Stupidity Loves Company

Everything that needs to be said, has been said, about this crap published in yesterday's Washington Post:.

Athletes do things that seem transcendental.... [T]hey possess a deep physical knowledge the rest of us can learn from.... Ever get the feeling that they are in touch with something that we aren't? What is that thing? Could it be their random, mutant talent, or could it be evidence of, gulp, intelligent design?

I think Jenkins was writing for professional athletes, not for the general public.  Professional athletes are, as a group, a bunch of meatheads.  They grew up in a system in which their needs are completely cared for, in which physical skill is rewarded and thinking is a liability, in which competition is everything, and in which a hierarchy of authorities determine one's worth, literally.  So, not surprisingly, professional athletes tend to vote Republican, like the Iraq war, and think creationism makes sense, so Intelligent Design must be up there with the theory of relativity.  In that kind of crowd, a sportswriter makes her way using shibboleths.  Talking about athletes' "deep physical knowledge" that, gulp, comes from God is a good one.  Jenkins was maintaining her insider status with that column, not to say that she didn't believe every word she wrote.

Then, coincidentally, there is this in today's Washington Post:

The Rev. MeLinda S. Morton, a Lutheran minister who resigned in June as an Air Force chaplain after criticizing the religious atmosphere at the Air Force Academy, said there has been a palpable rise in evangelical fervor not just among chaplains but also among the officer corps in general since she joined the military in 1982, originally as a launch officer in a nuclear missile silo.

"When we were coneheads -- missile officers -- I would never, ever have engaged in conversations with subordinates aligning my power and position as an officer with my views on faith matters," she said. Today, "I've heard of people being made incredibly uncomfortable by certain wing commanders who engage in sectarian devotions at staff meetings." ...

A team of observers from Yale Divinity School criticized one of the academy's ministers for urging Protestant cadets to tell their classmates that anyone who is "not born-again will burn in the fires of hell." ...

Among other incidents, the academy commandant had urged cadets to use the "J for Jesus" hand signal with the thumb and index finger, the head football coach had told players that he expected to see them in church, and Jewish cadets had experienced anti-Semitic slurs after students were urged to see the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of the Christ."

The parallel is obvious.  The officer corps is stocked with the same kind of mentalities that you find in, say, the National Football League:  reverence for authority and competition, a belief in the power of one's own abilities (and as a corollary, a belief that anyone without power lacks ability), and - to a lesser extent - anti-intellectualism.  So of course the officer corps is becoming dominated by Southern evangelical conservative Republicans - it's practically an identity of characteristics.

Does any of this matter for the country?  In the case of sports, no; it's just entertainment.  In the case of the military, potentially.  So long as the Southern evangelical conservative Republican officers will continue to obey orders even if issued by a duly elected, liberal Democratic President, then I suppose it's not a crisis.  It sort of sucks to have your military hijacked by know-nothings who seem more like the Taliban than professional American warriors.  But I think even the most diehard right-wingers in uniform realize that letting the military get too involved in politics is the surest route to Americans firing on Americans, and the surest route to destroying the institution they belong to.  At least, they had better realize that.

But there are two general points I want to make about Republican politics.  First, the right-wing noise machine's purpose is to reinforce the existing beliefs of the followers.  There is a piece of advice they teach you in sales: if the customer is wavering, use more words.  It really doesn't matter what the strength of your argument is, but the more words you use, the more likely the customer will sign.  Something similar happens with the know-nothing Republicans - they have these beliefs and prejudices that they've absorbed from their environment, but they crave constant reinforcement and the knowledge that others share those beliefs and prejudices.  So, like Sally Jenkins showing her ID to get admitted to the locker room, the noise machine just keeps repeating the same feedback loop: "You are right.  Other people believe what you believe.  You are right.  Other people believe what you believe." 

Of course, reason and science, and empathy and wisdom, are the enemies of the received idea.  Which is why science must be at least neutralized, and empathy and wisdom blocked by the anesthetic effects of mass entertainment and rhetoric about good and evil.  Sports, television, movies, interspersed with the occasional two-minute hate - that's how the Republicans keep their sheep in line.  But note that trying to break into the feedback loop with a logical argument produces a violent, angry response. 

The second point is that know-nothings believe utterly in authority imposing its beliefs on those below.  The example of the article on the officer corps is instructive.  Once the know-nothings achieve a critical mass, they turn and start pressuring others to convert or be punished.  This is what makes them truly anti-American.  When they get power they immediately use it to propagate their ideas, by force if necessary.  I don't think liberals - who instinctively embrace and support diversity and difference - can viscerally grasp how determined these know-nothings are to reshape the country.  They believe there is a right way, and a wrong way, and that imposing the right way as they see it on everyone else is not only permissible, but required by God. 

They have to be stopped.

Comments

[Riggsveda]

Kid, I have one word for you: Boykin.

No, no. No, I have two words for you: Boykin, and plastics!

[mild mannered alter ego]

To me, this all ties back to your observation a while ago that conservatives operate out of fear. There is a lot about this universe that it is hard to get your mind around. It is mind-blowing to fathom the age and enormity of the universe, eg. The human brain is so complex that people, like pro athletes but also like anyone who has experienced flow, are capable of things that they don't understand. I think this scares the crap out of people. I've often wondered why the Christian god is so small. There's this vast and unspeakable universe and here's this supposed creator who's intensely focused on one trillionth of it, and who's essentially Dad. What else can that be but fear? That little god is an easy comfort in the face of the true heart-stopping disinterested scale of the universe.