Showing posts with label fear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fear. Show all posts
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Race and Politics - Southern Style
In case some readers may not have noticed, the Republican national Southern strategy is in full swing. The plan is to play on the fears of white people so they will vote Republican because African-Americans are Democrats and Democratic candidates.. Rachel Maddow did an excellent piece on this last night, but I think missed the salient point. She spoke of the Republicans stirring the fears of whites about blacks. I believe the issue is more narrowly aligned. The fear that Republicans are conjuring is that of blacks taking political control, then behaving as whites did toward them. Whites, especially white Southerners, remember how African-Americans were treated when whites had exclusive control. Whites cannot comprehend that African-Americans might behave better than whites did simply because blacks understand their own self-interest necessitates it. I expect that African-Americans in positions of power will act to further their ability to retain that power which will mean taking care of white and black concerns. That does not mean that some African-Americans will not act badly. The problem that confronts us is that blacks and whites really are the same: good, bad and indifferent.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Conservative Views Shaped By Fear
Nicholas Kristof
In an Op-ed piece published February 13, 2010 in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof delves into research that indicates conservatives are more fearful than liberals, that spankers are more fearful than parents that choose time-out, and hence those that support the National Rifle Association are more skittish than those in favor of control. How wonderful.
Conservative Christians who like to paint God as judgmental may do so because they fear God more easily than those who see God as love. Fear makes conservative Christians think that God is after them. If God is after them who are trying so hard to follow his rules, how much more must God be after those who interpret God's rules less dogmatically.
Conservative Christians see interpreting the Bible in anyway, but literally (dictated by God) as a chink in their wall of belief. Conservatives are hard-wired to be afraid that their whole system of belief could collapse at any moment. More liberal Christians are hard wired to be more laid-back. Liberals understand that the Bible was written by fallible human beings and must be viewed through the lens of history. No wonder there is conflict.
Liberals need to deal with conservatives as fearful children. Conservatives must be convinced that those with other views can keep them safe. The logic of an argument does not matter. The argument must instead convince the conservatives that its goal is safety.
Photo by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Conservative Christians who like to paint God as judgmental may do so because they fear God more easily than those who see God as love. Fear makes conservative Christians think that God is after them. If God is after them who are trying so hard to follow his rules, how much more must God be after those who interpret God's rules less dogmatically.
Conservative Christians see interpreting the Bible in anyway, but literally (dictated by God) as a chink in their wall of belief. Conservatives are hard-wired to be afraid that their whole system of belief could collapse at any moment. More liberal Christians are hard wired to be more laid-back. Liberals understand that the Bible was written by fallible human beings and must be viewed through the lens of history. No wonder there is conflict.
Liberals need to deal with conservatives as fearful children. Conservatives must be convinced that those with other views can keep them safe. The logic of an argument does not matter. The argument must instead convince the conservatives that its goal is safety.
Photo by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Tornadoes
Last night, so many people died because of nature's wrath. All I can do is pray for their loved ones in this time of sorrow. Tornadoes ripped through communities in the middle of the night. Because I live in Texas, I have been in a tornado's path several times, but I personally have never been punished by those fierce winds.
I have seen one dip out of low hanging clouds behind us as we drove home from the country. I have seen the path of a tornado through the countryside that looked like a giant lawnmover had been driven cross country. Instead of twisted grass from the rotary blades, there were twisted trees. That tornado started in open country, then whirred through a small town. Luckily, no one died.
I have made my mother sit in the hallway (the center of the house) with the family pets around her as we listened to the wind howl and the radio broadcast the nearness of a twister. Strangely, I never was afraid. That destroyer passed us by with no damage. Will I always be so lucky?
Tornadoes are a reminder of how fragile our world really is. We are so sure that we are in control of our destiny. We make plans that assume a world unchanged. Tornadoes, whirling fingers of death, obliterate
our structures and our lives.
We need to worry less about the second coming, the rapture, and the millenia, and more about the present. We need to help others today because there may be no tomorrow. We need to pray for all those injured by nature's untamed ways. We need to thank God for the moment. We need to acknowledge how fleeting life can be and savor the now.
I have seen one dip out of low hanging clouds behind us as we drove home from the country. I have seen the path of a tornado through the countryside that looked like a giant lawnmover had been driven cross country. Instead of twisted grass from the rotary blades, there were twisted trees. That tornado started in open country, then whirred through a small town. Luckily, no one died.
I have made my mother sit in the hallway (the center of the house) with the family pets around her as we listened to the wind howl and the radio broadcast the nearness of a twister. Strangely, I never was afraid. That destroyer passed us by with no damage. Will I always be so lucky?
Tornadoes are a reminder of how fragile our world really is. We are so sure that we are in control of our destiny. We make plans that assume a world unchanged. Tornadoes, whirling fingers of death, obliterate
our structures and our lives.
We need to worry less about the second coming, the rapture, and the millenia, and more about the present. We need to help others today because there may be no tomorrow. We need to pray for all those injured by nature's untamed ways. We need to thank God for the moment. We need to acknowledge how fleeting life can be and savor the now.
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