There’s no such thing as “secular” though it is another of those terms taken from the realm of religion. Originally it meant a cleric who didn’t belong to an organization, but when the world — aching for peace and order — invented the Rule of Law and governance by nations, the term was extended to stop the interference of religious institutions who liked things the way they were and didn’t want competition from science or government. This happened gradually through the western side of Eurasia in medieval times when kingdoms ran the land by raising armies and claiming supernatural ties.
Today we use the term “secular” to mean non-religious, meaning outside the governance of religious institutions, the organized ones with hierarchies, treasuries and names. And therefore "clout." They still meddle in non-religious affairs and claim privilege, which is why wannabe dictators love them, or at least those who will maintain ties with them, like Trump in his hypocritical way. Religious institutions are still competing governing bodies and most still have an evangelical wing that tries to make everyone join, even to make joining them compulsory in order to function in the nation. They wish to control the government, to merge with it.
What we put up as a shield against the fantastic railings of someone like Barr, is simply factual research and reason. He tries to make secularism and atheism into terrible entities that endanger the nation, when they are simply not obedient to his own control. They are sometimes what is referred to in a sympathetic manner as “disorganized religion.”
I take secular to mean the universal human belief in whatever has meaning for them according to their own experience, hateful or pleasant, inherited or invented, eco-friendly or parasitic. This begins, as we have seen in previous essays, with the development of a conception into a person, pushing to survive in conditions that may or may not make that possible.
The purpose of parasitical control freaks is to expand their own prospects by destroying large demographics, which we define as competing. In this case, for the Republicans who have escaped their party identity in order to make themselves sovereign, their goal is genocide — to kill or subjugate anyone not like themselves. We've watched Senators succeed at both, though there are only hundreds of them controlling the Rule of Law in ways that deny health care or tolerable working conditions or education. The Rule of Law meant to protect peace becomes a way of killing masses.
The push-back from the oppressed is holding its own, though in an abstract way it’s remarkable that the elite few have not been simply destroyed by a mob towing a guillotine. My mother used to say, “The mills of the Gods grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine.” I just hope that in the process of outraged justice the sense of reality doesn’t get lost so we aren’t all ground to dust.
It is remarkable that we can see for ourselves that so many of these money-mad people are childish, incoherent, dependent on a circle of corrupt people and a hostile nation, so they don’t even flinch at treason. Note the senile old senator who can’t summon up words so taps his pencil on his desk to drown out the other “side.”
Now look at the grace and eloquence of the many people of color who speak as doctors about the effort to save lives in such numbers that they don’t even have beds for them. They are pressed to the extreme and even die for their dedication. The only way to keep from being impressed by them is to turn off the TV, which people do. They don’t wait for Trump to curse the media. They don't want to see.
Trying to figure out all this, I’m using what I’m learning about how people are formed by their provenance and times. What made electable people into monsters? Mary Trump has helped us understand her uncle in vivid stories, which is the way we understand each other. We don’t know the stories of some of the other “players” but they look like characters out of the classic Dick Tracy comic strip with atypical features and hidden histories.
A white man now in his 70’s or 80’s, educated and embedded among the entitled, would have been born in the Fifties or Sixties to parents who survived the Great Depression and fought in WWII. What they were taught as a result must have made deep impressions in terms of the meaning of money and the expending of lives against rivals. The major universities still have not discovered that they cannot earn the loyalties of men who could buy them, not even if they name buildings after them.
What has gone on in those right wing think tanks that now seem like scheme-circles? Why must they demonize the “left” liberals? Were the people destined to become plutocrat legislators able to capitalize on sports — I mean literally make capital out of the idea of the binary clashes, always thinking in terms of opposition?
In a sense, the only secular people in the US are the Independent voters who do not subscribe to the two “religions” of political parties. Two things might happen in the same way that concepts of “nation” and “rule of law” arose. One might be a solution that comes from the independents who find among themselves a worthy leader, but hasn't yet. The other may be the people who are called “Never Trump”, the Repubs who remember what the party stood for twenty years ago.
There are 5 women Republican Senators. Lisa Murkowski, Joni Ernst, Susan Collins, Deb Fischer, and Shelly Moore Capito. Solidarity among them might swing close votes, but not all are secure in their positions.
As for the corrupt on the order of Mitch McConnell, it is clear that they are insatiable or we could just pay them off. On the other hand, they would have to be very stupid to not realize that their reign will end at the election. They have earned their own destruction. This means that there is no limit to what they will do, knowing that they are already “over.”
So far no retribution — no fine, jail term, or physical punishment can touch them. Save one: Covid-19. So they are walking defiantly to possible death, refusing to wear masks or look at the numbers, taking their loot with them. I suspect they are kept alive by black market immunities from needy people. Why would anyone want to follow them? They are like serial killers who think they can never be caught, except here they are -- on death row. What chaplain will pray with them?
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I'm glad Kamala Harris is the chosen VP. Now we need to get busy to put Elizabeth Warren on the Supreme Court.
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Just as one thinks that this stuff can go no lower, the sorting machines in the Post Office are being removed. REMOVED. Stolen by their own administration who claims to be cost-saving. Most Americans had thought the Post Office was inviolable. Not from outright malevolent internal theft!
Next step: protected electronic mail-in ballots? Paper mail scanned and forwarded would also be stolen. Hacking would be attempted, but Repubs are such fossils they still haven't figured out that mail-in ballots often help Repubs.
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https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2020/08/10/nicholas-christakis-on-fighting-covid-19-by-truly-understanding-the-virus?fsrc=newsletter&utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-08-12&utm_content=article-link-6
If you have the patience to download or just read this entry, it's one of the most complete and informative accounts I've read so far.
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I don't know about you, but my usual way of combating depression is anger. This time the anger is so great it's almost more dangerous than the depression. So now I'm moving to the idea of preparation for later: analysis, planning, identifying resources, and shifting the whole frame.
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