Bush "dead enders" and "Caesarism"
Sullivan quotes a reader who draws parallels between fanatical Bush followers and Caesarists:
Second of all, if I was a Caesarist, I dearly hope that I would have better taste than to choose George W. Bush as my idol. The guy is just not Caesar material. If I was going to surrender my conscience to some god-king, it would not be to an inarticulate dry drunk whose profound incuriosity about the world is matched only by his smug certainty about the correctness of his judgements on it. The man is a pathetic failure, in way over his head, and is in every way inadequate to meet the challenges facing him. I could see turning Julius Caesar into a "Caesar", but I've lived under Bush, and Bush, you are no Julius Caesar.
I can't believe that most of the forces behind Bush really see him as a great, divinely inspired leader. In other words, I don't think they are true-hearted Caesarists (I bet similar things could be said for other cult-of-personality architects). I really don't think Dick Cheney believes that George Bush is a God-anointed ruler. (I actually wonder what Cheney really thinks of him.) I think the Republicans and Christianists have tried to build George W. Bush up to be a messiah god-king in order to futher their agenda, but some old saying about silk purses and sow's ears keeps drifting into my mind.
Speaking of cults of personality: Of course, the ultimate personality cults are Christianity and Islam. These folks assume their favorite guy has a unique relationship with God, or even is God. Some Catholics have gone almost as far in their reverence of the "Virgin" Mary. I find cult of personality as silly and repulsive in religion as in any other area. I find it particularly repulsive when Christians seem to forget everything the object of their adoration actually said (or rather, is reported to have said). I think many people have an authoritarian hunger that I just lack. It makes much of religious and political behavior seem very alien to me. It seems some people want to believe blindly in some specific personality. This just seems undignified to me. People shouldn't worship other people. It offends my egalitarian sensibilities.
Maybe I'll make an exception for babies and lovers: it's OK to have a cult of personality centered on your baby. Just keep it to yourself and your family. And being in love is a form of idolatry, and it's wonderful. (Though it can lead to pretty stupid things, too, now that I think about it.)
The Bush campaigns in 2000 and 2004 were different from prior election campaigns I have witnessed in that there was a carefully maintained aura of this "Caesarism" about them (always on the fringes, always deniable, but nevertheless there). And now that Bush's popular support collapses through floor after floor, we find his hardcore support, say a quarter of the voting population, heavily populated by this "faith" Caesarian contingent.First of all, I find Caesarism, and all cults of personality, to be repellant. People are people, not gods. I find turning people into idols usually requires a great deal of overlooking, whitewashing, distortion, or outright falsehood. I don't like cults of personality even when the figure represents something I generally agree with: The Founding Fathers, Charles Darwin, or Maria Montessori, for example. I feel the reverence for the person gets in the way of the importance of their ideas and actions. And when cults of personality center around someone destructive and give them control of the resources of a state, they can send entire regions of the globe into hellish war: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao being the most infamous examples.
Second of all, if I was a Caesarist, I dearly hope that I would have better taste than to choose George W. Bush as my idol. The guy is just not Caesar material. If I was going to surrender my conscience to some god-king, it would not be to an inarticulate dry drunk whose profound incuriosity about the world is matched only by his smug certainty about the correctness of his judgements on it. The man is a pathetic failure, in way over his head, and is in every way inadequate to meet the challenges facing him. I could see turning Julius Caesar into a "Caesar", but I've lived under Bush, and Bush, you are no Julius Caesar.
I can't believe that most of the forces behind Bush really see him as a great, divinely inspired leader. In other words, I don't think they are true-hearted Caesarists (I bet similar things could be said for other cult-of-personality architects). I really don't think Dick Cheney believes that George Bush is a God-anointed ruler. (I actually wonder what Cheney really thinks of him.) I think the Republicans and Christianists have tried to build George W. Bush up to be a messiah god-king in order to futher their agenda, but some old saying about silk purses and sow's ears keeps drifting into my mind.
Speaking of cults of personality: Of course, the ultimate personality cults are Christianity and Islam. These folks assume their favorite guy has a unique relationship with God, or even is God. Some Catholics have gone almost as far in their reverence of the "Virgin" Mary. I find cult of personality as silly and repulsive in religion as in any other area. I find it particularly repulsive when Christians seem to forget everything the object of their adoration actually said (or rather, is reported to have said). I think many people have an authoritarian hunger that I just lack. It makes much of religious and political behavior seem very alien to me. It seems some people want to believe blindly in some specific personality. This just seems undignified to me. People shouldn't worship other people. It offends my egalitarian sensibilities.
Maybe I'll make an exception for babies and lovers: it's OK to have a cult of personality centered on your baby. Just keep it to yourself and your family. And being in love is a form of idolatry, and it's wonderful. (Though it can lead to pretty stupid things, too, now that I think about it.)
Comments
Well said.
That's what's so baffling about Bush & his fanatical religious base. He's evangelical because he says so & his core supporters support him solely because he's a self-proclaimed evangelical.
But there's a serious disconnect between Bush, his policicies & principle teachings of christianity. It's plain as day & out in the open for every one to see, but, because he says he's an evangelical christian...
(surfed here from sullivan)
But there's a serious disconnect between Bush, his policicies & principle teachings of christianity. It's plain as day & out in the open for every one to see, but, because he says he's an evangelical christian...
It used to puzzle me to, but eventually I realized that we're talking about brainstem psychology, people who are driven by pure, raw emotion -- inconvenient realities be damned. About 25-30% of our fellow countrymen -- the ones who bray about 'Freedom' the loudest and most -- are simply not interested in any reasoned, factual arguments that you or I might make. If you spent any time back in '03, arguing with advocates of our glorious Iraq adventure, you couldn't escape this: I never dreamed I'd see so much doublethink from citizens of a nation that purports to be a democracy. Talking to this crowd is simply pointless. Today the job of liberals is to make fencesitters and apolitical types aware of the authoritarians who live next door.
It is awfully bizarre that George W. "I Am Daddy's Idiot Prince" Bush should be the object of a personality cult, but cultists would follow a cabbage, so long as they can be persuaded that it hates liberals.
-- sglover
It used to puzzle me to, but eventually I realized that we're talking about brainstem psychology, people who are driven by pure, raw emotion -- inconvenient realities be damned.
Yes, I understand that. But I've got a brainstem, too. And my brainstem isn't saying "Love Bush!", only to be vetoed by my cerebral cortex which knows better. My brainstem doesn't seem to like him either. I can maybe understand how Reagan might have been able to short circuit people's higher cognitive functions with his communication skills (which I don't think were as great as the hype), but not Bush.
It is awfully bizarre that George W. "I Am Daddy's Idiot Prince" Bush should be the object of a personality cult, but cultists would follow a cabbage, so long as they can be persuaded that it hates liberals.
I guess so. I'm just happy that the cult seems to be rapidly losing adherents.
I worked among a group of evangelical Bush-lovers (sounds like an anthropological expedition;-) ) and there was no conflict for them.
Accepting Jesus as Saviour is their single measure of a "Christian". If Charlie Manson or Hitler were born again on their deathbeds - poof! up to heaven with them!
"Christian" for them did not include Catholics. Mother Theresa - nope, damned to hell.
And what of all the innocent people killed in Bush's wars? Well, they say, war doesn't increase deaths, we're all going to die sometime and get our reward or punishment. George is just hurrying them along on their journey a bit sooner than expected.
I am not kidding, they looked me in the eye and spouted this sick nonsense.
That brought a smile to my face
Accepting Jesus as Saviour is their single measure of a "Christian". If Charlie Manson or Hitler were born again on their deathbeds - poof! up to heaven with them!
I had forgotten this "1 bit" version Christianity. All humans have only two states: saved or unsaved. It is unnecessary to know anything else about them.
You know an ideology has come off the rails when the slaughter of human beings isn't considered a bad thing. It seems like a lot of people manage to get to that place awfully fast these days.