“Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box…”

“Religion is the smile on the dog…
I'm not aware of too many things, but I know what I know if you know what I mean.”

- Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians

I am thinking about maybe doing a PhD in Philosophy. This might be the first subject that I have been truly interested in that doesn’t have some sort of practical application in my life. Usually I follow the path of studying things that I like as long as I can earn a living using what I have learned. Not so with this, but it would make good blog fodder!

Ideologies and theologies are interesting to me. About a year ago I listened to the book on CD “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith” by Jon Krakauer. The book gave a fairly in-depth look at the beginnings of the Mormon faith and the extremes of a few Mormon fundamentalists who took revenge on a wife for not accepting the tenet of plural marriage.

Fundamentalists of any sort are by definition more extreme in their beliefs. There are many examples throughout history of religions fundamentalists of many stripes forcing their viewpoints upon society through acts of violence. There are also plenty of examples of charismatic leaders surfacing and leading near-theological movements with a band of fervent followers.

What are we looking for? Why would otherwise rational people become so deeply immersed in a belief system that from the outside seems obviously strange and rife with implausibility? What causes us to suspend our critical thinking?

Another reason why this is fascinating to me is that I have trouble with people expressing authoritarian viewpoints. For me there are no absolutes. It’s interesting to think about possibilities, but the truth of our existence and our experience is such that our ability to reduce it to words and an overarching ideology is an unending challenge. What is truth for me is unseen by others and vice versa.

So I ordered a book to see if this is a transient interest for me or something I’d like to take a deeper dive into. Should be interesting…

You Are What You Say...

"People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.”
- Emerson

Or - what you say about someone else is actually a reflection of yourself.

More on Landmark tomorrow....

Bye, Bye Ricky…

And please, don't come back!

Rick Santorum, R-PA

Bob Casey Jr. has been leading in the polls in the PA Senate Race for a long time now. At this point he appears to have a nice double-digit lead over Santorum. It will be great to see the poster boy for social intolerance unseated.

I recently read that the US had been left leaning from the 1930'2 up until 1968 or so. Through the 70's we sort of wandered. And then from the 80's until now the country had been leaning or slowly swinging right. The story I read suggested the Republican party is out of new ideas, has exhausted their agenda, and that this election might signify a move back toward the left. That would be nice.

The NY Times, in supporting a relatively unknown candidate in CT over a Republican the paper had endorsed many times before. The gist of the article suggested that it's time for the leadership in Congress to change and the way to bring about that change is to vote the party line - even if you don't know the candidates.

I always vote the party line and was a little surprised that it could be considered low-brow to do so. I suppose there are some people out there who like to say, "I weigh each candidate on their individual merits." To me that's surprising. For anything to change in our government you need a critical mass. Candidates run talking about individual issues, but in a broader sense are committed to support and promote the party platform. Once in Congress our representatives tend to do just that and vote the party line. Especially on issues contentious issues that highlight the big differences in the two platforms. So when you pull the lever you may think you are voting for a person, but for the most part, you aren't. You are voting to support a party.

On that note, I will never, ever vote Republican as long as the GOP plays on ignorant fears related to stereotyping certain groups of people in this country.