A rant

[someotherguy]

People keep telling me that us non-believers need to organize and become a polical force. I wonder how the hard working folks at American Atheists, Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Humanist Association and GAMPAC feel when they hear that

Comments

[winterknight]

Lovely. Thank you. :) Fear shouldn't be used as a stick to beat people into conformity and the lesser of two evils is still evil.

When my (pre-coffee) mind tries to articulate it, the "enemy" isn't God or the Church or Faith any of that. It's not even Conservatives or Republicans. In my eyes, it's the Thought(less) Police of any stripe. And "unifying" under a "common banner/name" is just the formation of another faceless, thoughtless construct; it feels like selling out to buy the supremacy of a single principle instead of insisting on a new system altogether. The minute we start trying to emulate the problem in order to counter it, we lose the ability to be part of the solution.

[someotherguy]

Thank you.

I think the problem is that we want enemies. We're a media culture. We want problems and solutions that make a great movies, preferably staring Arnold Schwartzenegger (like California).

All the real problems, the things that kill the most people and make lives miserable, are things we do to ourselves: boring lifestyle things like smoking. Hell, more people commit suicide than get murdered. The runners up (and accessories to the above) are complex interrelated social issues that I couldn't do justice to in a hundred posts.

I guess good role models make bad TV. I imagine it's hard to sell commercials on a show where the hero lives a serene, fulfilling and productive life of tolerance and moderation. "This fall on FOX, the story of one man, two women, the food they eat to keep their colesterol and blood preassure low, and the letters they send to there representatives expressing their concerns on pending legislation."

[sistercoyote]

serenejournal pointed me here; may I metaquote you on this line:

"But Fear never helped anyone make a good decision, with the possible exception of running like hell."

with a link to the whole post?

[someotherguy]

Of course, thank you.

[kightp]

Excellent rant.

Although I have to admit that I think a zombie army would be kind of cool ...

[someotherguy]

Sure, zombies are cool, that's a given. I just meant our satanic science and dark magic shouldn't be used to make zombies from our own people. We should stick to reanimating the corpses of our fallen foes (once we figure out what went wrong with Cheney and Ashcroft, of course).

[vito_excalibur]

Proud to know you, sir.

[someotherguy]

You're going to make me blush and hide in the corner if you're not careful.

[firecat]

Well ranted! And I hope you are right.

[someotherguy]

Thanks!

If it's all the same to you I'll shoot for "interesting" and leave "right" for people who think there is such a thing.

[firecat]

I meant that I hope you are right about this: "Besides, we don't need a zombie army, we're already winning, albeit in slow motion." Because it would be nice to live in a world that wasn't so entirely run by scare tactics.

Besides, I don't have to hope you are interesting. You are.