RELIGION AND VIOLENCE
The Old Testament shows that Israel was established by the sword --setting a bad example for Islam and Christianity both of which resorted to the sword to maintain themselves and take over various parts of the world. The Buddhists seemed a little different but they too have used the sword when they had state power. Today in Burma we seem them committing genocide against the Islamic minority in that country. Hinduism and its caste system was also the result of conquest and the sword. Religions are, of course, the expression of the unconscious spirit of humanity objectifying itself in different cultural milieux and when unchecked by reason and science they allow our original animal nature too many opportunities to express itself -- all acts of violence, war, capital punishment, all killing of man or beast are demonstrations of the beast within which none of the great religions have been able to tame. Philosophy and science, as higher expressions of the spirit, have also been unable to accomplish that goal but what other way is there? Religious belief is a step backward as would be expecting our aesthetic creations to accomplish this task as both are imaginative not rational expressions of our nature -- tr.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Sanders, the Unity Reform Commission & The Democratic Party
Thomas Riggins
The FIVE REFORMS put forth by Sanders will go a long way towards transforming the Democratic Party into a progressive populist party that can be used to move forward with a left working class agenda and decisively defeat Trump and the reactionary Republican Party. It will allow the socialist message to also reach a wider audience and lay the foundations for a mass political movement that can eventually move beyond the politics of capitalism that will still find expression within a reformed party. The coming meeting of the Unity Reform Commission (set up by Sanders AND Clinton) in which the two wings of the party will meet to discuss the best why to defeat Trump will be the test of the future viability of the party. Each of the 5 reforms represents the will of the mass of the party base and opposition to the reforms comes from a small neoliberal Wall Street based faction of the leadership. If this minority camarilla insists on remaining in control of the party and its finances and succeeds in blocking these reforms it is the Trump forces and their allies in civil society who will be the winners. This is the last chance that Clinton has to show she is a pro people Democrat and not an opportunistic tool of the 1%. I know that a leopard cannot change its spots nor a tiger its stripes but human beings can atone for the past and redeem themselves.
The FIVE REFORMS put forth by Sanders will go a long way towards transforming the Democratic Party into a progressive populist party that can be used to move forward with a left working class agenda and decisively defeat Trump and the reactionary Republican Party. It will allow the socialist message to also reach a wider audience and lay the foundations for a mass political movement that can eventually move beyond the politics of capitalism that will still find expression within a reformed party. The coming meeting of the Unity Reform Commission (set up by Sanders AND Clinton) in which the two wings of the party will meet to discuss the best why to defeat Trump will be the test of the future viability of the party. Each of the 5 reforms represents the will of the mass of the party base and opposition to the reforms comes from a small neoliberal Wall Street based faction of the leadership. If this minority camarilla insists on remaining in control of the party and its finances and succeeds in blocking these reforms it is the Trump forces and their allies in civil society who will be the winners. This is the last chance that Clinton has to show she is a pro people Democrat and not an opportunistic tool of the 1%. I know that a leopard cannot change its spots nor a tiger its stripes but human beings can atone for the past and redeem themselves.
Thursday, November 09, 2017
The Cause of Religious Belief
Science shows that religious belief is perpetuated from generation to generation by means of culture -- superstitious parents pass on these beliefs to their innocent and unsuspecting children and corrupt their developing mental life the same way as children's bodies can be corrupted by parents passing along congenital syphilis (religious beliefs being a form congenital mental syphilis). The state has a duty to protect children from these kinds of beliefs and a failure to do so indicates an exploitative state that is a menace to its citizens and one that must be replaced.
Monday, November 06, 2017
Stopping Trumpism Without Trump
Thomas Riggins
“He’s closed an enthusiasm gap by rallying around the Trump agenda,” said Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former strategist. “And I think the big lesson for Tuesday is that, in Gillespie’s case, Trumpism without Trump can show the way forward. If that’s the case, Democrats better be very, very worried.”
The perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good and defeating Ed Gillespie, who is running an openly racist campaign, would be an unqualified good. Voting for the Democratic candidate in this case is the only way to halt Trumpism without Trump which is more dangerous than Trump himself. The recent increase in Gillespie's support indicates that American racism is deeper and more widespread than many on the left have imagined. We cannot allow this budding fascist Trumpist ideology to gather strength and unleash more violence, persecution, disenfranchisement, and rejection of civil liberties and equal treatment under the law against the minority communities in our country both citizens and non citizens. It's not only Democrats who should be "very, very, worried" but everyone and anyone concerned with human rights, the defense of democracy, and struggle for decent wages and political representation for the working people and the 99% and all those who want to make this a better world for all of us from the protection of the environment to the elimination of militarism and war. Let's not let the stench that began emanating from the Munich beer hall 94 years ago this month befoul our land.
The perfect shouldn't be the enemy of the good and defeating Ed Gillespie, who is running an openly racist campaign, would be an unqualified good. Voting for the Democratic candidate in this case is the only way to halt Trumpism without Trump which is more dangerous than Trump himself. The recent increase in Gillespie's support indicates that American racism is deeper and more widespread than many on the left have imagined. We cannot allow this budding fascist Trumpist ideology to gather strength and unleash more violence, persecution, disenfranchisement, and rejection of civil liberties and equal treatment under the law against the minority communities in our country both citizens and non citizens. It's not only Democrats who should be "very, very, worried" but everyone and anyone concerned with human rights, the defense of democracy, and struggle for decent wages and political representation for the working people and the 99% and all those who want to make this a better world for all of us from the protection of the environment to the elimination of militarism and war. Let's not let the stench that began emanating from the Munich beer hall 94 years ago this month befoul our land.
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