American Fantasy Ideology

[elfs]

Two weeks ago, California legalized gay marriage. This has understandably sent the Christian Nationalists into whirring fits of Santorum-level frothiness, leading even the usually clued evangelical writer Douglas Kmiec to write:

Gay and lesbian individuals are within the humanity acknowledged to be created equal and worthy of respect in the Declaration of Independence, but that responsible reaffirmation of equality of citizenship does not deprive the community of making a necessary and reasoned distinction for its own survival.

Last week, in an interview with Fortune magazine, after Obama identified poor energy policy as the greatest long-term threat to America's economic future, McCain said,

The gravest threat is the struggle that we're in against Islamic extremism, which can affect, if they prevail, our very existence. Another successful attack on the United States of America could have devastating consequences.

One of the things both of these entries have in common is that they are acknowledgements by each speaker that he himself buys into a fantasy ideology. John McCain buys into the fantasy ideology promoted and believed by al-Qaeda and similar groups that if they just found the right target, the whole of "the west" would come crumbling apart. Somewhere in the world is The Magic Rolodex which all the powerful people consult in order to run the world. John McCain apparently believes The Magic Rolodex too, and claims that we must do everything we can to stop al-Qaeda from destroying it. If they get their hands on it, the west will be destroyed.

Doug Kmiec seems to believe that teh gays are after The Magic Public Display of Affection that will cause so many people to say, "Hey, maybe sodomy is my thing after all," that our birthrate will plummet and the heterosexual culture as we know it will be destroyed. Apparently having tried all the ones that don't require official sanction, the gays are now scanning the search space of officially sanctioned Public Displays of Affection looking for their mojo. This is not a fantasy ideology of homosexuals, mind you; it's a component of the fantasy ideology of American Christianists. But it's still a fantasy ideology that informs a bloc of the voting public.

Let's be clear here: both John McCain and Doug Kmiec believe something impossible. (I could go into a long diatribe about how both believe in this impossible thing because they've been trained throughout their lives to do so, starting with the whole invisible man in the sky who loves them and if they don't obey him he'll throw them into a lake of fire and, oh, he needs money... but I won't) It doesn't matter what al-Qaeda does, even with a nuclear weapon: the only way they can destroy "the west" is if they figure out how to frighten us into doing it ourselves. They can kill a lot of people, maybe even create short-term economic damage (3,000 people is a horrific act, and the economic loss of their contribution will be felt for years, and the emotional toll is incalculable), but they cannot "prevail," they cannot threaten "our very existence."

The only way the gays can figure out how to destroy civilization is... well, they're not trying to. They're only three percent of the population and they don't have a unifying ideology anyway.

Kmiec and McCain are selling you fear: fear that your way of life might change. We should not underestimate the foolishness of believing either one of them. The very meaning of their lives is undergirded by absurdity, and the best thing we can do is point and laugh.

Comments

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

The real fun is: If there was a terror attack right now, the Republicans would be completely to blame for the poor prevention, and end up being kicked out on their ass like they so richly deserve.

[rhonan.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. The pleasure and joy I have received from kissing boys has in no way lessened my ability to preserve the universe my making women scream in ecstasy. As for the Mohammedan jihadists, I should think that if they were to ever dare to try any open military or insurgent activity here in the Continental United States, they would not only face the hordes of armed countrymen that would have repelled a Japanese invasion 60 some odd years ago, but a lot of very gay, yet pissed-off Pink Pistols. In short, both threats are, as you said, much overstated.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

I had someone use the "But if we were all gay, the species would die out" argument.

I looked at him and said "Yes, and if we all had wheels on our butts we could call ourselves wagons. That makes about as much sense as what you just said."

[qtplatypus.livejournal.com]

As you said there is no magic rollerdex. However the postenlightment meta-culture that we call 'The West' is vulnerable. But its not bombs and guns which will kill the western civilization, if anything its going to be successful recruiting and poor economic management.

The population of those infected with Islamist meme is growing at a growing rate, we as westerners need to be getting our memes out there and inoculating them with ours. The shooting war is a sideline, we simply can't kill them all. The recruiting war is where the real action is.