Politics and Religion/The State of the Union Feb 2006

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Religion, Politics, George (Orwell) W. Bush, the State of the Union, and Happy Dog job search:

I am throwing caution to the wind today and have a few thoughts on Religion and Politics.

As I watched the State of the Union Address the other night I found myself getting angrier and angrier at the rhetoric of the President. Here's a few snippets of his rhetorical techniques that I found all too Nixonian in the worst Nixonian ways.

Take the wiretapping of incoming and outgoing call to and from the United States by suspected individuals, both American citizens and foreigners. I'm really pissed off that Bush has successfully manipulated the language of the debate so that the issue has become whether or not we spy on bad guys, not on whether or not he should include judicial oversight of the process. He doesn't say that judicial oversight is a bad idea because.........of something.........he says we have to protect America from attack. Well, yeah, that isn't the issue. In his rhetoric, warrantless wiretapping is the only way to protect America from further attacks.

And that it is unpatriotic to question the prosecution of the war in Iraq which was justified by mistaken intelligence to begin with.

And that the only choices we face are support Bush or "cut and run."

I am reminded of George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language." I reread that essay the other day after hearing President Bush's speech. I kept thinking during the speech that President Bush's language and and its relationship to truth are very distorted and twisted and very appealing. To quote Orwell: "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

My brother Dave sent me a quotation he found from President Dwight Eisenhower some 50 years ago that was completely prescient and also completely wrong. I am including it because I am on a rant and thought it fit quite well.

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security,unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs,you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid." President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

President Eisenhower meant to say that their number will grow and they will someday take over a certain political party and the White House and they are stupid.


A few thoughts on religion for some reason generated by my current reading of Terry Eagleton's After Theory:

Implicit in statements that God is Dead is the belief that God did in fact exist.

I've always struggled to have faith in God; perhaps what I really want is for God to have faith in me. I'll work on it.

Maybe we invented God; even if we did, it was not necessarily a bad idea.


Happy Dog Job Search:

I have a final interview with Metropolitan Community College next week and may get back to teaching a couple of writing courses. Wish me luck!




Later,
Bud