The Right-wing Bubble of Magical Thinking
Strauss Discovered this Article Completely by Chance…
It is a great article written by Paul Joseph Greene from the Web site “State of Formation”. It is Well Worth Reading!
Okay. Let me throw this out there, and then let me know what you think…
The Tea Party Republicans who are seriously threatening to rain down suffering in every direction through dismantling the world economy by thwarting efforts to increase the US debt-ceiling must believe that the vast structures and infrastructures and services that are the hallmarks of American life together come to us by some kind of magic.
Surely, the Grover Norquist vow never to raise taxes, which has been signed by almost every Congressional Republican, indicates that these legislators believe that things like food safety, clean air, clean water, postal service, Veterans benefits, salaries for active duty military members or even something like their very own Congressional salaries must emerge as a kind of fruit from a kind of tree that my parents assured me does not actually exist.
Exurbanites in my metropolitan area are largely No-New-Taxes-Republicans who are increasingly seething that their roads and services are crumbling and disappearing, in direct contradiction of their enchanted belief that roads and police and fire departments (surely must) bubble up from the cosmic ether.
What is with all this magical thinking? What is with these deeply held beliefs that a well-run society with security, safety, beauty, enjoyment, function, and participation come for free, come out of nowhere, as if an answer to a…… prayer? Aha! Maybe that’s it!
Is it possible that there is a deeply-shared common ground between these magical beliefs about how a country, state, or city runs not by compromise, contribution and self-sacrifice, but by some kind of magic—that there is a deep common ground with that kind of magical thinking and a religious faith that likewise expects an interventionist and supernaturalist almighty Deity to enact answers to prayers regardless of what people are actually doing?
Is there just one group of people here? And is this one group composed of the same folks who do not believe that living and nonliving beings in this world come about by a creative and cooperative process of mutual becoming and novel advance (‘evolution’), but rather that things come to be by a static Divine fiat?
Is there a genuine affinity between that kind of Magical Thinking Political Ideology and that kind of Supernatural Interventionist Religiosity? Or am I way off? What do you say?
http://www.stateofformation.org/2011/07/magical-thinking-in-politics-and-religion/
http://www.stateofformation.org/author/paul-joseph-greene/
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Martinis at The Blue Max 