Fundamentalism causes Social Arthritis

[arendt]

Posted this in GD: Politics, where it sat for 2 hours without a comment.

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Fundamentalism causes Social Arthritis
by arendt

........scle·rot·ic (skl&-'rä-tik) adj.
........1 : grown rigid or unresponsive especially with age <sclerotic institutions>

Inflammation is a normal bodily response to injury. In arthritis, unprovoked, persistent inflammation causes scarring, which eventually results in immobility. As a result of this scarring (sclerosis), the slightest motion causes pain.

Fundamentalism is Social Arthritis. Fundamentalists (religious, financial) are constantly inflamed by a complex, changing world, which they see as threatening. By their very name, you can predict that they have one and only one solution to the problem: to become rigid and immobile. So, when change inevitably happens, their rigidity causes the rest of our society unnecessary pain.

After twenty years of inflammatory politics, they have scarred our political system into knee-jerk reactionary behavior: military or police solutions to every diplomatic or social issue; tax cuts and deregulation the answer to every economic problem; ludicrous homophobic accusations against cartoon characters; demands for theocracy. Fundamentalists have over-ridden the "off" switches of the normal defensive mechanisms of government (demanding that Congress cut the funding of the court system; having Congress declare court decisions void; giving the president arbitrary powers of search, seizure, and imprisonment.) and paralyzed any genuinely democratic political process.

Arthritis is caused by a malfunctioning, hyperactive immune system, which is reacting to major insults that are not there. That is, it is an auto-immune disease, in which the body mistakenly attacks itself. Ditto fundamentalism. These people are reacting to threats that are not there, and seriosuly damaging our country in the process.

The rigidity and inflammation began in our bought-and-paid-for corporate media. A gang of pundit-thugs (Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, etc.) was installed. After that, the mere holding of certain opinions became cause for violently inflammatory rhetoric: liberals are traitors, opposition to the war is treason, criticism of Bush is treason, support for evolution is ungodly. When the spectrum of public opinion is so narrowly confined, debate is reduced to fighting - you are either completely for my fundamentalism or completely against it. No shades of gray allowed. How can you have a debate about facts and figures when the only words allowed are "yes" and "no"?

This rigid media produced rigid, one- or two-issue politicians. Politics became a game of gotcha, with bogus bills offered for test votes. Now that fundamentalists control the un-checkable electronic voting machines, the inflammation has gone underground. We can no longer even see the damage being done. But the poison has leaked into the entire system. It hurts to move. Otherwise, America would never stand still for the spate of leaks, revelations, and prosecutions of GOP and neocons - from the PNAC leadership on down to the pederast fundie minister du jour.

The American social fabric is a scarred mess. If it is even possible (with financial and military ruin about to descend upon us) to heal our society, it will certainly take decades. The run-up to our case of Social Arthritis was thirty years of one-sided inflammatory rhetoric and actions (abortion clinic bombings and murders, skinhead killings) by the lunatic right. (The genuinely radical left has been impotent in America since the 1970s.) That is a similar period to the one preceding the Civil War; and it took thirty years after that war for a new status quo (an economically hobbled south with Jim Crow laws) to emerge.

Given that the truculent, fundamentalist racists who lost the Civil War managed to win the peace, I have little hope that the victorious anti-intellectual, fundamentalist, religious whackos of today can be stopped by the sclerotic remains of our country's legal system and progressive social customs. If we do manage to get these lunatics out of power, it will be by being tougher and more single-minded than they are. By gaming the system even more cleverly than they have. By blaming them for the debacle that will soon hit us - before they blame us.

America needs some political aspirin, and it needs it now. Tried and true remedies, not controlled by some mega-corporation, with known and tolerable side effects. The next time a fundie hassles you, offer him an aspirin for the inflammation. When he asks "what inflammation?", whack him on the head and say "that one".

[rox63]

1. Many arthritics will not be happy with the association

despite the fact that we curse our stiff and aching joints daily.

[arendt]

2. Could you please unpack that a little for a TAB...

(Temporarily Able-Bodied person)?

I had hoped to use this as a frame: associate fundamentalism with
a dreaded, lingering, unpleasant disease that takes a lot of the fun
out of life.

You seem to be saying that sufferers do not like to be reminded of
that. Am I understanding you?

arendt

[arendt]

3. Nobody likes this frame?

We all know fundamentalism is a disease. Why does this
analogy fall flat here?

arendt

[Karenina]

4. I think it's a great analogy!

:kick:

[zippy890]

5. America needs a purgative with that aspirin

A cleansing of the nations bowels is in order too.

good post:thumbsup:

[arendt]

6. Great medical analogy - constipation!

Remember the old joke about which body part would be in
charge - the brain loses to the asshole. Fundamentalists
are the assholes who just say "no" and let the country
fill up with shit. I'll have to work on that.

In the past I have floated "GOP as political aids" and
other comparisons to deadly diseases; but maybe comparing
them to painful, debilitating, embarrassing, but non-fatal
diseases would get more traction.

arendt

[Crunchy Frog]

7. You ought to submit that to DU as an article.

It's great piece of writing, and I bet they would publish it. http://www.democraticunderground.com/writing.html

You should also try posting it in Editorials. Things tend to move more slowly over there, and there tends to be more thoughtful discussion.

I think it is an excellent analogy. I've actually been thinking in those terms for awhile myself; right wing politics as a national autoimmune disease. I could never write it out as eloquently as you did though.

[arendt]

8. I do appreciate your enthusiasm and advice, but...

my hit rate on getting things published here is about 25%.

I used to get at least ten "greatest" votes for each of my
submissions. Now, I don't even get ten responses.

Basically, DU has changed. It is a lot less reflective, and
a lot more faddish.

I write longer, more thoughtful pieces. For example, this
one has almost no topical references that would give it the
immediacy wallop (and short shelf-life) of a typical DU thread..

Topicality rules on DU. I haven't got the time or energy to make
my stuff "popular" here. Maybe I will cross post this in the
"Frame the Debate" board.

Thanks for your support and readership.

arendt

[Crunchy Frog]

9. I'd give it a shot anyway.

I agree with you about DU changing. I've seen it in the time I've been here (lurking since spring '03). I think the population over here has just exploded so much that it's lost the feel of a small intimate community that it still had, even when I found it, and everything moves much more quickly. Threads don't tend to get alot of posts unless they're either flame wars, or about whatever everyone is all excited about at any given moment.

Maybe the new, remodelled GD forum will be a better place for this sort of thing.