You know what’s wrong with America now? According to top-rating Fox TV host Glenn Beck it’s … wait for it … “God is no longer trusted in America”! The number one reason America is going to the dogs? Says Beck, it’s because the numbers of godless heathens in America are growing! And what’s going to save America from the ObamaMessiah and his minions? According to Beck, and to those who think like him, it’s more people in America worshipping the big guy in the sky!
Idiocy like this you have to walk around carefully in case you happen to step in it. But he believes in it. He has faith.
Why was America so successful? Was it because it was the country whose founding was based on the notion of individual rights? No, says Beck, it was because Americans “recognise God’s authority” (never mind that there’s better evidence for doing the right thing than “my God told me.”) Because God told Americans what to do (never mind that he also told the leaders in all those theocracies trying to destroy America what to do). Because Americans are god –fearing. But stop being god-fearing, apparently, and it’s all over for capitalism, for freedom, for individual rights – and for America. He really does believes this stuff [hat tip Joe Maurone]. See:
Sheesh already. As if it were true that “being god-fearing” leads inexorably to freedom (not according to the centuries of Dark Ages and the dictatorial voices of Islamist thugs it doesn’t.) As if it were true that America was founded upon religion? Not according to the founding fathers it wasn’t. As if it were true that capitalism and individual rights needs faith and superstition as support. Not if you adhere to reason they don’t. And as if speaking yesterday, instead of back in 1961, Ayn Rand “replies” to Glenn Beck and his false faith-based notion, and knocks all this phony baloney out of the park. [hat tip HWH]
As she points out, the fusion of capitalism and religion on which Beck and his fellow conservatives is not merely wrong, it's fatal. When you tell people that the foundation of capitalism is religious faith, then you imply that reason and science are on the side of the collectivists. There is no greater point for a defender of capitalism to concede.
UPDATE: Turns out Ayn Rand Center head Yaron Brook explained this to Glenn Beck a few weeks back. Watch from about 2:30 (the first 2:30 are awful) [hat tip Objectivism Online Forum].
14 comments:
Excellent post Peter!
It is because of Beck and his religious (and other) rantings which make me hesitant to join an Anti-Obama bandwagon; as I said on my own blog last week if these fellows are the opposition perhaps Obama is misunderstood! ha ha!
For somebody with a reasonable intellect, you're pretty thin on this one Pete. There's as many manifestations of "God" as there are individuals, and the way I see it is that the message about the underlying morals and values that are necessary to sustain any form of rights based individualism require some entity from which such principles can originate. You know: the basis of "all men are created equal" and being "endowed with unalienable rights". Comprehending that concept requires a modicum of metaphysics that is too much for some, and they can be helped greatly by 'channeling" that through some abstract deity.
What Beck is doing in my view, is packing his message in a form that remains palatable to the larger masses, as this is where eventually political change must originate, not with those with the intellectual capability to found their theories on even more abstract ideas.
The system in the US has been f..d by people with the intellectual wherewithal to use marxist and socialist dogma in a popularized format to create an image for which the population has gradually fallen (over many decades). Hopefully, this snake-oil trick has now been sufficiently exposed to start a movement in another direction, but that also needs translation to something that may be understood by the masses. I think this is what we are witnessing, not some sort of return to religious fundamentalism.
It's expected the delusional will see "the end of the world as we want it" when enough individuals turn away from the generally-accepted and expected delusions. All in all, the ideal of "individual right and liberty to exercise self-determination" is a human agreement at the root of what we like to call "civilization". You either value the civilized view or you do not. If you do, individual rights and mutually-assured liberty are your guideposts as the only way a civilization can genuinely work. If you do not, anything goes and he with the most lethal stick wins. It is an absolute, an individual life belongs to itself. What is always in question is whether or not other life on the planet sees it that way. I do, some don't. In the end, it's clear that no mysticism is needed to decide which side of the "civilized" question suits you. I prefer to do my own thing and am committed to letting others do the same with the hope we'll all prosper together. If you want a harder way, go for it.
What an embarrassment.
Anyway,
bez, some questions and comments:
"...the way I see it is that the message about the underlying morals and values that are necessary to sustain any form of rights based individualism require some entity from which such principles can originate."
Why is that, and where is the evidence of said entity? And what is the response to someone who says, "Well, my god says you have to help the poor..." It's completely arbitrary.
"Comprehending that concept requires a modicum of metaphysics that is too much for some, and they can be helped greatly by 'channeling" that through some abstract deity."
Does that include Beck? :-) Are you suggesting that people can advocate freedom by "tricking" their neighbors into thinking it has something to do with mysticism?
"What Beck is doing in my view, is packing his message in a form that remains palatable to the larger masses, as this is where eventually political change must originate, not with those with the intellectual capability to found their theories on even more abstract ideas."
One has to approach these things in a principled manner..that is, starting with a reality-based metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. It takes some work, but it is doable. The politics will follow naturally. Why? Because it's simply the application of more fundamental moral premises in a social context--it doesn't exist in a vacuum.
"The system in the US has been f..d by people with the intellectual wherewithal to use marxist and socialist dogma in a popularized format to create an image for which the population has gradually fallen (over many decades)."
People have accepted the increasing welfare state because they (if only implicitly) agreed with the altruism inherent in that approach.
"When you tell people that the foundation of capitalism is religious faith, then you imply that you should vote Republican if you're at all religious"
They'll spout out some "foundation of capitalism is liberty and freedom" rhetoric for you moaners. Just be patient.
To tell y'all the truth.
I din't know the good Lord was a capitalist till them there good folks at Fox TV done explainin it to me.
Glenn Beck is a bloody hero.
Having undergone considerable personal tragedy in his life; his mother committed suicide when he was 13, his stepbrother also killed himself, he battled drug addiction and alcoholism, his first child was born with cerebral palsy - and after all this, the man will do more to advance the cause of limited government and civil society than the rest of us put together.
He understands that the battle lines for the preservation of Western civilization have been drawn. . .and those who are destroying it from within are the Progressives.
Glenn Beck is a bloody hero.
Having undergone considerable personal tragedy in his life; his mother committed suicide when he was 13, his stepbrother also killed himself, he battled drug addiction and alcoholism, his first child was born with cerebral palsy - and after all this, the man will do more to advance the cause of limited government and civil society than the rest of us put together."
Yes...that "loving God" sure has over blessed his true beliver Mr Beck huh?
According to Bez, this debate is best fought by telling fibs to other people. According to Bez the fib to promote is that a spirit-monster-ghost-pixie-dragon thing with wings is the source of individual rights, freedom, morality, capitalism and everthing good. According to Bez, all people are stupid enough to believe that fib...
Bez, news for you, it don't work. Perpetuating a fraud on people does not make them free. It remains an attempt to imprison them within falsehood, yet another attempted enslavment of the mind (exactly like what socialists do).
LGM
Angus
So the guy had various issues and difficulties in his life. So what? That's irrelevant to the point at issue here.
"He understands that the battle lines for the preservation of Western civilization have been drawn.."
Clearly he does not understand.
What Beck is promoting is no more than the notion that the guys that don't believe what he believes are bad news. He offers a superstition that he ultimately expects everyone else to accept solely on the basis that it's his one.
Freedom, capitalism and morality are not served by circular nonsense such as that.
LGM
Nicely put, Naumadd.
Excellent observation LGM!
Yes, he is simply promoting "Obama = Bad" and gaining a lot of traction from the hillbilly demographic for doing so.
However, it is a considerable 'turn off' for those of us possessing a brain.
"According to Bez.............. According to Bez,..........."
LGM, that's what is called creating your own straw man in order to burn it. Why don't you respond to what I said instead of transmogrifying it first so it fits within your preconceptions and the subsequent associated counter arguments.
Bez
You're fibbing again. You should stop now.
LGM
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