A portion of our society has become very indignant and self-righteous. They get their self-righteousness from their firm belief in a primarily Christian God that is always "right," hence the word, righteous, regardless of the circumstance. There are also Muslims who believe the same way. The word "self" clearly means that regardless what the person believes, and it is, always, a belief, it is "right" based on the idea that it is God ordained and there is Scripture to back it up. People who bear this belief are called "the right" or "conservative" because they wish to conserve the old ways, particularly those written in the Scriptures to their liking. Always being right and on the right gives these persons superiority (especially over their basest fears). There is much historical proof of their superiority, particularly their vicious control over others of inferior worth. The primary activity of the right is to maintain this power over others regardless of the consequences to society, because it is right and their ordained, "right."
Government is necessary for society to operate and prevent chaos, particularly since technology has made society so complex. Government is nothing new and has been practiced from tribal culture onward by almost all cultures in the world. Plato, in the Republic, eloquently described the forms of government that were available at that time, over 2000 years ago. Those forms of government still exist today in some form or another and allow for citizenry to benefit from group effort rather than individual largess. Hence, taxes are necessary to pay for government services and structure. Government is not like private enterprise and other businesslike activity because it provides for all and not for a select group of customers and it does not make a profit after expenses. Because the needs of people change all the time, government must be flexible enough to meet those needs changes in a timely way. The right tends to restrict government change, slowing the process.
The right claims to understand better and strictly adheres to a document written in 1787 and modified a few times to correct serious errors like not allowing women and slaves to have a vote. Unfortunately, time passes swiftly and society changes as well. Clear government action is needed to control and channel unbridled and ungoverned activity like those presented often recently by the Internet, deregulated banking and stock market, and problems with public schools and the Post Office. The failure to respond quickly to the needs of the people is contradictory to the idea of government. It is hypocrisy to stand on the tenets of the Constitution granting equality to everyone, while entities run roughshod over people creating inequalities. It is also hypocrisy to think that for-profit businesses will run government services better than government can.
The United States of North America was based on a representative democracy (some would call it a republic). The idea that citizens (again only those who were male landowners and not slaves) would have an equal opportunity to vote for representatives who would then serve them in Congress by majority vote, and therefore, majority rule. The founding fathers did not trust the unwashed public in everything, so they created the Senate (similar to the House of Lords in England) to offset the power of the House of Representatives (House of Commons). They also created the Electoral College so that the wealthy and elite could control presidential elections. Not only did a significant portion of the original citizenry of the United States not have a vote, the majority ruled, and the wealthy controlled Congress and the presidential elections. This was far from democracy and it is probably time that that change because those with wealth in power are pulling the strings in Congress and forcing the Administration to follow suit through the same manipulation and tactics that have always been in place. With majority rule, two parties emerged to offset one another. Other parties have failed because they could not muster a majority vote on any issue. While many United States citizens remain independent, is the two political parties that control the government, not the citizens.
The First Amendment to the Constitution provided for religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The right now claims that they wish to have religious "freedom" by requiring Christian religious activity at all government agencies, schools and activities as well as many private enterprises like professional sporting events. The right does not see the hypocrisy in their calling "religious freedom" only their religious practices and not the practices of other religions. The argument that the right only advocates religion in the way that it has always has been used, especially in forming the country, does not hold up when there were other religions that were excluded from participating in government activities at the time of the Constitution's formation. The founding fathers were rightly fed up with state religion and therefore required strict separation, gradually undermined by various religious advocates who have inserted prayer and other religious rituals into almost every government activity as though it were always so.
The right claims that cutting government funding creates economic opportunity. This is selfish hypocrisy. When government services are cut, good government jobs are lost and services are reduced for everyone, including business, the primary source of the economic engine. In every event where government services are privatized, self-interest steps in and allows only the low hanging fruit to be served, while the rest is left to whatever possible government resources are left after privatization. For example, deregulating public schools through vouchers and other mechanisms has created more segregation, previously effectively reduced by the civil rights movement over 40 years ago. Allowing private banking to use government funds to stimulate the economy has resulted in stimulating the bank's profits with much of the economy still floundering after trillions has been given to the banks to loan to businesses and citizens. The loan money is not going to job creating small businesses, but to corporation stock and everyone knows that corporations are cutting jobs or outsourcing them rather than increasing jobs in order to continue to show short run profits.
The right worships unregulated "free enterprise." They argue that unlimited competition will foster new ideas, new companies, more jobs, and more wealth. This "wild west attitude" is resulting in mergers that are creating mega multinational corporations that are becoming "too big to fail." These corporations often operate outside the laws of many countries and are rapidly gobbling up all the resources they can causing immense environmental destruction without any way of repairing the damage because they only look forward to the next quarter's profits and not stewardship of the planet. The facts show that wealth has been migrating to the richest following the right's argument that hard work and ingenuity will make you rich, while half of the United States population is sliding into poverty, even if they're working very hard, going to school at night, and working two or more jobs. Unregulated mortgage practices have put the American dream into a nightmare slide. Yet the right blames the problems of these beleaguered folks on their laziness and lack of abilities… just plain inferior. The right offers no safety net for these people except charity. And charities worldwide will tell you they cannot care for the throngs that are in need.
The right requires that everyone have the right to get their own health insurance or not while medical providers everywhere have a dual standard for those who have insurance and those that do not. When the economy is down like it has been, business funding of insurance has declined, and those with lower income opt for necessities rather than health insurance. The result is that lower income people and younger people gamble with their health by not having any protection and not having any preventive care. The hypocrisy of this approach is that people without insurance postpone healthcare and do not get preventive care. These uninsured end up with more serious ailments that increase overall medical costs and overload the charity hospitals and few doctors' clinics that will take people without insurance and inability to pay. When people are forced out of their homes by illness or injury and left to the streets, they will die in the streets, by the millions, because of the right's hypocrisy.
The right claims that life begins at God's creation and that all life (human only) has a "right to life." Yet they refuse to fund programs for caring for unwed children's children, and favor prosecution of the fathers, including imprisonment for failure to pay even though the fathers may not have a job. The right also claims that all of God's creations, regardless of any physical defects found early in the pregnancy, should be borne and cared for by their parents without any assistance from the government. The hypocrisy in both of these beliefs is that these babies that are given "the right to life" are unlikely to have any life like the majority of the righteous right. In fact, with funds cut from government programs assisting the impoverished and disabled, they probably will suffer from poor prospects and early death. There'll always be exceptions, but they are few and should not be poster children for the masses not so lucky.
Unless the righteous right recognizes their hypocrisy and begins to think about equality, fairness, and compassion like Jesus instead of obsolete beliefs like the money changers, women, the oppressed and the downtrodden will rise up and take from the right what the right has always thought was theirs. This country and this planet belong to all of the people and not just to those who by luck of the draw have "ownership privileges granted by God." This century will be the dividing line between old thinking and new thinking. Those on the right side of history will win. Like the Berlin Wall, the right can concede gracefully, or their core values will be torn down, brick by brick by those in need.
Copyright 2014 © Ronald W. Hull
3/7/14
Love and Light
Lily
You write about hypocrisy and I see the outstanding example of that in the Republican right- wingers today. Most claim to be Christians, but they are not. I disown them for a simple reason. Christians believe and follow the teachings of Jesus. These politicians do not. No way. Authenic Christians always promote and work for justice, equality, fairness and charity. John Boehner and Mr. Ryan do not. No Christian should oppose availability of health care for everyone, fair wages for women, minimum wages for people trying keep afloat economically,voting-rights etc. The list goes on. I'm sure, Jesus does not approve of their political agenda.
So, Please don't blame Christians for the behavior of these strange beings(to me these persons do not deserve to be called men). Jesus attacked and denounced hypocrites frequently. Unfortunately he attacked powerful people so they murdered him. There are certainly many Church members who are hypocrites. My wife pastored churches for thirty years and we are well acquainted with that problem. Just like Jesus Bonnie voiced her disapproval of the behavior of church leaders who did not follow Christian teachings. Guessed what happened to her? She was crucified by the self-righteous ones. But she is tough and stood her ground. She escaped with only scars. She is happily retired now.
One last note on a particularly disturbing action by certain religious people(not Christians)in Kansas and Arizona. It is hard to believe anyone would claim discrimination against others as a religious right. Holy x.#!%$*. What is this world coming to? These are people who have no idea what Jesus was talking about. We will certainly agree on that.
Leave the self-righteous to God. He has better remedies then we could imagine. They can forget about the promised eternal life.
Ben Plybon
thought provoking read
m
America's Founding Fathers fought for the concept of little (if any) Government and little (if any) taxation. The whole shift towards statism in America was due to the influx of European Immigrants following World War II who still harboured sympathies towards Hitler and his ideals. (The only difference between Nazis and Communists were the chief benefactors)
The 'Separation of Church and State' was simply to ensure America had no state religion. (the way the Church of England remained compliant with the British Monarchy and the Catholic Church ruled Ireland by proxy) Rhode Island was formed by a Church Minister who was the first figurehead to speak of 'Religious Freedom' and ensure that whilst America has no state religion it still maintained a Christian ethos.
As for the Muslims, well most of that issue was caused by the Jewish Lobby imposing its will on the Christian World. The UN is the new Sanhedrin.
I'm not deliberately trying to s**t on your opinion, but we need to adopt a more holistic approach towards problem solving. If we keep going, "Left, Right! Left, Right!" Nothing will be right anymore and nothing will be left anymore.
Love Ya,
Jane
R = RELIGION
I = IS
G= GOD'S
H = HOLY
T = THESIS !!!
RELIGIOUS = RIGHT-WING RADICAL RAT- BASTARDS !!!
PEACE MY FRIEND... Tom...
WELL-MET AND WELL-SAID!
DENNIS . MONEYSAVER EDITING