I was born in 1941. When the A- bombs exploded over Japan, I was 4, and acutely aware of the progress of WW II. My father and both maternal uncles were in the service, and my mother and grandmother were glued to Drew Pearson every Saturday night with the latest war news.
My mother, a history teacher, greeted the news of nuclear weapons with a mixture of relief that the war was ending, and horror. She told me that the world would never be the same again. I felt it, at age 4. I felt a dark cloud settling over the planet.
Knowing that we have the means to commit planetary-wide suicide has changed human consciousness. We all have the mushroom cloud image buried somewhere deep in our brains. An ancient Hopi prophecy calls it “the gourd of ashes”, and says after the gourd of ashes is sent to earth, humanity has the choice of two paths, material/outer or spiritual/inner. The first leads to disaster, the second to peace and prosperity.
In the 50’s, we were kept conscious of the danger of nuclear holocaust, with movies like Dr. Strangelove and On the Beach. As a child, I had to participate in air raid drills at school. We would crouch under the desk with our eyes closed and our hands clasped behind our necks. We knew that our desks offered no protection from a nuclear blast, but as soon as the drill was over, we suppressed the mushroom cloud and went out to the playground for jump rope.
In those days, we experienced nuclear terror directly, and marched to Ban the Bomb. We understood that war is obsolete, and that nations have to cooperate if we are to avoid extinction. Nuclear weapons force us to love our neighbors. The planet is small, only love can save us.
International treaties prohibiting the use, spread and atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons were negotiated in the 60’s and 70’s. We were lulled into “forgetting” about the danger, and play our adult games of love and work, though the mushroom cloud is never totally forgotten. Its image always remains lurking in our brain, a sword of Damocles threatening to annihilate us, making all our activities a sham at some level.
Nuclear weapons, unlike other “weapons of mass destruction”, destroy future as well as present generations. Radiation attacks the DNA, the very stuff of life itself. It causes mutations which lead to spontaneous abortions, malformed infants, lethal childhood cancers. And the radiation stays around for thousands, millions, billions of years. These facts are widely understood, and ignored.
In the 70’s and 80’s, an unholy alliance was formed between a group of “Christians” and cynical politicians, to take over the Republican party. Their goal- to secure the US government, in order to control the world economy for the benefit of a few super wealthy individuals. As George Lakoff has documented, the plans were carefully laid in various right-wing think tanks, and carried out over the next 40 years. They succeeded admirably, and now control the White House. Congress has become their subservient lackey, and they have packed the courts.
How did they do it?
With books like The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and the Left Behind series by LeHaye and Jenkins (all writers close to the Bush White House) , the radical “Christian” right has co-opted the mushroom cloud. Bringing it to the forefront of consciousness, they offer believers a way out of nuclear terror. The rapture cult promises believers that they will go directly to heaven with Jesus, while planet earth is slowly destroyed by the tribulation (overpopulation, ecodisasters, wars- as we are now experiencing), and then finished off with a nuclear holocaust. There are variations, but this is their basic scenario.
Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, written by Jerry Falwell in 1983, welcomes a nuclear war: "'Nuclear War and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ' - the one brings thoughts of fear, destruction, and death, while the other brings thoughts of joy, hope, and life. They almost seem inconsistent with one another, yet they are indelibly intertwined." (Introduction) The rapture cult offers people a way to deal with nuclear terror that is sanctioned by their church, by their politicians, and by popular fiction. Variously called dispensationalism, dominionism, and prosperity theology, it is a uniquely American point of view. It promises believers that if they join the cult and support the Bush administration, they can have lots of money, have their sins forgiven, and still go to heaven.
This “Bible – based” point of view,- which is totally contrary to Jesus’ message of love and peace,- has turned the mushroom cloud into an instrument of “psy-ops”- psychological operations- for the Bush regime. For those in the cult, the fear of being “left behind” keeps them in line. Children are told that if they’re not good, they’ll be “left behind”.
At least 20 million people are fervent believers, and form Bush’s political base. Even now, with all the evidence of lies, mass murder, torture, many of these cultists continue to see Bush as anointed by God to save America.
Those who have become disillusioned with the rapture cult and have left it should do the right thing and denounce it as a Jonestown-style hoax. There’s plenty in the Bible about false prophets and hypocritical Pharisees they could point to. Instead, muttering that it’s wrong for Christians to get involved in politics, they slink off and pretend it’s not their concern. After getting us into this mess, they don’t have the courage to admit their mistake and help straighten things out.
Christians who don’t believe in the rapture cult usually ignore it as an embarrassment, instead of taking on the false theology directly. The US Presbyterian Church did label it a heresy in the 1920’s, but that was before rapture believers gained political power. Christians who are not strict believers in the Bible as the inerrant word of God tend to ignore or dismiss Revelation, the prophetic visions of Daniel and Ezekiel, and other passages which the dispensationalists have twisted to fit their political goals.
For many nonbelievers, this noisy sect which calls itself Christian has sullied and discredited the Bible, churches, and even Jesus. Nonbelievers now tend to reject our Christian heritage, the wellspring of our culture and values, thereby depriving us of the sort of inspiration which Martin Luther King, Jr. was able to provide.
Carol S. Wolman, MD is a psychiatrist in Northern California. A lifelong peace activist, she has written extensively on the psychology of our times. She is a cochair of Bay Area Impeach Bush-Cheney. You can join or form a local group at http://impeachbush.meetup.com/
She ran for Congress in '06, and is now a Gteen candidate for Congress in CA district 1. She is a coordinator of The New Broom Coalition, for a clean sweep of Congress.
The above article doesn't mention the most obvious use of the mushroom cloud to control us. Threats that Iraq was working toward a nuclear weapon was used to gather support for the invasion of Iraq. Now the same excuse is being used to drum up support for an attack on Iran. The underlying threat is to start WW III, with retaliation against American cities.
Again, debunking the theology that beckons nuclear war is the best way to undercut public support for an attack on Iran.
Peace, Carol
by
Carol Wolman (215 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 97 comments)
on Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 6:53:43 PM
In 1962 I was gestating, a disgusting state anyway, and they're nuking the Van Allen Belts. They took out 80% of the satellites in orbit including the new Tel-star. Knocked power out in Hawaii and many other places.
It is all to try and break through the Quarantine of our planet by actual civilized species. It's not our fault but our makers, evil renegades from Orion Star System, who came into women of Earth, so now we are also quarantined, as we have their DNA.
They will stop at nothing to break out of this prison, including the annihilation of the human race (not a great loss) and the sentient planet and many wonderful species of Animals and Plants (Truly a great loss).
You think an Atomic Bomb is bad? We have Vonnegut's "Ice-9" in HAARP working for us now.
These madmen are experimenting with HAARP by punching holes in our Ionosphere, and just like when they set-off the first atomic bomb and didn't know if a chain reaction wouldn't just turn this blue-ball out a burnt cinder, they haven't a glue just what they're playing with here. For all they know our atmosphere to rush out as fast as a balloon losing air.
Some of us might actually be able to survive a nuclear war, but an Earth stripped of all atmosphere ... not so much.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 1153 comments)
on Monday, June 23, 2008 at 1:20:47 AM
Nothing we do or say seems to have any effect on our Congressmen from either party.
I just had a really wild thought.......
SUPPOSE
we encourage voters to
Boycott All Of Congress?
I think it is fair to say that most voters are very upset with our do nothing Democratic Congress. Many are furious.
In addition to all the other avenues we've tried look at this wild
PROPOSAL...
Suppose some person or group organize a
National BOYCOTT OF ALL CONGRESSMEN IN THE ELECTION?
Urge Voters to vote for the Presidential Candidate of their choice,
BUT ASK VOTERS TO NOT VOTE FOR ANY Democratic or Republican CONGRESSMAN FOR ANY FEDERAL OFFICE (either House or Senate)
You'll get the President You Want
But the BOYCOTT of Congressmen might Upset the House & Senate Vote Totals enough To Send A Message To ALL Congressmen to TAKE THEIR OATH OF OFFICE SERIOUSLY and to To Protect Our Constitution,
They have ignored everything we have said or done to get them to obey the Constitution and at least hold impeachment hearings.
WHY NOT TRY THIS? No nuttier than most ideas.
A National Vote Boycott of All Congressmen from both parties in November.
They might get the message in time to save themselves before the 2010 election.
Admitedly this is a bit far out but?
Wonder if any angry voters would join in?
John
John H Kennedy, 43 Democratic voter, Obama delegate, organizer
For the past 3 years, I've been organizing impeachment candidates for Congress, and running myself. Why not support Green candidates, New Broom candidates, Longhouse Coalition candidates? We need a clean sweep of Congress, not a boycott.
by
Carol Wolman (215 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 97 comments)
on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 8:28:54 AM
None of the comments so far have addressed the theme of this paper- the twisted theology underlying American foreign policy, which pushes the "mushroom cloud" button in our brains periodically, to keep us in line. Is it too scary to think about?
Peace, Carol
by
Carol Wolman (215 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 97 comments)
on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 9:20:41 AM
