The Cult of the Almighty Dollar

An alert reader tipped me off to a post at the Democratic Underground. It's about an overheard conversation at an airport, between a man and woman who cannot see past their noses and a young woman who tried to speak rationally with them.

It reminds me of hundreds, maybe thousands, of conversations that I've had over the past ten years.

I can't remember how many times I've been told that I'm some kind of $%#^@&*! lefty that needs to die or how many times that I have been "diagnosed" with "Walker Derangement Syndrome."

It does become more than a little frustrating and baffling at times.  The facts are plain as day.  Walker's policies are driving jobs out of the state by the tens of thousands.  The jobs that remain are low-paying and offer overpriced benefits because no one wants to truly fix health care.  People have less rights than they did two years ago. The state has become notably much less safe due to neglect of the infrastructure and the increasing number of hot heads allowed to carry a gun.

So why are right wingers are so obstinate and refuse to see what's going on?

Well, that's something else that's been discussed hundreds, maybe thousands of times.

Well, in my humble opinion, it's because they hold their beliefs with a pseudo-religious, or cult-like faith.

Catholics are instilled from childhood to believe the teachings of the Church, and that the Pope is infallible.  This is reinforced weekly at mass and if they stray, well, guilt is a wonderful tool to bring people back in line. The more devout have this ingrained with them and will not bide with any sort of dissension from that faith.  That is why history is filled with things like the Inquisition and witch trials.

Similar things can be said about most other religions as well.  A prime example of how insane the extremists are would be Osama bin Ladin and all of the terrorist attacks he had masterminded in the name of Allah.

And don't even get me going on the cultists.

The right worship at the alter of the Almighty Dollar and the high priests are the Koch Brothers, WMC and other Big Businesses that wish to rule the world.  They hold forth promises of their version of heaven, "an opportunity" to be rich if they just work hard enough, save enough and invest wisely.  They lead through fear-mongering, false promises and made up parables.

And these messages are reinforced daily, through talk radio, Fox News and the newspapers.

And when their agendas fail, as they are destined to do? Well, they have an app for that.  They just blame the sinners - in this case, liberals, 99%ers, unions, Democrats, and free thinkers.  Sort of like Pat Robertson blaming every natural disaster on the left or the Westboro Baptist Church blaming everything on homosexuals.

When Scott Walker takes money out of the economy and gives it to the wealthy and the corporations, to them, that's a blessed and holy act.  And when the resulting lack of demand causes smaller businesses to shut down and people to lose their jobs, well, that's because the Democrats raised taxes to feed the "big union bosses."  Never mind that corporate taxes are as low as ever and spending is down and that the public sector workers had always made less than their private sector counterparts. That is not what High Priest Big Business taught them.

When people can't afford their homes, food and/or medicine because their insurance rates went up by 15% each and every year, the power company needs yet another rate hike and the oil companies raise prices because they barely netted a half a trillion dollars in the last quarter, well, obviously it's the tax hike of $10 that's forcing them out.  Big Business taught them so and so it must be true.

And so on and so forth. Amen.

And when you present a conservative with a fact that is irrefutable and does not jive with their world view, like that young lady at the airport did, you will find conservatives will get very personal and very insulting.  Don't take it personally.  Look at it from where they are coming from.

When a person has their worldview challenged to its very core, and there is no way for them to deny it, it is very, very difficult to deal with.  That's like telling a Catholic that the Pope is fallible, telling a Muslim that Muhammad ate pork sammiches all the time or a Chicago Bears fan that, after further review, the call stands.

The more open minded might be able to accept it, or at least give it serious thought.  The more adamant will try to explain it away as a fluke or using some far fetched bit of rationalization.  The truly devout will merely attack you, hopefully only verbally, with all sorts of name-calling and irrational accusations.

You see, it causes a person great psychological and emotional angst to confront the fact that they might have been wrong all this time and helped cause so much damage, albeit unintentionally.  This discomfort and pain, the feeling of having all they believe in being set on its end, produces a fight or flight response, causing them to emotionally withdraw and/or attack the perceived threat.

But it's too late. The seed of thought has been planted and now they will either have to double down on their beliefs, no matter how much cognitive dissonance it might cause (see Tea Parties and Koch employees), or they will come around to the realization that they've been wrong, and while not embracing liberalism, they will be more willing to work to find a solution everyone can live with.

Our job, my friends, is not to control our conservative brothers and sisters, since that is not we are about.  We must continuously point out the errors of their ways and help them understand that the things they've been taught are false and are actually harmful to themselves and others.  With patience and self-control, we will be able to get through to most of them.

Sadly, we won't be able to save everyone from themselves.  Sometimes their need to believe is stronger than their sense of self-preservation, like the alcoholic who can't stop drinking or the cultist who believes so strongly that they are willing to drink the poisoned Kool Aid.

But to paraphrase the famed union leader, Mother Jones, we must mourn those that won't change and fight like hell for the rest.