It's a Love/Hate Thing

I love God.

But I hate government.

I love something that sounds like I wanted my father to be but is really much, much better and lives nowhere near me. I love something that has lots of rules for everyone but ones that I am allowed to break. I love something that requires no logic or facts but which I can profess unyielding faith in.

I hate something that I can touch and that can touch me. I hate something that I must immediately answer to if I screw up. I hate something that can turn against me if I turn against it. I hate that everyone can vote for things I might...hate.

I love money.

I hate people.

I love brute force.

I hate mercy.

I love being a Republican.

I hate you.

 

Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheStevenWeber

Comments

[Bufo]

06:14 PM on 08/30/2009

Sounds like you have a problem with people like me, Steven. I'd really like to know where you got your ideas from--I at least consider myself a good, logical person, as well as a Republican. You'd be surprised how many of us there are. Don't worry, though. Even if you hate me, I don't hate you.

[Social Construct]

03:19 PM on 09/04/2009

Both comments are well-reasoned, respectful and an example of exactly what has been pushed to the back burner of political discourse in America. My guess is that logic and reason do not draw ratings as well as the extremes of either side of our major political parties. we all suffer as a result. Perhaps we're all becoming a bit more drawn to the freakshows and forgetting what we came to see in the first place. Thank you for the reminder.

-A left-of-left market socialist and proud American.

[Bufo]

06:04 PM on 08/30/2009

Wow, you've got me pegged. And I thought I had it hidden so well. You're right--as a Republican, I hate all those things. As a Republican, I fit neatly into that white, rich, christian demographic that people love to lay on me. I cannot and will never understand something as liberal and enlightened as a Spinozan concept of God. I love the idea that I and my views are naturally superior to those with whom I disagree. I get giddy at the idea that I have no need for philosophy, because my position is one aligned with providential truth and therefore incontrovertible. In fact, I simply don't understand why anybody would disagree with me--clearly, I'm the only one who's right. I am eternally thankful that when in doubt, I can always fall back on that old crutch of hate.

Really. Because accusing the other side of hate and fear is what I do best.

[Dawn Fratangelo]

10:31 AM on 08/29/2009

The psychological reasoning of the "False Beliefs" article makes sense. However, the study fails to focus on conformity. People crave leadership. And they will go along. Stanley Milgram proved this in his famous conformity experiments in the 1950's that sought to explain why so many went along with the Nazis. He thought he'd find it couldn't happen again. BUT by simply having a person of authority telling them what to do, a man in a white lab coat, Milgram was able to prove the majority will believe and do what they're told. In this case, shock people again and again who give wrong answers (those giving answers weren't actually shocked but the participants didn't know this).

Iraq and 9/11. The highest person in authority made the initial link. People made their decisions which were reinforced when those of authority continued with the link despite contrary evidence. The study couldn't consider information in Tom Ridge's new book that during the 2004 campaign the Bush Administration raised the terror alert without merit. The theory being, perhaps, to hold those who believed in fear long enough to prevent a change of power mid-war.

The study makes sound points about the psychological reasoning of how people hold tight to beliefs they may know to be incorrect. However, it's lacking by not recognizing the initial link came from people at the highest levels of authority and how society has a tendency to conform, especially when authority figures tell it to do so.

[Social Construct]

11:28 AM on 08/29/2009

Well done.

[jeff peters]

11:38 AM on 08/28/2009

This would be HI-larious if it wasn't so goddam'd sad...

[emilyringstrom]

02:41 AM on 08/28/2009

This is going to give you a lot of love and a lot of hate...

From me, it's all love, but hey, I'm a Democrat! ;o)

[Social Construct]

01:11 AM on 08/28/2009

Sounds like you found Jerry Falwell's preamble to the Manifesto of the Moral Majority. I knew it was real .... I just KNEW it!

[Bontempo]

06:42 PM on 08/27/2009

Now you are a poet, too. Sparse and brilliant. Such clarity in so few words.

[DJE12857]

05:58 PM on 08/27/2009

I love that post! You have to get your own show Steven

[ReealOne]

04:08 PM on 08/27/2009

Excellent Steven! You really had me going there. When I first began reading it, I became "frightened", as I thought that you'd "defected" to the other side. You sound so.... let me see.... how can I put this.... um..... REPUBLICAN.

Thanks, I needed the laugh today!!!

[susanlno]

04:07 PM on 08/27/2009

So ... you've been lying to us all along, huh? Or have you finally seen the light (of the oncoming train)?

(Kidding. Great post.)

[TomR]

03:12 PM on 08/27/2009

This article is very relevant to Steven's blog post:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090821135020.htm

- Tom

[tdbach]

04:47 PM on 08/27/2009

That's an interesting link. I would argue with the conclusions of the researchers (or the writer of the article), that suggests that Bush/Cheney's propoganda wasn't to blame for so many believing that Saddam was linked to 9/11. I think this research only confirms what every politician knows instinctively: that a core, loyal constituency is more than willing to believe in what you are doing and accept any information you offer in supprt without questioning. And so Bush/Cheney - mostly Cheney - fed them what they wanted to hear, to keep that base solidly behind them. Do you think if they unequivically admitted that there was no link, that they thought there might be but now know there is no link, that this base would still believe in the link? Not likely. Of course they would shift to some other "good" reason for occupying Iraq, but that particular belief system needed the propoganda to sustain itself.

[TomR]

07:39 PM on 08/27/2009

----
Hoffman says, "is that we did not find that people were being duped by a campaign of innuendo so much as they were actively constructing links and justifications that did not exist.

"They wanted to believe in the link," he says, "because it helped them make sense of a current reality. So voters' ability to develop elaborate rationalizations based on faulty information, whether we think that is good or bad for democratic practice, does at least demonstrate an impressive form of creativity."
----

I don't agree with their conclusions either, tdbach. In addition to their rationalizations, these right-wingers are actively being propagandized (duped). They are not demonstrating an impressive form of creativity, but rather a sickening level of delusion reinforced by their authoritarian leaders and the corporate media through false framing.

However, the study mentioned in the article does make an excellent point about how they start with their beliefs and then look for ways to support those beliefs while happily disregarding any pesky facts. This explain their birther quest to delegitimize the president, embrace death panels, and scorn anything and everything the government does on the domestic front for the American people.

- Tom

[Dawn Fratangelo]

02:37 PM on 08/27/2009

I love it.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

02:20 PM on 08/27/2009

Heh heh,

I would just point out that that's not really "god," that's the dumbed-down cartoon version so much in vogue in contemporary 'Murica.

[Neal Jansons]

11:22 PM on 08/27/2009

It's as much "god" as any other definition that exists. Prove differently.

[hwadman28]

09:37 AM on 08/28/2009

This definitely is a god that some people worship. They seem to believe that god is something that they can fully understand and fits neatly into a small box. Unfortunately, it appears that they have become the definition of Christian in our society (although I am not saying that you or Steven were saying that.) It's just that it concerns me ( pains me, disgusts me, grates on me) because I would think that too, from watching the news. But, I am a Christian and I know better. I believe God is much bigger than that and there is so much I can't even begin to imagine. And that is a God worth worshipping. However, I can't prove it, it still comes down to faith.

[TRCimino]

02:12 PM on 08/27/2009

As humans we are born to love people and use things.

As Americans we are taught to love things and use people.

[canobserv]

04:34 PM on 08/27/2009

brilliant

[jemborg]

04:01 AM on 08/28/2009

ditto

[cornelius174]

01:32 PM on 08/27/2009

Wow Steven, what a great way to articulate that, and very true! I can't wait to email it to my always-nagging Republican father!!