No more news on my lunch break
I just finished reading Salmon Rushdie’s new novel. It was a very good, but not great, book. Most of my book club (I know, I couldn’t be a bigger nerd if I tried), agreed that it was a fine example of its particular genre, but it wasn’t transcendent. The reason I bring it up at all is that one of the themes that Rushdie comes back to again and again in this book is the conflict between diverse cultures, and how they can be magnified when the conflict is rooted in religious difference. This is something I’ve been rolling around in my head of late, trying to get my rational head around the idea of all the different people, cultures, and religions that have to co-exist globally. Trying to apply reason to the whole thing. Trying to think about it in terms of geopolitics and human nature.
And then I read this article on my lunch break…
…and I lost my shit. Time out for all the organized religions. Not to sound like Rodney King, but can’t we all get along? If you’re so afraid of a competing idea that you want to execute the people with that idea in their head, your world view might not be built on the strongest foundation.
You say you attend a local church that does a lot of good in your community? Groovy. I volunteer at a church meal program even though my skin sizzles a little bit when I walk into the building. People with a healthy sense of perspective and common sense can have all the religion they want. But you with the clever bumper sticker explaining how %90 of the world is going to burn in hell? You can wrap your Mini Van around a 20 foot steel cross for all I care.
I hate getting fired up about this crap.
I may have to stop at a local watering hole instead of going to the pool tonight.
Labels: rant
posted by DC Viking at 3:13 PM
2 Comments:
Nice entry. Sorry you seem to feel guilty about your own feelings. You shouldn't. You are in the right.
People can get so wrapped up in the 'next world' that they happily make a stink pit of this one. If this world really is only a proving ground before the next one, it seems to this sinner like a serious waste of beauty and complexity. That being said, Afganistan looks from the brochure as exactly what purgatory should look like. So maybe their perspective over there could benefit from a vacation to Tahiti. If that wouldn't pop their melon.
Righteousness and martyrdom seems more addicting than crack. And those who live by the sword seem to want to die by the sword. So don't worry too much about those clerics. They are projecting.
Nato
It's not guilt at all. I just hate wasting good rage on complete idiots.
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