On the other hand there is the religion of fear, Plutarch’s “superstition,” which he takes to be fundamentally about appeasing dangerous supernatural powers. On this view of religion, when things go wrong the ultimate explanation is that someone somewhere has angered the divine power that reigns over the world like the ultimate tyrant. God’s inscrutable will must be obeyed on pain of harsh retribution. And this retribution does not merely strike the guilty.
If things go badly for the nation, if terror strikes down the Twin Towers or a hurricane batters the coast of New Orleans, or if a tornado sweeps through Minneapolis and blows out the windows of the Electric Fetus music store, it is because God is displeased. Someone has done something wrong: perhaps the gays or their allies, or the feminists, or the ACLU, or others whom Jerry Falwell famously implicated in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And the misbehavior of these enemies of God is a threat to the welfare of all. God withdraws His favor and protection from a nation that fails to be sufficiently obedient. And so we must become a God-fearing nation, with a common vision of what God desires, or our country will fall into ruin.
And so the religion of fear leads to the idea that the enemies of God must be identified and defeated. In the United States, the political arena has come to be seen as one of the key battlefields: God’s enemies must be voted out of office. If not, the nation itself is in dire jeopardy. In this way, then, the religion of fear becomes a powerful tool for motivating people to serve partisan political agendas. If one party or faction represents the will of God, then appeasing God requires religious communities to throw themselves into politics with the aim of ensuring that the right faction wins. And if the wrong faction wins, it’s a disaster. The enemies of God have won. The divine tyrant will withdraw His favor. And all manner of evils and horrors will begin to take hold.
When and where the religion of fear dominates, party politics can become a template onto which stark in-group/out-group ideologies can be imposed. And the stakes of political contests can be represented as monumental: The fate of the world depends on the right side winning. And if the wrong side achieves ascendancy, the message is clear: Be afraid. Be very afraid. The wrong side is not populated by decent human beings like the rest of us, but by sinister characters in the grip of evil.
Tags: Eric Reitan, Miðflokkurin, politikkur
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