Orson Scott Card has a weekly article in the Ornery American, World Watch. Card is a conservative Mormon, so his view vastly differs from my own, but he is a very intelligent man and a great writer, meaning he often presents his point of view in a comprehensible fashion. The article I found really interesting is The Riots of the Faithful, which discusses the recent uncorroborated (and later discovered to be false) Newsweek article claiming American interrogators were flushing copies of the Quran down toilets to force devout Muslim prisoners to talk.
Unsurprisingly, Card’s rhetoric is biased, and sometimes extreme. But he makes several good points. At the least, I understand a lot of where he’s coming from. Points 1 through 3 are excellent. Point 4 is good.
The only major objection I have is OSC’s insistence that the media has a liberal bias. As square721bt pointed out to me, it is unreasonable to value isolated incidents (anecdotes) when the body of evidence is so large and diverse. In the case of the media, there are many thousands of journalists in both directions. Republicans like citing examples of liberal bias, and Democrats like to do the opposite. I find it fascinating (but kind of horrifying) that both sides are so convinced the press is against them.
Personally, I find a whole conglomerate like Fox News patting the current administration on the back to be more telling of bias than a whole slew of reporters acting rashly and releasing a damaging story without checking sources. Damaging, surprising and shocking stories are what sell the news. The reason the media attacks the Republicans is because the Republicans are the ones currently in power. If you doubt, look at the shitstorm brought down on Clinton when he was president.
But back to the article: it is point 5 where Card succumbs to narrowmindedness and hypocrisy. I will grant that the far-left “politically correct” movement could be construed as a form of puritanism, or at least fanaticism. But OSC slams the far-left while turning a blind eye to the Republican majority currently in power–so much so that at first I wasn’t sure which side he is even talking about.
How long did it take for the people to be utterly disenchanted by government-by-fanatics, who see every opponent as evil and make every political decision an article of faith? Afghanistan longed to be free of the Taliban; the people of Iran hunger for freedom now. And when the Puritans were toppled in England, the people rejoiced.
Just so the fanatics who now rule the Democratic Party, serving the cause of Smartland at the expense of the Heartland, will find that if they ever really get control of government, they will quickly be the most hated rulers our country ever had.
I will not claim that the Democratic party in power would be any less hated than the Republican party. Like Card says, our country is deeply divided, more than it has been since the Civil War era.
But how is Bush not painting our opponents as evil? “Saddam is evil” was the most compelling mantra Bush had to invade Iraq. Whereas the other reasons turned out to be shadows, red herrings, and lies (Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Where is Iraq’s connection to the Taliban?), the people of Iraq really were suffering.
And how about the current administration’s political decisions? “Faith-based initiatives”? A push to preserve the “sanctity” of marriage? How can you say that its political decisions have not been based in religious faith?
Already large numbers of Americans seethe over the puritanical laws imposed on us by anti-democratic judges, who cannot wait for compromise and the political process to “purify” us.
The dictionary defines “puritanical” as: “Rigorous in religious observance; marked by stern morality.” How is the Republican majority’s pro-life stance not puritanical? The Republican party today is morally conservative, and favors laws that impose traditional moral values on everyone. Does Card not see how dangerously close to a theocracy that agenda is?
People who are so sure they’re right that they are willing to eliminate democratic processes in order to get and keep power are the enemies of freedom for everyone.
This sentence nicely encapsulates OSC’s willful blindness. How many “democratic processes” were eliminated by the Patriot Act? How does Bush wanting it renewed in full not demonstrate that his administration is an “enemy of freedom”?
Sometimes you’re lucky and a big country comes along and liberates you. But sometimes there’s no country big enough to do it, and you just have to hunker down and pretend to think correct thoughts and live some kind of life below the radar.
You know, the way believing Christians do right now at American universities.
Right. Now I know Mr. Card and his fellow Mormons have suffered some prejudice at times, but please. I’d love to hear about all the times a Christian has been punished or discriminated against for his beliefs at a university–how many times an angry mob of atheists has lynched those dirty Jesus-lovers.
I’m tired of the faithful pretending that religion is rational. If you want to have faith, fine–that’s your choice. But don’t try to use apologetics to justify the Bible with circular logic. Every intelligent, rational believer with whom I’ve discussed religion at any length eventually concedes that the religious perspective is fundamentally based on faith. It’s not something you justify, it’s just something you know in your heart. As such, religious values have no place in the scientific community. Most public universities have by and large realized this fact. Too bad our administration doesn’t.