding or funeral. I've tended to slip in "late" to sit in back of church, or sit up in the balcony. But this time, I didn't try to hide it. So, just before mass was to start, I pulled my mom aside and said, "By the way, I'm here to see the wedding and to get to know my family better, not to do the churchy-church stuff."
I didn't need to explain further. She replied, "Well, you're an adult, I can't tell you what to do." My mom is quite religious ... ah well, no one's perfect.
But watching everyone else go through the rituals of church was quite eerie. Stand up, sit down, rah rah rah. People robotically uttering the same memorized phrases in unison, programming themselves to Believe. It was like something straight out of a Jason Bourne movie. Clearly it's no place for someone who dares to think for himself. It seems almost incredible that church was a part of my life in my childhood. Now it seems creepy.
The State: Then there was the football game two weeks ago. The Packers sprinted out onto the field, and the crowd stood up & went nuts. Then the guy came over the PA system and announced, "Will you please stand for our national anthem."
I sat down.
Looking around, I was the only one not standing. I wasn't surprised. It's too bad, the Star-Spangled Banner is a pretty good song; I used to sing it. I justified it by thinking it reflected the liberty-oriented spirit of America's founding, rather than the increasingly authoritarian America of today.
But I'm done justifying it. And I won't pretend to go along out of peer pressure, nor will I pay lip service to it any longer. The national anthem? Nationalism is, at its essence, government-worship. And so I wondered about all the people standing around me, reverently looking up toward the fluttering US flag. How can they accept a government which now routinely steals 50% of their income? How can they accept a government which bombs & invades another country, a country which never attacked us nor threatened to do so? How can they accept the Soviet-style healthcare system being pushed on us, as the only alternative proposed to the crappy quasi-Soviet healthcare system we're already stuck with? How can they accept all the nitpicky new laws, regulations, and controls we're forced to obey every year? How can they accept the increasingly aggressive and brazen police, who got away with arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr for the "crime" of being in his own home? With all this, how can they continue to hymn praises of the "freedom" we enjoy?
You know, I really don't understand "my fellow Americans" at all.
The Church: Earlier this month I was in Des Moines for a wedding. It was a branch of my family I hadn't seen in 15 years. I haven't been to church for many years ... though I still attend the occasional wedding or funeral. I've tended to slip in "late" to sit in back of church, or sit up in the balcony. But this time, I didn't try to hide it. So, just before mass was to start, I pulled my mom aside and said, "By the way, I'm here to see the wedding and to get to know my family better, not to do the churchy-church stuff."
I didn't need to explain further. She replied, "Well, you're an adult, I can't tell you what to do." My mom is quite religious ... ah well, no one's perfect.
But watching everyone else go through the rituals of church was quite eerie. Stand up, sit down, rah rah rah. People robotically uttering the same memorized phrases in unison, programming themselves to Believe. It was like something straight out of a Jason Bourne movie. Clearly it's no place for someone who dares to think for himself. It seems almost incredible that church was a part of my life in my childhood. Now it seems creepy.
The State: Then there was the football game two weeks ago. The Packers sprinted out onto the field, and the crowd stood up & went nuts. Then the guy came over the PA system and announced, "Will you please stand for our national anthem."
I sat down.
Looking around, I was the only one not standing. I wasn't surprised. It's too bad, the Star-Spangled Banner is a pretty good song; I used to sing it. I justified it by thinking it reflected the liberty-oriented spirit of America's founding, rather than the increasingly authoritarian America of today.
But I'm done justifying it. And I won't pretend to go along out of peer pressure, nor will I pay lip service to it any longer. The national anthem? Nationalism is, at its essence, government-worship. And so I wondered about all the people standing around me, reverently looking up toward the fluttering US flag. How can they accept a government which now routinely steals 50% of their income? How can they accept a government which bombs & invades another country, a country which never attacked us nor threatened to do so? How can they accept the Soviet-style healthcare system being pushed on us, as the only alternative proposed to the crappy quasi-Soviet healthcare system we're already stuck with? How can they accept all the nitpicky new laws, regulations, and controls we're forced to obey every year? How can they accept the increasingly aggressive and brazen police, who got away with arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr for the "crime" of being in his own home? With all this, how can they continue to hymn praises of the "freedom" we enjoy?
You know, I really don't understand "my fellow Americans" at all.