Back to the war against Modernism

My review of Mooney’s The Republican War on Science had the cover of the San Diego Union Book Review... one of only a dozen separate book review sections left today in metropolitan newspapers. How ironic, that I am among the reviewers who seems LEAST laudatory. Yes, it is valuable. Buy and read it and use it in the war. But it buys into left-right and thus is too myopic for my full praise.

Mooney is a bit unfair in lumping millions of sincerely modernist and pro-science Republicans. What is being done by the Troika was not their choice. Not specifically.

Still, these are the people who -right now - need to stand up and save this republic and civilizations, the way moderate democrats did in 1947. By stepping forward and denouncing "their" side's monsters. By admitting that any movement can go mad... or be taken over by madmen... and now it is their side's turn.

Taking a somewhat different and refreshing look at the Romantic/Reactionary Movement that opposes pragmatic modernism, my friend, eminent futurist Paul Saffo, wrote a fascinating article that describes the anti-modernist romantic movement as part of a long tradition of “Ghost Dance” mysticism. Interestingly, he includes the techno transcendentalists, such as Ray Kurzweil and the Extropians, because, despite their pro-technology vigor and optimism, they are still yearning for rescue by something miraculous, instead of what has truly done the great work of the last Century.

And now:

Firms with Bush-Cheney Ties Clinching Katrina Deals Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, I try only to cite Truthout when the articles are rich in facts. Their full-fledged buy into a left-right view of the Culture War is not my bag. Nor is BillMoyers my favorite commentator. I find him often tendentious and his softball-worshipful interviews with Joseph Campbell helped to spread lefty-mysticism, even while Moyers claims to be fighting mysticism of the right. Still, the following transcribed speech shows him at his best, as he accepts an award for promoting moderate dialogue between science and faith, at a time when others want war between these two human traits.

Bill Moyers on 9/11 and the Sport of God  Excerpt follows (read the paragraph all the way to its scary end.)

Excerpt: ”Suddenly we were immersed in the pathology of a "holy war" as defined by fundamentalists on both sides. You could see this pathology play out in General William Boykin. A professional soldier, General Boykin had taken up with a small group called the Faith Force Multiplier whose members apply military principles to evangelism with a manifesto summoning warriors "to the spiritual warfare for souls." After Boykin had led Americans in a battle against a Somalian warlord he announced: "I know my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his God was an idol."

“Now Boykin was going about evangelical revivals preaching that America was in a holy war as "a Christian nation" battling Satan and that America's Muslim adversaries will be defeated "only if we come against them in the name of Jesus." For such an hour, America surely needed a godly leader. So General Boykin explained how it was that the candidate who had lost the election in 2000 nonetheless wound up in the White House. President Bush, he said, "was not elected by a majority of the voters - he was appointed by God." Not surprising, instead of being reprimanded for evangelizing while in uniform, General Boykin is now the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.”

Did you really need more evidence about the fervid takeover and purge of the US Officer Corps that I’ve been talking about? Throttling and force-retiring generals, intimidating and transferring mid-grade officers, and using congressional appointments to stock as much as a third of every class at the military academies with religious fanatics. The failure of the democrats to perceive this pattern, and stand up to defend our brave and suffering defenders, is utterly shameful.

And yes, it is time to start talking about next year’s elections. I plan to update some of the suggestions I made at http://www.davidbrin.com/realculturewar1.html - especially the one about how to deal with gerrymandering.