Religion is a tool for preserving the in-group’s privilege and controlling the out-groups’ behavior. When the out-groups don’t fall for the in-group’s preferred religion, the in-group uses the state to impose it on the out-groups. The dominant caste rarely believes the tripe their religious leaders spew on a daily basis. What matters is that the subordinate castes believe it and self-regulate their behavior accordingly.
I remember Kennedy’s campaign and resulting election. No one said “the election was rigged.” We lived in northwestern PENNSYLVANIA. My dad worked in a glass container factory. It seemed non-Catholics were freaking out over Kennedy. My dad at dinner one night stated, “They’re going to build a pipeline from the Vatican to the White House if that SOB is elected.
Notwithstanding plenty of racial prejudice, religious biases, and country-of-origin moronic biases. Yup, Germans were the best, lumped in with the WASP crowd. Danged humans! Put the Great Apes and Bonobos in charge!
Love reading Kennedy again. Remember him so very well. He was not perfect as a human being, but he wanted global peace and absence of war, and I will always remember him for his ideals and eloquence that certainly compensate for any shortcomings that have continued in present day executives. He was my hero in those years and I relish those memories. Still wonder, what if he had survived.......Believe another Stacker has delved into the potential of his legacy. Wish I could recall whom, very interesting theories.
I wondered the same. I think that we have sunk to this new level of anti-intellectualism (look at what professors, Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden have had to put up with. When Biden was elected, he chose smart, savvy people (which the Republicans were aghast --too many smart non-white women as well). I applauded Biden. He was gutsy.
Diane K-24: You hit the nub of it. One-Quarter of Americans are Fundamentalist-Cultist-NUTS who are IMPERVIOUS to reason or negotiation. It is wack-a-mole, for if Trump falls, the Fundamentalists are STILL THERE.
JFK! This is a living memory to me.
JFK was so new and fresh 1960-1963, that no political experience since than captured my love and inspiration as JFK and the Harvard cabinet members.
And as a young, idealistic adolescent boy, I fell in innocent, boyhood LOVE with Jacqueline Bouvier-Kennedy. SUCH a heartthrob.
How far American politics has declined since the oratory of Martin Luther King, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Everett Dirksen, Douglas MacArthur, a tradition of oratory that reaches back through William Jennings Bryan ("Thou shalt not crucify labor on a cross of gold" -- Democratic Convention circa 1896) to Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster.
When one can speak like Demosthenes in the Philippics or Cicero against Cataline, one would NOT need to trash American prose with forgettable but degrading, racist rhetoric.
Religion is a tool for preserving the in-group’s privilege and controlling the out-groups’ behavior. When the out-groups don’t fall for the in-group’s preferred religion, the in-group uses the state to impose it on the out-groups. The dominant caste rarely believes the tripe their religious leaders spew on a daily basis. What matters is that the subordinate castes believe it and self-regulate their behavior accordingly.
When religion and the state are one in the same we call that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia..... Need I say anymore.....
Indeed. Mark!
Stat.
I remember Kennedy’s campaign and resulting election. No one said “the election was rigged.” We lived in northwestern PENNSYLVANIA. My dad worked in a glass container factory. It seemed non-Catholics were freaking out over Kennedy. My dad at dinner one night stated, “They’re going to build a pipeline from the Vatican to the White House if that SOB is elected.
Notwithstanding plenty of racial prejudice, religious biases, and country-of-origin moronic biases. Yup, Germans were the best, lumped in with the WASP crowd. Danged humans! Put the Great Apes and Bonobos in charge!
WASPS still rule or think they do!
Based on a twisted, if not grossly deficient, understanding of our country’s Constitution. “Twist where needed; ignore the rest.” I stand in disgust.
Love reading Kennedy again. Remember him so very well. He was not perfect as a human being, but he wanted global peace and absence of war, and I will always remember him for his ideals and eloquence that certainly compensate for any shortcomings that have continued in present day executives. He was my hero in those years and I relish those memories. Still wonder, what if he had survived.......Believe another Stacker has delved into the potential of his legacy. Wish I could recall whom, very interesting theories.
I wondered the same. I think that we have sunk to this new level of anti-intellectualism (look at what professors, Hillary Clinton, Jill Biden have had to put up with. When Biden was elected, he chose smart, savvy people (which the Republicans were aghast --too many smart non-white women as well). I applauded Biden. He was gutsy.
The only time Christian Evangelists favor the separation of church and state is when the IRS comes to visit.
🤣🤣🤣💚💙
😂🤣
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Diane K-24: You hit the nub of it. One-Quarter of Americans are Fundamentalist-Cultist-NUTS who are IMPERVIOUS to reason or negotiation. It is wack-a-mole, for if Trump falls, the Fundamentalists are STILL THERE.
JFK! This is a living memory to me.
JFK was so new and fresh 1960-1963, that no political experience since than captured my love and inspiration as JFK and the Harvard cabinet members.
And as a young, idealistic adolescent boy, I fell in innocent, boyhood LOVE with Jacqueline Bouvier-Kennedy. SUCH a heartthrob.
How far American politics has declined since the oratory of Martin Luther King, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Everett Dirksen, Douglas MacArthur, a tradition of oratory that reaches back through William Jennings Bryan ("Thou shalt not crucify labor on a cross of gold" -- Democratic Convention circa 1896) to Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster.
When one can speak like Demosthenes in the Philippics or Cicero against Cataline, one would NOT need to trash American prose with forgettable but degrading, racist rhetoric.
Civil, eloquent discourse has deteriorated over time, but it has been obliterated during the Trump years.
Diane K-24: Obliterated!
You find a way with words. OBLITERATED is the only adequate expression.
Thanks for that!