I woke up this morning thinking of spirituality. Cold, grey light came through my window and my cat was asleep in a tranquil ball at the end of my bed. I struggled to remember specifics of my Philosophy classes in college but all I could remember were the basic outlines of individual beliefs. Without putting names to theories, I began to break down the basics of religion and spirituality.
This election, many feel that George Bush won due in large part to the evangelical/Christian vote. I can agree with that, but let's get to the bigger issue. What turns people to religion, specifically organized religions? There are three main ways one becomes indoctrinated into any belief system.
1-You are born into it. You assume the beliefs of your parents, relatives, and family spirituality. You are raised in a community of shared values and in time, internalize what you've been taught as truth.
2-You are scared of the unknown and the evident evil in the world. There comes a point where you face something so mind bending--death, rape, disease, loss, failure, mistakes--you hate not knowing the "why" of things; religion provides vague answers that settle a mind uncertain of the unknown and gives a system of understanding that must be reinforced internally until it is believed.
3-Something horrible has happened in your life and you wish to redefine yourself, give yourself a new start. This is allure of cults as well as major religions; that a prior "self" needs to be reborn in a spiritual life as to atone for the sins, mistakes, and decisions of the past. Religion gives you that at the price that your give you soul to God, Allah, or whatever divine unknown is offering redemption.
Conclusion: people in America are scared out of their minds.
People are terrified and Bush capitalized. People start out afraid of other men, of "evil-doers" and "terrorists". Most of the modern countries on Earth already have had their beliefs dragged through the fires of World Wars 1 and 2 and they know better than to pretend the sinister element of mankind doesn't exist. America is so isolated from the global community that such events never hit home, until, of course they did. That fear of other men, of these "others" who believe in a different God and live in the midst of poverty and violence scare the daylights out of Americans who have never had the chance to see or meet the "other". Look at the progressive states on the satorical map above; the northeast and west coast are havens of travel, learning, and technology. As a result, the people there are exposed to more culture. Moving into the insulated heartland, the population thrives on second hand fear, the media clips of masked men firing rifles into the air, of war and death.
We are scared when we don't understand. New York voted Pro-Kerry; if there's any group of people with validated fear, it's those in the big city. And they weren't afraid in 2004.
Terrorists are not going to target Possum Junction, Texas. And those people are scared out of their wits.
The result is America becomes even more insulated, nationalistic, and terrified. That fear extends beyond and is distorted. The ultimate fear of men, war, is pushed aside and surrogates fill that fear. War is righteous, we trumpet, war must vanquish our foes. But fear remains in every heart that becomes more accustomed to having answers. The issues they don't understand become distracting sticking points: gay marriage, abortion, stem-cell research, oil-dependency, environmental conservation. With every issue, the "them" and "us" becomes more deeply divided. It's shocking to see those who support war and oppose abortion; by their own definition life is precious. America is founded on freedom but we almost went as far as to amend the constitution to prohibit gay people from living freely together.
We still see the American landscape with an archaic 19th century view of endless resources. Conservation and prevention are secondary to the unyielding hand of the war machine. The media portrays Alaskan wilderness as barren, useless land that has oil ready to fuel our SUV's. Trust me, I've been to the Arctic regions and the whole landscape is alive with an eco-system we can't understand; we would not live there so why would anything else? We don't understand, we're afraid, and we, as a nation, feel a need to assert our dominance over the unknown to fit into our system of understanding.
It's going to get worse. Those who oppose Bush have lost faith in their fellow Americans and moreso have lost faith in the notion America is an ideal being formed by the melding of cultures. Now we're afraid and we have to accept there ARE no answers. Progressive people must brace themselves for a huge leap backwards in our national identity. We must deal with a global community that would already envy the prosperity inherit in American life and the abuse with which we've manifest that prosperity.
How many times have you heard people say they are not religious but there are spiritual? It's a generic phrase of the thinking person, one who realizes they have a sense of good and evil, pain and pleasure, time and circumstance, but are comfortable not knowing what is not to be known. To the thinking class, anything may be a spiritual experience: kicking a field goal, sitting by a camp fire, closing that big deal at the office, playing with their kids, eating a meal with friends and family, or simply waking up in a cool room with their little cat.
Our spirituality is truly being tested in this day. Many flee to the comforts of religion or rediscover the connection to faith that had played a part in their youth. With fear, the dormant faith begins to flourish with fear, nourished by a world situation so violent and misunderstood. For those outraged by our national agenda, there is little we can do. In essence, our physical lives have become examples of the spiritual fears that drive people to buckle under the Republican philosophy; you are afraid and we, your superiors in spirituality and industry, will save you.
Each man knows in his heart the correspondence we keep with the unknown. For centuries, there has been no answer and yet we implore for grace on some level. The Christian believes it is granted through god, the agnostic through unknown means, the atheist by man's own doing. If we hope to stay balanced in all things, as we've seen in the possible spiritual cue of nature, we must let things die so others may prosper. Should we be able to find grace in these days we need to truly abandon the fear of the other. We need tolerance, discussion, and action. We need to speak up and remain vocal in opposition to the wrongs we see.
Most importantly, we need to show through our lives that we are kind people, thoughtful and sincere, flawed but willing to improve. In the midst of this new era of fear and folly, only by living with strength and compassion and an acceptance that just by lying outside the definitions of our beliefs, the "other" is not inherently evil.
Now, more than ever, we need to be tolerant of those who thrive on intolerance and hatred.
