Monday, June 26, 2006
Seeds of Doubt
In the posts below, we discussed the failings of academia to provide space and nourishment for free, informed intellectual exchange. In turn, our colleagues further developed our proposition that this neglect signals a death knell for American culture. For those who might ask what's the big deal?, I refer you to the right-wing coup of the Southern Baptist Convention and the looting of its extensive assets; university and government treasuries are no less formidable when deployed in the cause of fundamentalism now merged with organized crime.
The all-out culture war that resulted from this arranged marriage may have fuel in abundance, but now needs to consolidate its shallow ideological gains by ousting all opposition. (Theocracy cannot abide academic freedom, only the pretense of it.) The opportunistic nature of the merger between these two inbred lineages of American conservatism has some vulnerabilities though. As we've witnessed of late, their hubris has landed fall guys in front of grand juries, and even the false piety brigades have begun to shun the most blatant hypocrites.
In our experience, what usually happens as things fall apart in this milieu is that the core retrenches, plans and commits higher crimes, even violence, to maintain their power and influence. Ironically, this stage of undevelopment is also when they are most likely to be infiltrated by law enforcement informants or stoolies rolling on their buddies in exchange for immunity for themselves. As my friend Rufus T. Firefly once remarked, "The cheese is binding."
The all-out culture war that resulted from this arranged marriage may have fuel in abundance, but now needs to consolidate its shallow ideological gains by ousting all opposition. (Theocracy cannot abide academic freedom, only the pretense of it.) The opportunistic nature of the merger between these two inbred lineages of American conservatism has some vulnerabilities though. As we've witnessed of late, their hubris has landed fall guys in front of grand juries, and even the false piety brigades have begun to shun the most blatant hypocrites.
In our experience, what usually happens as things fall apart in this milieu is that the core retrenches, plans and commits higher crimes, even violence, to maintain their power and influence. Ironically, this stage of undevelopment is also when they are most likely to be infiltrated by law enforcement informants or stoolies rolling on their buddies in exchange for immunity for themselves. As my friend Rufus T. Firefly once remarked, "The cheese is binding."
