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Writer's pictureDoug Weiss

Platitudes

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a platitude as a statement, especially one expressing moral content that has been used so often as to render it uninteresting or thoughtless. That just about sums up the rhetoric being employed by certain factions in the current political divide. The words, empty or hypocritical might equally apply. How is it possible that people who fervently claim to represent a particular moral stance are blind and deaf to the dissonance in their words and actions?


I have a theory. Those who express moral absolutes, pronounce judgement on their fellow human beings, especially those who proudly declare themselves true believers of a particular faith, have no real interest in or understanding of the faith they claim to profess. They experience no dissonance because their faith is based on a dualistic interpretation of a religious tract they hold to be the absolute and divine truth.


This behavior is not exclusive to Christianity by any means, but shared by Jews, Muslims, Hindus and other dualistic faiths. Cherry picking those bits and pieces of religious doctrine that justify views already deeply imbued; views born out of prejudice, xenophobia, and the basest of human emotions is as old as human kind. It permits one to conveniently select scriptural text that appears to support their world view while ignoring those which contradict such interpretation. One might as well cast runes or read the IChing for moral guidance--it isn't the words that are at fault but the reading thereof.


Should one call these conflicts to the attention of those who profess a particular perspectives it will serve no good end. The only answer that will be provided is a recitation of yet more cryptic quotations in support of their view, or tortured rationalizations that defy reason. When one views the world from a binary perspective there are only two choices, one's own and everybody else's. Who is able to concede that their understanding may be flawed? It is not possible to shake convictions that are never questioned. Somewhere, these folks have lost the thread. They believe in the virtue of blind acceptance --faith unquestioned. It does not matter that every great religious leader has confessed their own struggles to find an eternal truth in the midst of human contradiction and within the limits of human comprehension.


In its current form, this dark faith, as I describe it, invokes a silent, invisible but manifest evil at work in the world but seems unable to discern it at work in their own midst. After all, if there is good, its counterpart must also exist, but again, who is able to concede its presence except among others? Any effort to reconcile disparate views is impermissible. So intent are the disciples of such faith imposing their human will on the rest of the world that they will even call into question the very essence of their beliefs.


There are many examples, but I cite as one the astonishing belief among some extreme Christian nationalists who regard Jesus as a weak and all too forgiving figure upon which to secure one's destiny. It seems even he must be made to seem frail and his teachings questioned if they do not accord with an imperialistic, authoritarian ideology. This ideology is not limited to Christianity alone and can be found in the polar schisms that afflict Muslims, Jews, and many other faith communities.


And so we come now to a point in history where prophecy precedes history, where political figures are raised up, sanctified it seems as a second coming, as better aligned, more malleable gods upon which to secure one's destiny. To call this a cult is to diminish it but that glib dismissal misses an essential truth. There is no theology, no framework for this faith--it is all borrowed bits and pieces of incoherent and all too worldly beliefs packaged up and marketed by self appointed anarcho-political profiteers who play into hatred, fear and ignorance. It is theater, not faith but a powerful drug for the delusional, embittered, want to believe believers. Do not make the mistake of seeing these followers as members of a cult, but rather as addicts to the drug of self delusion. For how else can one explain a faith that doubts itself?





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