Elites are using religious extremism to sustain and expand their power.

[Karmadillo]

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/1983-extreme-measures-arming-the-zealotocracy-serving-the-elite.html

Written by Chris Floyd
Saturday, 26 June 2010 23:19

One of the most significant developments in the modern world -- history may find it to be a decisive one -- has been the deliberate cultivation of religious extremism by ruling elites trying to sustain and expand their power.

The rise of virulent extremism in almost every major religion -- Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism -- has many other causes, of course. Chief among these is the turbulent encounter between modernity and tradition, a confrontation that has played out -- and is playing out -- in so many different ways both within and across various cultures.

Modernity encompasses not only the technologies and techniques of capitalism that in its many guises (including state capitalism) has plowed up so much ancient ground and overturned so many ancient certainties, but also the historic development of ideas and ideals based, ultimately, on the notion of the inherent (even inalienable) autonomy and worth of the individual. These ideas too have found expression in myriad -- and often conflicting -- forms. And of course, there has never been and can never be any kind of clear dividing line between all of these swirling currents, the multifaceted dimensions of modernity and tradition; like a jar of colored sands, they mix and meld in innumerable, unstable combinations as they are sifted and shaken through the course of time.

So it would be wrong to say that the rise of sectarian zeal can be ascribed solely to its manipulation by elites. But it would be equally wrong -- and dangerously blind -- to deny the fact of these manipulations, or to minimize in any way the pernicious, atrocious effect they have had -- and are having -- on human existence. They have placed a deep -- and entirely unnecessary -- shadow over humanity for generations: a shadow that only gets darker, and more poisonous, as time goes on.

For the last 50 years, in country after country, ruling elites -- those factions which hold a disproportionate and thus illegitimate sway over society -- have fostered the growth of religious extremism for two main reasons: to distract the populace from the way their lives are unjustly diminished by the elitist agenda -- and to throttle and demonize any popular movement that might threaten the elite's hegemony.

<edit>

In most cases, this dynamic involves a strong fusion of religious extremism with a strident, exclusionary nationalism. Indeed, religious nationalism is one of the hallmarks of our age. At various times, and in various quarters, one element -- the religious or the nationalist -- might predominate over the other. We can see this in, say, the Tea Party movement, where exclusionary nationalism -- the self-defined "Real Americans" vs. the strange, traitorous Others -- is now in ascendance, occluding somewhat the sex-obsessed, church-based "Focus on the Family"-style religious nationalism that was somewhat more prevalent earlier in the decade. The whole career of Sarah Palin exemplifies this oscillation, as she has tracked back and forth between the most virulent, primitive, casting-out-devils Christian fundamentalism and the bellicose, militarist nationalism she shares with the Beltway neo-cons, a number of whom are, of course, Jews and/or atheists whom Palin, like George W. Bush, believes will burn in eternal hellfire.

more...

[xchrom]

1. It's part of the Straussian formula -

And characters like William Buckley and Paul Weyrich
began to put it into practise in the 70s.

Partly as a reaction to the counter culture movement
of the 60s. Partly as a plan to get repukes back
into the power game.

[amandabeech]

9. And very, very neocon. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Well, in organized religious groups you have masses ready to

believe in whatever you say without challenge and ready to work for your cause as it's equated with "good" and "God's work". Too good to pass up if you're into power.

[malaise]

3. When was this not true from the days of the Crusades

outside of that period 1917 - 1989.
Wasn't the slaughter of indigenous people in our hemisphere all part of Roman Catholicism and were the English any different. Religion is the greatest evil on our planet.

[KonaKane]

8. "Religion is the greatest evil on our planet"

And then you use a picture of Bob Marley for your avatar, a man who was a devout Rastafarian, a deeply religious sect also aligned with Africentrism and personality cult figure of Emperor Haile Selassie? A man who once said...

"Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white."


Wow. Just, wow.

[d_r]

4. I finally finished Jeff Sharlot's "The Family."

One thing I realized is that many of the "elites" are true believers. Not true believers like the working class fundamentalists, but true believers that think that God loves them special to make them "elite."

[Papa Boule]

6. I don't know if he traced the fundamentalists' embrace of capitalism and "free market Jesus"

in the '50s and '60s, but it is an interesting thing.

They used to be careful to distinguish "godless communism" from Godly, Biblical "all things common" communism, and Jesus's clear redistribution of wealth messages and caring for the poor.

Later they dropped the "godless," and all communism became evil. And free market capitalism somehow became seen as God's chosen economic template.

I guess it shows what happens when the laity stops reading their Bibles.

[d_r]

7. those are good insights

you should read it. It got kind of slow for me in the middle. It shows a distinction between more populist fundamentalism and more elistist fundamentalists - born rich because God loves them more.

[drm604]

5. "One of the most significant developments in the modern world"

It's not exactly a new development. When hasn't religion been used in this way?