Ever since the election played out exactly as I was expecting it to, Liberals have really gone into a tizzy about what they can do to more effectively force their values on the rest of America. We saw the conservatives run an extremely effective campaign around something called “traditional values,” and now we want a piece of that action. We want to learn how to use religion to trick people too. It seems only fair, right?

Consider the arguments of an author I respect very much, Douglas Rushkoff:

I’m wondering if denying poor people a mythology - even if we know it to be false - is such a great idea. It’s honest, and has more integrity, but it’s a bad strategy for eliciting their support. Poor people would rather vote for the myth that they’ll be taken care of - even if, in reality, it means being further fleeced by the wealthy, and sending their children off to die in war.

He’s not the only one echoing these sentiments. I also found an article on disinfo about roughly the same thing…

Last night in my post-election daze I was wracking my brains trying to come up with any way out of this rat-trap. I think that that may be speaking to the majority in this country in their own language – morals and religion. Of course, some people may think that that is, again, allowing them to set the debate just like Bush set the tone in the presidential debates by allowing Kerry (or Kerry only allowing himself) the defensive position. But I think that ultimately, re-directing the religious narrative in this country instead of ignoring it and hoping it goes away may be our only course of action.

I’m sure that these two guys aren’t the only ones thinking along these same lines. In fact, I myself spend a whole lot of my time thinking about how people use stories and religion in their lives, and how to give them tools to do that more effectively. However, I think there is enormous danger when you start thinking that you can and should try to do this for people instead of showing them how to do it themselves.

In fact, that is preciesly what the conservative team is so good at: dictating a religious narrative which disguises their geo-political agenda in a pseudo-spiritual cloak. In fact, Leo Strauss, conceptual grandfather of the neocon revolution advocated just that: using religion as a noble lie to create and sustain an orderly and predictable populace.

And so, the liberal argument is, at this point, “If everybody else is doing it, why can’t I?” Liberals are thinking that if the neocons can use these tactics towards evil ends, can’t we just adapt their techniques and insert positive anti-war anti-Bush anti-retarded messages? If Lord of the Rings taught me anything, it’s that the One Ring corrupts absolutely and must be destroyed. In that story, some members on the side of “good” advocate taking up the One Ring and using it’s power to destroy Sauron. But the wisest among them caution that even the strongest man (or elf) cannot long control the One Ring, for it will pervert their intentions and end up controlling them. This is the fate which befalls Boromir, who tries to steal the One Ring from Frodo. Even Frodo, who struggles successfully against the power of the One Ring the whole story fails at the last moment, on Mount Doom. And if it wasn’t for Gollum’s treachery, the Ring would never have been destroyed.

Am I advocating that religion, the One Ring, must be “destroyed”? No, I think that stories (religion) are the fundamental means by which people understand their lives as more than just a disconnected series of events in space. I feel like what needs to be done is not do away with religions but to educate people about how they can use them to build their own lives, and help them see how other people try to use them to control lives. Education?! But that will take forever! Exactly, there’s not going to be a quick fix here. The problems run too deep. It’s going to be a slow process, but we can’t just throw up our hands and run around trying to fool “poor people” with “myths” - especially when we’re not recognizing the myths which control our own lives.