"Why the mainstream media are clueless about the religious right"

At left: Street preacher sign from Bele Chere. (Any questions?)





Suzan links AlterNet's interesting Why the Mainstream Media Are Clueless About the Religious Right by Adele M. Stan, which not surprisingly, offers some cluelessness of its own.

As I have said (so many times) before, as long as the language of religion is generally dissed by the mainstream media and the elite Left, you have allowed it to remain the language of the religious right, by default. And this highly-moral language is then used to talk to the masses, right over your heads.

If an exotic dialect is used only by one group, even if others understand it, it eventually becomes theirs.

And yes, religion is regarded by the media as some weird, exotic dialect from flyover country, which means the copious dog-whistles and covert winks offered by the Religious Right sail right past the well-paid hotshot media analysts and pundits, as in the famous "Obama is the antichrist" TV ad. They just MISSED it. (Antichrist? Who?)

In comments in this thread, I gave an example, and rather than type it all again, I am hereby quoting myself:

[Years ago], I watched Mother Theresa's funeral on late-night TV (India time), and several of the "official" commentators seemed totally ignorant of the derivation of the banner over her casket, which read "You did it to me"...and they all just seemed to go blank. They didn't seem to be able to look it up, either, since the KJV says something like "Ye have done it to me" if I'm not mistaken. (The quote would be from the RSV, which was favored by the Missionaries of Charity.)

They mumbled, they ummmed and they ahhhed, but you know, they just didn't seem to know. All of these hotshot commentators and none seemed to know. Finally, someone triumphantly announced it was from the New Testament (well duh) but they didn't seem to understand the reference or why it was the phrase hanging over her casket, and not some other phrase.

I listened to the entire commentary, as they didn't seem to have any idea why people STAND for the Gospel reading (really? Is it that hard to figure out?) or anything else about the Mass. That day, I realized how ignorant the media elites are of religion and religious traditions... even something as simple as standing for the Gospel reading. (I suddenly realized they didn't know the difference between that part of the Bible called "Gospel" and the rest of it.)

Then they trotted out that huge fan of Mother Theresa, Christopher Hitchens, author of a famous hit-piece on her. For her funeral. (I ask you, when was the last time the author of a hit-piece was invited to comment at their subject's funeral? A bit rude, maybe?)

This is what passes for knowledge of religion among the elites. Then they try to psychoanalyze people for whom religion is EVERYTHING. And they, um, invariably get it wrong, of course. How could they not? They don't know the dialect.

And Stan knows some of the dialect, but like an anthropologist studying the oddly-dressed natives (she compares some of the reporters to Margaret Mead, which IS funny), she isn't actually going to get down in the dirt with em either. Instead, she translates the dialect for the elites, or tries to.

For example, she attempts to analyze Ron Paul's fan base:

While mainstream media dismiss Paul as a quirky, secular libertarian, progressive reporters sometimes express a certain affection for Paul because of his anti-war stance. But Paul's anti-war position stems from his far-right isolationist views...

First of all, isolationism per se is not strictly left or right, and that explains the far-reaching appeal. In the Midwest, where I grew up, isolationism is its OWN thang, and often transcends traditional left/right definitions and categories. This is frequently my stance on this blog, likely because (as I have said many times), I was greatly influenced by my grandfather, a Christian Scientist and Taft Republican ("isolationism" barely describes it). To these folks, isolationism WAS the progressive position, since it kept the rest of the world from hating us so much. Isolationism insured peace, was the idea. Now, of course, the opposite view (which can be totally summed up in Orwell's phrase, 'War is Peace') is politically dominant.

In short, just as military-interventionism is now an equal-opportunity left/right ideology, so is isolationism.

Does Adele Stan know that Ron Paul ran for President as a Libertarian in the 70s, before he was ever in Congress? His views have changed little since Vietnam, and THIS is why progressives have respect for him: Ron Paul does not stick his finger in the air to test the political winds, and never has. (see CORRECTION, below)

At left: Fundamentalists invade Bele Chere festival in Asheville, NC. Most people considered them just another part of the show, but a number of intrepid festival-goers engaged them in some intense debates and heated conversations.



Adele Stan's commentary in AlterNet advances the opinion that the overall media-dilemma is denial, rather than elitist ignorance, even though she mentions the elitism a few times:

The mainstream media -- and to an extent, the progressive media, as well -- are made up of elites, people who went to good schools, most of them raised on either the east or west coasts. To these elites, the thought of someone espousing the sort of frightening beliefs that Paul embodies having a serious impact on American politics is just too much to bear, so denial becomes the default position. It's not conscious -- not a deliberate attempt to cover something up, just something too weird and awful to be true, so the notion is simply dismissed. Yet if you look at Paul's positions and look at how successive GOP fields have moved closer to them (with the exception of the anti-war stance) over the last three election cycles, his impact is clear.

"With the exception of the anti-war stance"? Earth to Adele! Somebody does not keep up with the drug war, which is BANKRUPTING THE COUNTRY and decimating poor and minority communities. Maybe Adele doesn't know any teenagers whose lives have been ruined over a tiny and inconsequential puff on a joint, but poor people have plenty of examples to share with her. Ron Paul proposes to legalize and tax marijuana and end the super-expensive drug war altogether... and that is a damned radical position that no other Republican AND no other Democrat has dared take.

The unbridled destruction of poor communities and the mass-imprisonment of young minority men is a fucking SCANDAL; the drug charges that the privileged kids from good schools can safely giggle about years later ("Oh man, my dad was sure pissed!") are the very same drug charges that will get you locked up for life if you are too poor to afford a lawyer or your daddy doesn't know the right people.

Ending this VICIOUS ATTACK on the poor is a PROGRESSIVE POSITION and only Ron Paul will take it.

You know this, right Adele? That one out of four black men is in prison for some BULLSHIT? Aaaarghhh, don't even get me started.

The fact that you have ignored this point in your piece, Adele Stan, is rather clueless as well. The fact that you don't seem to know what is happening in minority communities? Marks you as one of the elite media that doesn't know what's going on out here in the fabled Heartland.

It's going to get ugly, as the traditional left/right categories topple to the ground. I made a prediction that Obama was a one-termer, but that was before I knew he had stashed away a billion dollars for his second coronation. I now believe he will win, but it will infuriate a lot of people and might lead to insurrection; the British riots light the way. Democracy has been supplanted by the wholesale purchase of political office. (This huge money-stash now marks Barack Obama as a member of the elite that he successfully challenged upon first entering politics; Ron Paul's plucky little "money bombs" are very small potatoes by comparison.)

Adele winds up:

As a nation, we've been headed down this path for more than 40 years. As the economic fortunes of the U.S. turn downward, we should expect the attraction of right-wing religion, especially its more charismatic and viscerally-felt forms, to expand. Anyone who doesn't just hasn't been paying attention.

Ya think? And how about you talk to some of US, the progressives who can speak the weird Biblical Ron Paul language? How about you even consider FUNDING SOME OF US out here, who might be able to help, since we are already wearing the clothes and speaking the dialect?

Ha, am I funny or what? As we already know, that ain't never gonna happen. After all, they know everything, don't they?

~*~

EDIT, CORRECTION: Ron Paul was repeatedly interviewed as a Libertarian before he entered congress, but when he eventually ran for Congress in the 70s, ran as a Republican. He first ran for president (on the Libertarian ticket) in 1988.

I thought the French had class?

Photo from the UK Guardian.



Gerard Depardieu publicly pees on a plane:

A flight attendant told the French actor that he would have to wait to use the bathroom until after takeoff. So he just relieved himself on the plane's carpet. No biggie!

Another passenger went to French radio station Europe 1 with her eyewitness account of the urination, saying a visibly drunk Depardieu repeatedly asked to use the bathroom, but was told to wait 15 minutes.

"And then he did it on the floor..." the witness said. "No one said anything. It all happened with courtesy."

After the actor peed on the floor, the plane had to turn right back around and return to the gate, where a crew reportedly spent two hours cleaning up the peed-on plane.

A CityJet spokesman confirmed the incident to Agence France, but did not say whether Depardieu was kicked off the flight.

Depardieu, 62, has a history of drunken antics. In 2009, the actor beat up a car, smashing in the windshield with his bare fist. In 1990 he was convicted of drunk driving.

"It all happened with courtesy?" Say what? (I often do not understand Europeans, even when they speak English.)

Ask yourself some fun questions: what if a black hip-hop star, or even Courtney Love behaved like this?

There really ARE different standards of behavior for different people. A white European movie star who pisses on the airplane carpet is regarded as embarrassing and even amusingly gross. Other people acting similarly could be (and have been) regarded as a threat or as dangerously out-of-control. Even though Depardieu has a history of actual violent behavior, Anderson Cooper couldn't stop giggling while reporting this story on CNN. Would such a stunt be equally funny from an African-American NFL star? Just sayin.

It all depends on who you are. The laws are literally enforced differently, depending on what observers are feeling about who you are and the persona you project. That is what "profiling" means. It means you make people uncomfortable.

Make them comfortable, and as the world's most successful con-men will attest, you can get away with anything.

PS: Gerard apologizes, blames prostate.

Support the 45,000 Verizon strikers!

At left: Local powerhouse activist and good friend SHEILA JACKSON! GO SHEILA!


Yesterday, 45,000 Verizon workers went on strike, and I joined a picket line sponsored by the Communication Workers of America in Spartanburg. (Photos here.)

Customer service work, which I know a few things about, can be very grueling and intense. People deserve to be PAID DECENTLY for (see link) "introduc[ing] principles of mechanization and industrial engineering into a much wider array of service transactions than was hitherto possible"... i.e. the basic organization of the factory assembly line, brought into mass telecommunciations.

If people work on an assembly line, they deserve to be paid as well as my father, UAW member who also worked on an assembly line. Customer service work is simply the high-tech, mass-telephone-version of the assembly line.

What you should know:

>> Workers in 8 states and the District of Columbia are on strike, represented by the Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

>> Verizon's annualized revenues in 2011 are $108 billion, with net profits of $6 billion. The concessions demanded from workers equal about $1 billion, working out to an approximate $20,000 per family, per year. Many of these concessions concern health benefits and pensions, benefits promised to workers.

>> Verizon paid no taxes last year and in fact received a $1.3 billion-dollar TAX REBATE!

>> The top five Verizon executives earned $258 million over the past four years.

>> CWA statement: "For the American economy to recover, we need to work together to solve problems. But if profitable companies like Verizon keep sending jobs overseas and cutting compensation for ordinary, middle-class workers, while paying executives big bucks, we can't begin to build an economy that works. CWA and IBEW members are prepared to return to work when management demonstrates the willingness to begin bargaining seriously for a fair agreement. If not, workers will stand together and continue the fight."

>> Verizon has scabs of course; the economy insures that. From company-droid statement: “In anticipation of this development, Verizon has activated a contingency plan to ensure customers experience limited disruption in service during this time.”

But I'd like to ask Verizon customers to disrupt their OWN service, if possible.

Can you hear us now? :)

Wordless Wednesday: Ducks, etc

They seemed real glad to see me, until they realized I had no food. Then they turned around and waddled back into the water. Fickle, opportunistic animals!

These photos are of the Reedy River, downtown under the bridge. Also, got Crape (not Crepe) Myrtle trees! Purty!

The price of living in such a beautiful tropical paradise is... well... ((faints from heat))

~*~

Nine of Wands

Nine of Wands in the HELLO KITTY TAROT, which is simply too amazing for words.




Mysteriously, while cleaning my house (okay, not really), I find Money House Blessing, strawberry incense cones: Special Pack 45 cones.

Where does such hippie detritus come from, and why does it invariably end up in my bureaus and cabinets? In this case, Money House Blessing was included in a long-lost purple plastic bag of freebie incense, given to me by one whose new live-in girlfriend strongly disliked and disapproved of the stench (her words) of incense. Many Baptists (and other Calvinist-based Protestants) have an almost involuntary negative reaction to incense as pagan idolatry, while virtually every other religion in the world is at home with incense used in religious devotional practices. (I'm sure if new-girlfriend had ever seen Money House Blessing, she would have had a minor nervous breakdown.)

Hoodoo is uniquely southern, and Money House Blessing is a Hoodoo practice. It is obscure enough that Wikipedia has no listing for the blessing and I can find no description of its specific components. And yet, I am told you can find it at Walgreen's. (I am fascinated when something is simultaneously culturally obscure and yet is being sold right under our noses.)

Is strawberry as good as the others?

From Money House Blessing:

An important part of African-American hoodoo tradition concerns itself with the undoing of "tricks," jinxes, or "crossed conditions" -- and one of the standard ways to do this is through ritual house cleaning, which may include sweeping, floor washing, burning incense, sprinkling sachet powders, and using spiritual air fresheners. From apotropaic cleaning has developed the concept of "lucky" cleaning, and since the 1930s, the two types of cleaning products, "uncrossing" and "luck drawing," have existed side by side.

"Money House Blessing" is a popular brand name for floor wash, air freshener, hand soap, anointing oil, and sachet powder. It seems to combine the characteristics of two other well-known brand names, "Peaceful Home" and "Money Drawing." The idea is that with a steady income, peace will reign in the home.

...

The inclusion of Native American imagery is an old hoodoo tradition that seems to date back to the early days of slavery, when Africans first met and admired Indians for their independence and herb lore. Remnants of such cross-cultural goodwill abound to this day. For instance, in New Orleans, a famous black Mardi Gras Krewe dresses as Wild Tchiapatoulas Indians. Likewise, the Sonny Boy Products line of religious supplies contains several "Alleged Indian Grandma" and "Old Indian" brands.

The "Indian Fruit Oil" mentioned on the label is Indian by courtesy only, for the fruits depicted are a lemon, a bunch of grapes, and some strawberries, emerging from a cornucopia. The number nine in the "Nine Indian Fruit[s] designation is a significator of spirituality and completion, a number believed to evoke peace in the home.

Strawberry, yeah!

Okay, I guess I get filthy rich right after I burn this strawberry-smellin stuff, then. :)

And very interesting about Number Nine, which also signifies completion in the Tarot. (At left, the Nine of Wands from the beautiful Colman-Smith Tarot, a newer, colorful-psychedelic version of Pamela Colman Smith's traditional Rider-Waite Tarot.)

It is always interesting how these old legends inevitably tie together. The Countercultural Tarot describes the Nine of Wands (above) -- which I have drawn this week:

Fire loves a fight. And the urge to fight may trap Wands in conflicts that move quickly and grow out of control. Yet change provides its own kind of stability in the Nine of Wands, portrayed in the traditional Rider-Waite card as a bandaged warrior leaning against one upright wand while appearing to protect eight others. The card is a show of strength, an evolving integration of intellectual goals with the physical expression of desire. But wounds are inevitable.

So much is going on, and apparently, I am going on local talk radio soon to jabber about politics for the local Green Party. When I drew a card regarding these matters, this is the one I got.

Will Daisy manage to carve out a real job in the world of talk-radio brawlathons, or will her nascent radio career simply end up as a pleasant distraction while unemployed? The tarot suggests that whatever happens, this will be a good thing for me overall... but alas, if I try hard enough, I could STILL get banged on the head real good.

Stay tuned, sports fans.