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...especially after thinking that this year was marking the turning-point toward sanity, and then see the results of the elections over the past month, where even supposedly "liberal" areas like Seattle moved to the right instead.
The way I see it, the American public has absorbed so much pro-conservative propaganda over the past twenty-five years (not only from the Republicans and the increasingly right-wing media, but also from the DLC triangulators and all those Democrats who seemed to want to defeat liberalism within their own party even more than defeating the Republicans), that it has finally sunk in so deep that it can't be eradicated by counter-information.
In short, we have a new civil religion in this country, made up of equal parts laissez-faire capitalism (as the sacred judge of an individual or group's value rather than just an economic system), extreme individualism and personal liberty (for yourself), a puritanical moral code (for everyone else), a highly-edited version of evangelical Christianity (an optional garnish for self-reassurance), and a worship of celebrity and wealth (as a "sacrament" that lifts us up out of our mundane lives and into contact with the realm of the divine, as determined by laissez-faire capitalism, above). Call it "Neo-Americanism." (I'm sure you can think of other names, but let's use that for now.)
The first point is that "Neo-Americanism", like Marxism in the old Soviet Union, has gone from being a set of ideas and concepts to be judged against other ideas and concepts, to become a religion that is beyond judgement itself. I suspect we have reached the key point in the transformation of "Neo-Americanism" from a political philosophy to a religion when people have internalized it so thoroughly that they will act against their own personal interest, such as when they willingly support "pro-business" policies, tax cuts for the rich, and so on, even when it makes their lives more difficult. They have accepted the first principle of "Neo-Americanism," that capitalism has determined who are the more "worthy" members of society, and agreed that, insofar as they themselves are not rich or famous, it is because they have failed in living up to the beliefs of their religion, and thus are undeserving of what should go to their betters.
And the second point is that "Neo-Americanism," as a religion, now serves as the a priori basis of any further thought, rather than as a subject for critical thought itself. For a devotee, all conscious "reasoning" will only be in accord with the principles of "Neo-Americanism" -- anything that goes outside those principles, or, worse yet, challenges them, will be subconsciously screened-out before it can even become a part of conscious reasoning. If such thoughts reach the conscious at all, they will be accompanied by a sense that they are absurd or even unthinkable -- much like you might get if you suggest to a fundamentalist that every word of the Bible might not be literally true. They will be eliminated before they can even be taken seriously, for taking them seriously would undermine the assumptions that the person's life is built on.
And the only way one breaks free of such a religion, like an addiction, is when one can see clearly that its principles are destructive and have brought one's life to ruin. Just being told that the religion is destructive isn't enough...the "believer" has to personally experience that destruction, and realize that the problem isn't that they aren't zealous enough in practicing the religion, but that the religion itself is the problem.
Thus, I have little hope that the political direction of this country can change, despite our best efforts, until enough people have hit rock-bottom and realized that "Neo-Americanism" is a false religion in their own life. And I don't see that happening soon (although I may be underestimating our current leaders in this), nor will it be without severe pain to the rest of us.
:-(
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