So, I’ve been developing a political theory, which basically states that violence is a mode which creates non-democratic government, while reason and dialogue creates and is created by democratic government. It’s a bit more complex than that of course, and is embedded in historical argument, but that’s not important right now.
What concerns me today is the latest controversy, where someone found some preacher (looking rather like a rabid white supremacist–the lines of fierce hate in his face say it all) who claims to be praying for Obama’s death. Perhaps the biggest problem is that an occasional crackpot like this can now get on national news in a second. But that’s another issue. For now, i’d just like to note that, when people are so violent, that they think it normative to not only be wishing for the death of a guy who is patently trying to do the morally correct thing as much as possible, but that so many others now speak in the US along similar veins (thanks again to our talk radio friends, largely, who have sparked this major retreat from dialogue and refuge in violent discourse), then the possibilities of having a democratic dialogue, and thus a functioning democratic system, in the US, diminish in direct proportion to the strength of this cultural element. In other words, the more people in the country who can subscribe to such anti-rationalist views, the stronger the anti-democratic (and essentially pro-dictatorial) party becomes. I shouldn’t even post this story, for all of the reasons listed above (i.e., it promotes anti-rationality), but here it is anyway.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=15439793&ch=4226716&src=news
This isn’t just a vague threat to democracy, and decency, and the ability to live in and create a safe, trusting, tolerant, and chillaxed society, but a very direct threat, which seems to be growing in rabidity – and seems to encompass at least a fourth of the entire population of the US (who never wavered in their support for Tush, i mean Bush). That’s pretty spooky.
