Wednesday, August 20, 2008

John McCain would defeat evil

How the presidential candidates responded to a question asked by Rev. Rick Warren of about evil revealed a crucial difference between Obama and McCain. I jotted down my reaction during the evangelical minister's televised interviews. I return to the question.

After McCain announced that he would "defeat evil," he went on to give specific examples. First, he said he would hunt Bin Laden to "the Gates of Hell." But then he brought up the war in Iraq, noting terrorists had used retarded women as suicide bombers. McCain suggested the Iraq war was a conflict of good Vs evil. I was appalled. But something else I saw appalled me even more.

Later, Pastor Rick Warren was interviewed by CNN. Discussing the question about evil, Warren brought up the fact that he had recently been on the phone with President Saakashvili of Georgia. According to Pastor Warren, his friend Saakashvili was caught up in a fight against evil!*
Speaking to Larry King, Bill Maher summed up what's so very wrong with this picture:
Did you see the Rick Warren thing? . . . Here's a good example of why religion shouldn't infect our public policy. . . The big question was "what should we do about evil?"

. . .And so Obama gives this very nuanced answer -- which I liked. And so, he loses the crowd. Yeah we should be aware of evil, he says, but we should be humble about evil. . . . What was trying to say is that it's easy being here in America to say that we're the good people. Evil is over there. You know there is a lot of evil right here: look at the prison system .. . . we torture people now. . .

And then McCain is asked the same question, and he says "Defeat it." And of course this goes over very well with this crowd, because they think of evil as something very tangible. The Devil. They're not kidding. They believe in this comic group figure, the Devil.

And so how can you have -- supposed to be a superpower, in this world, making the right decisions if this is the kind of thinking that goes into it. It's like trying to play a song when half the keys are out of tune.
In the earlier post, I reflected that McCain's response to the problem of evil seemed indistinguishable from that of another world leader famous for mixing religion and politics, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Check out this rough video sketch I put on Youtube.

* I wish Warren would read my timeline history of Georgia, Russia and the Ossetians. The situation in Georgia doesn't look nearly so clear cut if viewed in the light of history.

5 comments:

  1. BRAVO, McCain !

    he might yet become the most prominent demagogue since ... Hitler ! (he is definitely cleverer than Bush)

    well, at least here is the evidence that he expertly uses at least one of demagogy tricks - Demonization (although Bush's "axis of evil" has become a canon and perhaps will remain unmatched as classic one ! :) )

    another day I saw several books by / about him in Emporium's Asia books store. amazing! some people do read them?

    so, are we on the brink of some new Holy Crusade?

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  2. So, McCain boasts he would lead us to the Gates of Hell: but I doubt there.

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  3. Darn, I should have used that preview button! I meant to say that McCain would would lead us to the gates of Hell, but I DOUBT THAT HE WOULD STOP there.

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  4. HAHAHA f***ing HA !
    McCain will fight the "Evil" ?

    well, of course depends - WHICH "evil" !

    the real actual evil which plagues US can't be defeated by McCain or Obama. ML King has fought for it and was murdered. I doubt it very much that either McCain or Obama will even try to fight that kind of actual evil.

    so, all this is just a big talk !



    here is very good video of Dr. William Pepper addressing conference investigating 9/11 - and he is blunt and direct. (he is the one who has investigated the assassinations of ML King and Kennedy)

    "The Significance of a New Independent Investigation to the Future of the Republic"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daIIDyaG648

    >>> "There is a serious problem historically of this country about the use of imperialism, the use of political assassinations, the use of overthrows one after another... That's all kept from US schools, kept from... We have supported oppressive tyrants... We support in every way, subsidize transnational corporations, particularly the agro-corporations: send them into the hemisphere, let them destroy the economies of these people, literally destroy it, so that the farmers and their children have to move to the cities trying to find other kinds of jobs because they can't compete with American products that are being imported ... So, we destroy their economies and then when they come North to find jobs to feed their families - we have this outrage about illegal immigrants ... " <<<

    man, there is just too many things in his speech to quote it all here !

    "perpetual war" leads to "more explicit fascism"... and this war is not going to end...
    "they sawing the seeds to keep nation in militaristic frame of mind, militarising culture at every level ... "
    "corporate capitalism has to grow every quarter... they have to try to grab every asset on this planet and now it becomes a race with China ... and that's what drives the system here insanely. "

    "Democrats are not going to save this country... "

    "Jefferson called for revolution every 20 years. they didn't teach you that in American history..."

    "The American people have been anesthetized... by their schools, by their mass media, by their families who knew no better, by their churches and temples - TO ACCEPT THE FALSE VISION of this country and its future, and its history ... "

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  5. Defeating evil in the world is a very ambitious goal. Plus, evil is so darn charming in so many ways. Jesus says that there is only one narrow way...simple and filled with joy...."purity of heart is to will one thing" as Kierkegaard put it, but evil sits us down on a mountaintop and offers ever expanding visions of power and grandeur. How do we kill that Mr. McCain? Your answer is a simple one,,,,a narrow road of sorts, but is it realistic?

    When Americans rejected the Bush supported Dubai Ports deal, the only American company to respond and to take the contract was American International Group...AIG Insurance....which had no experience in international trade....or did it? Oh, it did...Cornelius Vander Starr, AIG's founder had made a fortune in "the China Trade"....that is in shipping Opium and Heroin from China....a trade learned from the Brits during the Opium Wars...and now our armies defend the cradle of poppy production....Afganistan? Wounded men need morphine, but what about the illegal trade of illicit drugs on the streets of America as we learned of the Iran-Contras' dope deals and their shipment to America's youth? According to author Peter Brewton, journalism professor at Texas Tech University, home to former Education Secretary Lauro Cavasos and former head of the DEA, Karen Tandy...the same players in Iran-Contra were involved in the Savings & Loan Scandal...you remember....the Keating Five and others?

    How do we understand and respond to other people's fears that America's benevolent help often masks darker objectives....and how do we kill the lust for evil in the human heart?

    I believe that Christ offered the one true answer. History tells me that Christ's way...apart from the power of God almighty... is impossible to achieve and that when we totally villify others by the acts of some, ie. the evil people who strapped bombs to mentally retarded women, we run the risk of using the full power of the US military against the innocent as well.

    Whether we are led by you or Mr. Obama...you are in my thoughts and prayers. "Greater things shall you do that I have done," said Jesus. I pray that is true for the two of you.

    God pulled you out of Corpus Christi Bay, Mr. McCain. You had to open the canopy, but do you think for a minute that it was your actions alone that led you to the surface?

    William H Carr
    Corpus Christi, TX.

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