"Yet the American dread of Communist infiltration underwrote one of the most repressive ideological assaults in the nation's history, with the right wing effectively eliminating from the nation's political discourse appeals to the Socialist idealism that was, in the same period, reinvigorating politics in Europe. Because of the Red Scare anxieties, Americans would uncritically accept the maturing of an economic system that, in effect if not in its structure, condemned most of the world to crushing impoverishment. The humane aspects of Marx's critique of capitalism would not be reckoned with in the United States, with dangerous consequences that define the ever more polarized twenty-first century." From 'House of War' by James Carroll
The hysterical and irrational Right Wing fear and loathing of Socialism and Communism is exposing, in political and ideological terms, the reality that, to many of our fellow Americans, Capitalism is a form of spirituality; a Religion. In most of the United States of America, Christianity does not exist outside of the all consuming bondage of free market or unfettered Capitalism. And, as a society, because of this ironic reality and the, almost Kafkaesque (Christ has not turned into a cockroach -- he's a perky lingerie salesperson at Macy's), hysteria, we are condemning ourselves to a type of social and intellectual bondage.
The Pope is a Marxist. The President is a Socialist. Ted Cruz is an idiot. Apparently Cruz walked out of Nelson Mandela's Memorial earlier this week in protest of the speech given by Raul Castro. He's not smart enough to know that walking out of a Memorial service simply disrespects the one being memorialized, not Raul Castro or Communism or Fidel or Marx or the President...but it does absolutely disrespect the consequence and beauty of the message of his Lord and Savior. Ted Cruz is an idiot and an apostate. Mandela's life personified, absolutely, the core tenets of Christianity. Mandela experienced his own passion of sorts, forgave his transgressors and admonished his followers to do the same. Ted Cruz walked out of his Memorial service -- Ted Cruz is an idiot. Or is he?
No, maybe not. He's a lawyer and a politician. He knows that America's real Religion is Capitalism and he knows that pandering to its evangelical, clerical arm (Fox News) will win him admiration, veneration and praise. Cruz is an actor, as are most good litigators.
He is one of the many players in the new Right Wing medieval pageants touring the country. Look for him, he's the smiling buffoon at the front right corner of the float with Christ, Saint Augustine and Ronald Reagan impersonators dressed in Wall Street drag, tossing out tokens of economic inequality, environmental degradation, perpetual warfare; suffering. Yeah, after closer inspection, he is an idiot.
The infantile fear of Communism, Socialism, Darwinism and Intellectualism by a large portion of our society is numbing and dumbing us down as a people. At this point in our development we should be learning from history; gleaning jewels from the chaff. That should mean fearlessly borrowing from all faiths, programs and ideologies to create a more equitable and healthy world for our children and grandchildren. The Ted Cruzes of today were the Crusaders of yesterday that laid waste to their own lands on the way to Jerusalem.
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