Re: apocalypse

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Kruse:
>
>And herein, perhaps, part of the explanation of the massive spread of
>evangelical sects: they do meet that "need" -- just add water, makes it's
>own sauce, with all the attendant self-deception Doug alluded to.  (Note:
>the Catholic Church here is on the counter-attack: they recently held a huge
>Jesus pep-rally at the football stadium in Cochabamba, in an effort to seize
>some of the energy and flash back from the "evangelicos".  Pobrecitos: they
>sweated their backsides off under the midday sun in full priestly regalia...)
>
Tom's post is filled with enough material to start a dozen excellent
threads!! There has been far too little attention paid to the social role
of the evangelist sects today in the United States. I like to surf the
radio dial to find little nuggets of authentic speech and sentiment. One
that I share with Doug is NYC's WFMU, an "alternative" rock station that
consciously eschews "product". You will never hear U2 there. My favorites
also include WFAN, an all sports talk station: "Here's Vinnie from the
Bronx. Go ahead, Vinnie." "Lookit, the Knicks won't win nuthin' until John
Starks stops actin' like a head trip." But for me the most interesting
slice of life type station is WMCA,  Christian all-talk radio. On most
evenings, James Dobson from the Focus on the Family group, which is the
real power behind "Promise Keepers", holds forth on problems facing
Christian families. One of these problems is exactly the same problem that
Juliet Schor wrote about: overworked Americans. If you have a husband and
wife working 50 hours a week, the strains will undermine family life. For
these right-wing Christians to have credibility with the ordinary,
working-class members of their sects, they have to at least speak about
this problem.

I am troubled by the word "utopia". This reminds me too much of the sort of
efforts that leftists have come up with in recent years to describe a
socialism that will work, with the emphasis on work. Perhaps what we need
is not utopian models of a future socialism, but better answers how people
can have all they really need without being drones in an office or factory.
I suspect that most of the world's wealth represents waste, as in the use
of the words in J.W. Smith's "The World's Wasted Wealth." This includes
advertising, insurance, marketing, finance, duplicated efforts for 25
different brand of deoderant, etc. We don't really need utopias. We need
plain language to describe a world where people can work 10 to 20 hours a
week producing a basket of goods that can satisfy all but those addicted to
shopping. What would go with this is a clean and healthy environment,
better health both physical and mental, an end to racism or national
oppression, and peace.

Louis Proyect