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The Missionaries of Democracy!
Dec. 25th, 2008 02:31 amOne thought that I've been rolling around in my head feels like it might be ripe for public deconstruction tearing to pieces.
Basically, it's one possible model of explanation for the US behaviour on the international arena. My beloved![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amerikabrev believes, by the way, that I'm wrong with this, and that a much better explanation is, essentially, Might Makes Right - that the Biggest and Most Potent Power in the world always will start behaving as if it is the most obvious candidate for world policemanship around. But that's her argument to make, and not mine.
Mine is an observation on the culture of religious missions. I've met a few missionaries out on duty. Admittedly, most of them Mormons - but I've also met quite a few Christians with a proselytizing mindset too. And most of them are completely convinced that the actual conversion part of Spreading the Gospel is a mere question of communication. If they can just make the Unbeliever read the same bits they are convinced by, then the Unbeliever has to see the light, based in the text. And anyone who fails to see this light, therefore, has to be the kind of person who consciously sees the absolute good, and then rejects it.
This firm belief has led, in the past, to communication problems between me and proselytizing Christians. We simply do not speak the same language, and there seems to be no good way of bridging that gap.
Now, if you keep this attitude in mind and start looking at the outward motions of US foreign policy, then some parallels do appear.
It is a firm belief in (outspoken) US policy that Democracy and Capitalism are Good. And that this is, essentially, self-evident.
It seems, also, to be a firm belief that if The People are informed about the possibility to join in a Capitalist Democracy, they would.
However, all over the world we see precisely this Not Happening to worrying degrees. Two explanations offer themselves up: brain-washing and censure. Either The People are not allowed to consume information freely, or they are not allowed to process information freely. Either way, the blame for The People of Whicheveristan not joining The Capitalist Democracies Of The World obviously lies with their particular Government.
Hence, in analogy to the thought process of a proselytizing Christian meeting with Unbelievers who will not convert just by reading John 3:16, these Governments must be Inherently Evil, and therefore in the end forcibly removed. Anything else is just a half-measure.
Comments? Flames? Counterexamples?
Basically, it's one possible model of explanation for the US behaviour on the international arena. My beloved
amerikabrev believes, by the way, that I'm wrong with this, and that a much better explanation is, essentially, Might Makes Right - that the Biggest and Most Potent Power in the world always will start behaving as if it is the most obvious candidate for world policemanship around. But that's her argument to make, and not mine.Mine is an observation on the culture of religious missions. I've met a few missionaries out on duty. Admittedly, most of them Mormons - but I've also met quite a few Christians with a proselytizing mindset too. And most of them are completely convinced that the actual conversion part of Spreading the Gospel is a mere question of communication. If they can just make the Unbeliever read the same bits they are convinced by, then the Unbeliever has to see the light, based in the text. And anyone who fails to see this light, therefore, has to be the kind of person who consciously sees the absolute good, and then rejects it.
This firm belief has led, in the past, to communication problems between me and proselytizing Christians. We simply do not speak the same language, and there seems to be no good way of bridging that gap.
Now, if you keep this attitude in mind and start looking at the outward motions of US foreign policy, then some parallels do appear.
It is a firm belief in (outspoken) US policy that Democracy and Capitalism are Good. And that this is, essentially, self-evident.
It seems, also, to be a firm belief that if The People are informed about the possibility to join in a Capitalist Democracy, they would.
However, all over the world we see precisely this Not Happening to worrying degrees. Two explanations offer themselves up: brain-washing and censure. Either The People are not allowed to consume information freely, or they are not allowed to process information freely. Either way, the blame for The People of Whicheveristan not joining The Capitalist Democracies Of The World obviously lies with their particular Government.
Hence, in analogy to the thought process of a proselytizing Christian meeting with Unbelievers who will not convert just by reading John 3:16, these Governments must be Inherently Evil, and therefore in the end forcibly removed. Anything else is just a half-measure.
Comments? Flames? Counterexamples?
