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The clock seems to be striking thirteen...
Jun. 5th, 2006 09:40 pmDid anybody else in Blighty watch God's Next Army on C4 tonight? (for those of you across t'pond, it's about you Crazy Cats anyway - you probably already know about it but here's a summary on the Channel 4 website: http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/godsarmy.html
I thought it would make me angry. It did. Angry and scared. There was one bit where they just waltzed in to Washington, sans appointment, proposing all these social reforms, including - get this - abolishing compensation for people with illnesses brought on by inhaling Asbestos at work! (Those Lung Cancer Riddled bastards can just rot in Hell, eh? It's their own fault for being Working Class!) And the Suits in there where all 'So what school did you say you were from? Oh, well that's great, So & So is from there, and Such & Such just graduated from there last year...' instead of throwing their Scary Nutter Asses to the kerb.
Ick... and the school... You're encouraged 'To follow the rules, because they're the rules. It doesn't matter if you agree with them, just that you never challenge them' and informing on fellow students breaking the 'No Booze (because nobody enjoyed drinking alcohol in the Bible, did they?) No Ciggies, No Sex' rules was applauded. It was like Airstrip One, I shit you not. And these people want to run America (read: The World, because let's face it that's the way the cookie crumbles at the moment).
I worry. I worry about any hard line Religious movement getting a large amount of Political power, as a woman, as somebody who embraces equal civil liberties for all, and not just those that some ancient text deems to be virtuous, as somebody who believes in rationality and free expression and forward thinking.
I might re-read 1984. I think it's time I read it again. But it might make me more horribly afraid than I was before.
Because it's not about God as such - unless you suggested that Big Brother is worshipped as a God in that world - it's about the control. The control through fear of the authority and of the Other - the constant, interchangable enemy. It's about a boot treading on a human face for all eternity. War is Peace.
I swear, can see it starting to happen.
I thought it would make me angry. It did. Angry and scared. There was one bit where they just waltzed in to Washington, sans appointment, proposing all these social reforms, including - get this - abolishing compensation for people with illnesses brought on by inhaling Asbestos at work! (Those Lung Cancer Riddled bastards can just rot in Hell, eh? It's their own fault for being Working Class!) And the Suits in there where all 'So what school did you say you were from? Oh, well that's great, So & So is from there, and Such & Such just graduated from there last year...' instead of throwing their Scary Nutter Asses to the kerb.
Ick... and the school... You're encouraged 'To follow the rules, because they're the rules. It doesn't matter if you agree with them, just that you never challenge them' and informing on fellow students breaking the 'No Booze (because nobody enjoyed drinking alcohol in the Bible, did they?) No Ciggies, No Sex' rules was applauded. It was like Airstrip One, I shit you not. And these people want to run America (read: The World, because let's face it that's the way the cookie crumbles at the moment).
I worry. I worry about any hard line Religious movement getting a large amount of Political power, as a woman, as somebody who embraces equal civil liberties for all, and not just those that some ancient text deems to be virtuous, as somebody who believes in rationality and free expression and forward thinking.
I might re-read 1984. I think it's time I read it again. But it might make me more horribly afraid than I was before.
Because it's not about God as such - unless you suggested that Big Brother is worshipped as a God in that world - it's about the control. The control through fear of the authority and of the Other - the constant, interchangable enemy. It's about a boot treading on a human face for all eternity. War is Peace.
I swear, can see it starting to happen.
