Field Reports: May 2014

Work with Your Own Hands

Kevin Phillips in his recently published American Theocracy, states, “We can begin by describing the role of religion in American Politics with two words: Widely underestimated.” Religion and politics are incredibly intertwined in the U.S., as they were in Europe before the foundation of the U.S.; and, that influence has been overlooked by the Establishment. Yet, George Gallop, the famous pollster, said, “religious affiliation remains one of the most accurate and least-appreciated political indicators available.” (Potts, Clifford A. Radicals, Religion, and Revelation. 1th ed. Dallas: WordTechs Press, 2008. 5-6. CD-ROM).

Radicals, Religion, and Revelation was written, from 2004 to 2006, as an exploration of various religious expression within the context of the US culture of the last decade. This chapter is included because it touches on the background expounded upon in Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies.

Cliff Potts -- May 28, 2014

A word From Saint Paul

However, as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. (1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, KJV)

In this passage, Paul is telling the Church at Thessalonica to “study to be quiet,” do their own business, and work with their hands. He is not calling them to confront unbelievers, to question the state’s authority, to place themselves above the social standards, or even to define the social standards. He is charging them to study and work, presumably as artisans, so that they can “walk honestly toward them that are without, and that they may lack of nothing.”

Walk Honestly

What was Paul writing about when instructing others to “walk honestly?” This is what I have found:

“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” (1 Thessalonians 5:22, KJV)
“Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.” (Romans 12:17, KJV)
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.” (Romans 13:13, KJV)

Pulling it Together

It seems obvious that the religious right, the squeaky wheel of the Christian community, is in violation of their own instruction manual. They seem to have their own version of Jesus. They demand that you accept their version or go to hell. However, this is not at all what Paul told his followers. His instructions include the following:

Study to be quiet
Work with your hands
Walk honestly
So you want for nothing
Abstain from evil
That you are seen as honest by all men
Not to riot
Not in wantonness
Without strife or envy

Unfortunately, this is rarely what we see. We see fundamentalists condemning those who choose to be different from them. We see them with worldly desires. We see them grasping for power, striving to gain advantage over others in proclaiming that the U.S. is a Christian nation. Moreover, in doing so, they are acting as if they do not have to answer for their actions to anyone outside the finite narrow corridors of their limited world, and even more limited view. That is not what Paul required of the followers of Christ.

The Big "If"

If these men and women were truly filled with Christ’s love and blessings, perhaps they would not have to strive so hard to force compliance to their point of view. Instead, they would live the life as instructed by Paul, and become examples of the faith in Jesus Christ like Paul. If Christians cannot live by the example and instructions given by Paul, their religion’s de facto founder, it seems unfair for them to demand, by the force of law, that those who do not share their brand of faith live as they would like.

A Brick in the Wall

The New Goliath

The Fort Worth Weekly is a free newspaper geared towards the 20s and 30s crowd. The cover story for the week of February 18, 2004, is a story about Wal-Mart called “When David Becomes Goliath.” The story, written by Peter Gorman, covers the growth of Sam Walton's dream from 1962 to the behemoth it is today. Part of the story details how Wal-Mart has forced jobs out of the United States.

The Chinese Connection

Distributing products to Wal-Mart can make or break a company. This is exemplified in what happened to the American-based Vlasic pickle company. Vlasic’s gallon pickle jar sold for $2.97 per jar. Even at 240,000 gallons per week, Vlasic almost went bankrupt distributing through Wal-Mart. When Vlasic asked to raise the price to $3.49 a jar, Mr. Gorman reports, Wal-Mart not only refused the request, but also told Vlasic that they would carry none of Vlassic's products if the price were raised. Wal-Mart had been the major retailer of the Vlasic line of pickles. Levi Strauss provides another example of Wal-Mart’s strong-arm techniques. Wal-Mart demanded that the jeans maker drop their price from $24.95 to $23.95. Gorman writes, this was a "consumer's dream, a supplier's nightmare." Gorman informs, "It is an impossible request, for most companies, unless they move their jobs out of the U.S. to third world countries." Ironically, Sam Walton was the man who touted that he would sell products exclusively "Made in the U.S.A.” Gorman further explains that "according to a recent Washington Post story, Wal-Mart estimates it spent $15 billion on Chinese-made products accounting for nearly one-eighth of all Chinese exports to the United States, more than China sold to Britain or Germany.”

It seems interesting to recall the 1990s controversy over campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee by Chinese nationals. Perhaps, they provided the Chinese political and economic reciprocity.

Dropping Below the Poverty Line

According to The Capitol Times of Madison, Wisconsin, nearly half of Wal-Mart's employees are under the national poverty level, most have no health care benefits, and only two-thirds have retirement plans. Labor experts told the New York Times that the widespread nature of Wal-Mart's employment problems in the United States "has to be a source of great concern."

The Wal-Mart employee, often forced into these minimum wage jobs because Wal-Mart has forced out all other employers, is making an average starting wage of $6.50 per hour. This person has the buying power of $.65 in equivalent 1970 dollars. Wal-Mart's low wages make it impossible for Wal-Mart employees to shop anywhere else. As Tennessee Ernie Ford use to sing, "Saint Peter don't ya take me `cause I can’t go; I owe my soul to the company store.” While Wal-Mart may employ thousands, it has made it clear that its "associates" are disposable commodities. Wal-Mart’s plan, as shown by Gorman, is to keep their employees on a very short leash. It is frightening to find that fascism may be defined as a system where the government controls the corporations and the corporations control the people by reward or punishment.

Some say that the [attacks] of 9/11 deflated the U.S. economy, but as we can see from Mr. Gorman's article, the Corporate Industrial Complex began its drive to deplete the earnings of the U.S. wage earner long before September 2001.

Life in the Shadows

For many of us who live in the shadow of the economic devastation of the jobless recovery and Wal-Mart's push to drive out competition, there seems no option but to shop at Wal-Mart. With Wal-Mart's competition buried under the cinderblock Super-Centers, the $500 per month saved by shopping at Wal-Mart allows many to pay the monthly bills.

A Call to Liberal Churches

In the 1960s Jesus Movement, the more liberal churches took on causes just like this. The Catholic Church led the way with liberation theology which had an unfortunate link to socialist idealism and communism. Today there seems to be no champion of the common man. Every man must stand or fall on his own, and selling your soul "to the company store" is often the only road to survival. It seems so clear to me that the demise of our prosperity for the sake of the chose few is at hand. Wal-Mart is but one of the players set to benefit from the collapse of the national economy.

Radicals, Religion, and Revelation was written as a personal exploration of various religious expression within the context of the US culture of the early '00s. It was written from 2004 to 2006. This chapter is included because it touches on the background expounded upon in Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies.

Cliff Potts -- May 21, 2014

A Bright Business Report

CBS’ Business Report

On one segment of CBS’ Business Report, reporters were interviewing café patrons in Silicon Valley about the scarcity of technical jobs. The report stated that our counterparts in India, where thousands of American jobs are being relocated, are working for 75% less than their American counterparts. To put that in human terms, when I was in that industry, a Level I technical support position was paying $25 per hour. My Indian counterpart is doing this job for $5 an hour, less than minimum wage. This has nothing to do with the education levels of the American people, and everything to do with corporate greed. Despite this, these companies have not reduced their prices; the difference is pure profit for the corporations and their stockholders.

The episode ended with a restaurant patron quoting an executive of an unnamed company saying that the buggy whip makers were bemoaning the decline in the buggy whip market as the automobile came into existence. The argument does not follow. Computers have not significantly changed enough in the past four years to make that analogy. This is not about an obsolete technology being replaced with a new technology; it is about blatant corporate greed.

A Trip North

I took a trip to Milwaukee some time ago. I arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport’s Remote North Parking Lot at 5:00 am. The sign on the wall told me that the first shuttle to the terminals left at 5:30, and that after 11:00 am, I would have to dial a particular number; they provided a phone. As I neared the sign, I saw three suited executives eying it closely, each with the same blank expression. One of them murmured, "When do the shuttles run?" I checked the overhead screen for departures, and then checked the map on the wall to find my terminal. Finally, I picked up the phone and told the shuttle dispatcher that there were four people for pick up at Remote North. I had never been there before; I simply followed the very straightforward directions provided. It seemed to have been too much for my corporate colleagues. Before we left, one of the best and brightest of Corporate America had to ask me what terminal he needed. The other two men were repair technicians from one of the big database firms on their way to their respective projects. These men who could not read the map, and could not use the phone, are the men that your nation has deemed employable and preferred. They are the people leading us into the 21st century.

Precursor of Occupy

Between the corporate greed of the tech companies and the sheep that require the assistance of one of corporate America's rejects to simply navigate the airport, I have genuine trepidation about the future. I fear we will soon have civil unrest. Legend has it French queen Marie Antoinette was told that the peasants did not have enough money to buy bread. She pondered this for a minute, and brightly replied, "Then let them eat cake." Such was the incompetence that set off the French Revolution. I see a similar attitude arising between America’s have and have-nots.

The Right Propaganda

The Right Propaganda

The March 22, 2004, edition of Business Week sports the headline, "Where are the Jobs?" The question takes up half the cover, with "Jobs?" in two-inch red letters. The lower right corner of the page says, "Economic growth is very strong, but America isn't generating enough jobs. Many blame outsourcing. The truth is a lot more complicated." I found this irresistible; I had to read it.

Faith Based Economy

I turn to the article and see another blaring headline in the same red and white on black background covering the entire page. The article begins, "Americans live on a faith-based economy. We believe deeply in education, risk taking, and plain, hard work as the way to a better life." It goes on to say, "Profits are soaring, yet no one is hiring." We are losing our faith. We no longer trust our government, and we no longer trust business.

The article goes on to explain that, "Of the 2.7 million jobs lost over the past three years, only 300,000 have been from outsourcing, according to Forrester Research Inc. People rightly fear that jobs in high tech and services will disappear, just as manufacturing jobs did. Perhaps so. But odds are it will be productivity rather than outsourcing that does them in."

Better Productivity

I am not certain what they mean by productivity. A chair bought at one of those import-friendly discount mega stores holds up for less than a year. It may have cost a mere $87, but for only one-year’s use, that seems expensive. On the slave wages I earn as a security officer, I can easily afford the $122 19” television I purchased, but I discovered its life expectancy, like the rocker’s, is limited. It worked for two years, one year longer than its warranty lasted. Now I look back in fondness on the 27" American-made television bought in 1976 that cost a staggering $800. It worked like a champion until 1992, with only one major repair. The repair was less than the cost of the cheaper replacement! We call these new cheaper sets the outcome of better productivity.

Mass Migration

Yet, Business Week tells us, “Consumer net worth hit a new peak, at $45 trillion--up 75% since 1995--and consumers have more than recouped their losses from the bust." I have no personal experience of this. I have lost two-thirds of my income from the so-called bust, and I have recouped nothing. McDonald's is not even hiring here in Dallas where I live. However, this is certainly not isolated to my little corner of the world. There are no jobs in Wisconsin, either; I have checked there three times. Ohio is hurting, according to the news, and Michigan is reporting 25% unemployment. Michigan's problem is so severe that the governor is taking action to halt the outsourcing of jobs for the state. I guess I could move further into the Southwest. New Mexico has ‘help wanted’ signs in fast food restaurants, and Phoenix is experiencing a building boom. I must draw certain conclusions from this. The Southwest is booming because of population movement, but those who refuse to move are suffering.

Ten Years Ago

The editors of Business Week note that older, more stable workers are taking ‘survival’ jobs, positions usually held by entry-level employees. I fall into this category; I am currently a security officer, a position for which I am overqualified. My former job has been outsourced to India; and frankly, I am overqualified for those relocated positions as well. If the economy were truly productive, I would not be in my current job; it is a waste of personnel resources and the very height of inefficiency. Someone who is truly an entry-level employee would have my position, and I would be in a higher position contributing to the productiveness of the American economy.

The Business Week article also says that "younger and nonwhite workers" have left the workforce; as older, more experienced workers like me take their potential jobs, they give up on finding anything at all. According to the article’s writer, "If participation rates were at its March 2001 level, there would be 27 million more workers in the labor force looking for jobs. This would push the unemployment rate up to 7.4%, not the 5.6% reported in 2004. This must prove that scholars are skewing the numbers for political purposes and not observing what is actually happening.

The jobs that "require close contact clients, and understanding of the US culture, will likely remain [in the US],” according to Business Week. In my personal experience, as those in the service sector swell, the quality of service will decline and attitudes over inequity in the system will increase. The "younger workers" of every race seem to be a product of the "whatever" generation.

Chaos in the Workplace

The two, twenty-something female Hispanic customer service representatives who work for my company both show up late on a regular basis. Both act as if it is their right to be employed. One of these young women attacked the other on the job in front of clients. This was a continuation of a fight at a party the previous night over a man who is incarcerated. This woman yanked the phone out of the security officer’s hand while she was calling the police; the security officer was reprimanded by our office staff for becoming involved in the incident. I would call this same woman every day at four a.m. so she would arrive at work on time at five. Despite this, she rarely arrived until 6:30 a.m. I finally stopped making her daily wake-up call, and she was fired. I am sure that she believes she was fired because she is Hispanic, not because she decked her coworker or because of persistent tardiness. I am also certain that she lays some of the blame on me because I discontinued her early morning reminder to get herself to work. That is the higher level of production in the jobs that "require[s] close contact with clients, plus an understanding of the US Culture," from the "younger and nonwhite workers." To this, I say, “Whatever!”

Jeep

The Business Week article continues, "We are now experiencing the maximum pain for the wreckage of outmoded jobs while still awaiting the innovations that will generate work in the future. While America's faith in its innovation economy has often been tested, it has never been betrayed.” I recall otherwise. In the 1970s, when gasoline prices took a leap, the U.S. automakers refused to produce efficient cars. The Japanese, primarily Honda, came into our markets with the Honda Coupe, and then the Civic, providing Americans with efficient, modern vehicles that helped Americans economize their fuel use. It is not as if U.S. companies could not make a more fuel-efficient vehicle. The Willies Jeep of World War II went 30 to 50 miles on a gallon of gasoline; the Jeep today is considered one of the worst offenders of low fuel efficiency.

Betrayal

The American auto industry also has betrayed its consumers by not employing the best safety technology. We lose 40,000 to 50,000 people every year in automobile accidents. Airbags were installed in vehicles to act as a passive restraint to solve the problem of people not wearing seat belts. Now we see that this equipment has been responsible for killing many vehicle occupants.

Technical Workers

In 1997 and 1998, the Clinton Administration appeared to be solving in advance the coming issue with “outmoded jobs.” President Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, were challenging young people to get a technical education. The Republican Congress stymied this campaign by passing legislation that gave a special permit to technically trained foreigners allowing them to come into America and work in information technology (IT) jobs. In 1999, the accounting consulting firms were hiring people to recode old programs to solve the Y2K problem providing another excellent opportunity to technology-savvy American workers. These companies promised to find these employees positions once the Y2K threat had passed. This seems not to have been the case. By early 2000, the bottom had fallen out of the technology sector.

Innovations

There is no question that I am somewhat jaded by my personal experience. In high school, I designed the Antipersonnel Fragmentation Torpedo, or AFT, a land-based robotic crawler, using caterpillar tractors fitted with a Claymore mine and outfitted with some booby traps to prevent tampering once activated. This was just the first of many like-minded inventions. However, as I got older, I stopped designing weapons systems because I began to consider them immoral. Maybe I was too naïve; times change. We grow and learn along the way. Perhaps the gods do not care if we murder one another as long as we make a dollar and as long as we give 10% to our favored institutional religious organization. What is a little mass murder in the name of restoring faith in the name of “America's faith in its innovation economy?”

Recovery

"Given the chance, the economy will deliver the jobs and prosperity that it has in the past," Business Week ends its upbeat propaganda. Certainly, history has provided the ultimate example of American economic rebound. After the destitute years of the Great Depression, Word War II created hundreds if not thousands of truly wealthy people, inventing and producing killing machines. The War left Europe and Asia in rubble and destruction and, because of that, more prosperity was generated in the rebuilding effort. Corporate America deserves credit for that. The question remains, do we have the leadership and ethics to repeat that former experience?

Kevin Phillips in his recently published American Theocracy, states, “We can begin by describing the role of religion in American Politics with two words: Widely underestimated.” Religion and politics are incredibly intertwined in the U.S., as they were in Europe before the foundation of the U.S.; and, that influence has been overlooked by the Establishment. Yet, George Gallop, the famous pollster, said, “religious affiliation remains one of the most accurate and least-appreciated political indicators available.” (Potts, Clifford A. Radicals, Religion, and Revelation. 1st ed. Dallas: WordTechs Press, 2008. 5-6. CD-ROM).

Radicals, Religion, and Revelation was written as a personal exploration of various religious expression within the context of the US culture of the early '00s. It was written from 2004 to 2006. This chapter is included because it touches on the background expounded upon in Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies.

Cliff Potts -- May 17 2014

Most Right Religious Right

Most Right Religious Right

Christians have played a dynamic role in the political landscape since the 1980 ascension of Ronald Reagan to the Oval Office. A small faction of conservative Christians within the Republican Party mobilized the greater apolitical Christian community to superimpose their evangelical fundamentalist perspective on the Republican Party. Over the last twenty years, being a Christian has come to include an alliance with the Republican agenda in addition to a personal faith in Jesus Christ. As of the 1996 presidential election, fundamentalists portrayed Republicans as representing the will of God, and Democrats as representing subversive views of God, nature, and creation.

Modern Crusade

George W. Bush, the current Republican president, launched his assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq with a call to crusade. Bush apologists claim that the use of the word “crusade” was an unfortunate misspoken word. Others feel that it was a truth spoken without regard to political correctness or Arab sensitivities. If so, this the dawn of a new, more savage Christian era. With politics and religion so deeply entwined in American thought, it seems that Christianity has been redefined. Every Christian sect and community has its own definition.

My "Old Time" Religion

My opinion was formed during my teenage years. For me, Christianity is a personal, spiritual belief in, and relationship with, the resurrected Son of Man and God Incarnate commonly referred to as Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, through his execution by the Romans at the request of a small sect of Jewish religious leaders, fulfilled certain Old Testament prophesies of a final, spiritual cleansing of humanity’s imperfections, commonly referred to as sin.

A believer in Jesus Christ is to take his instructions from the New Testament that was written between 33 CE and 70 CE and compiled around 400 CE by the Emperor Constantine. Much of the New Testament was written by one rabbi known as Paul. Constantine added other writings as political and religious concessions.

Apostle Paul was a Jewish Apostate

Paul was not an original follower of Jesus Christ. He was a contemporary of Jesus and linked to the same small Jewish sect that is believed to have collaborated in Jesus' crucifixion. He persecuted early Christians fanatically. It is worth noting that in Jesus’ time, the population of Jerusalem numbered in the range of 10,000 Jews. At Pentecost, some 6,000 citizens of Jerusalem became Christians. Therefore, Paul and his small group of fanatics were in a minority within the Jewish community.

Then, history was made; Paul had a conversion experience. He began studying the Old Testament scriptures. He began teaching Christian beliefs to Hellenistic communities scattered around the Roman-controlled Mediterranean region. Due to Paul's history of persecuting Christians, he was not initially accepted among the Jewish Christians in occupied Israel. Paul was as fanatical in his work for Christ as he had been in his opposition to the Jewish Christians.

Paul’s ministry was not without its detractors. Paul and Jesus’ disciple Peter, Paul’s counterpart within the Jewish community, did not agree on certain theological points concerning the conversion of non-Jews to Christianity. The point of contention lay in the book of Genesis. Paul's stance was based on the tradition of Gentiles observing only those laws given to Noah after the Flood. Peter, on the other hand, took the approach that converts to Christianity should be Jewish converts as well. It is important to note that Paul's teaching was not that the Torah, the basis of Jewish law, was nullified as is taught in contemporary Christianity, but that it did not apply to the non-Jewish converts to the Christian faith. While the book of Acts minimizes this disagreement, it explains Paul's more widespread journeys into the Hellenistic and Roman world. Of course, this was made easier because Paul, unlike many Jews, had been able to purchase Roman citizenship.

While Paul was on his various treks, he wrote numerous letters to Jewish congregations that he visited or wished to visit. These letters, or epistles, were written in Greek, not in Roman Latin, not in Palestinian Aramaic, or most notably, not in Jewish Hebrew. The intended reader was not a traditional Jew. Paul's teachings were based upon the traditions of righteous Gentiles who were observing the instructions given to Noah after the flood. Paul disseminated these traditions throughout the non-Jewish world. However, Paul's original teachings became altered in their understanding over 2,000 years of fractionalized squabbling and political power plays.

The New Testimony

While the New Testament was cobbled together by political compromises and appeasements, the Old Testament, or Torah has a long tradition of consistency. During the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish scholars devised a method to protect the integrity of their scriptures; they mathematically checked the validity of each hand written copy. Each Hebrew letter had a numeric value. By adding the value of the letters horizontally and vertically, the rabbis checked the validity of the copied Torah scrolls. From that time forward, the Old Testament remained incredibly consistent. However, this time of captivity took place some 400 to 600 years after the Exodus from Egypt. The original manuscripts of the Old Testament and the New Testament have disappeared. Today, scholars use what they consider reliable copies. Despite that, many Christians adhere to the belief that the text of the Scriptures is without error.

Paul's writings are not the only texts that make up the New Testament. Other authors include: John, who was a follower of Jesus from his youth; James, who was known as "James the Just" and was the half brother of Jesus; Luke, who was a later Hellenistic convert, a physician, and an early investigative journalist; Matthew, who was an early follower of Jesus and purported tax collector; and the aforementioned Peter, who was a very early follower of Jesus and a fisherman. With the exception of the seemingly truncated letter of James, the majority of the documentation deals with the issues of belief in Christ. James is the sole document which instructs, "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:20, KJV). James’ writings are a key to understanding the whole of the New Testament.

Since the bulk of traditional Christianity is based upon the correspondence of Paul, his writing defines Christianity. In a letter to an apprentice named Timothy, a second generation Christian, he writes, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and [of] faith unfeigned" (1 Timothy 1:5, KJV). In an open letter to the Corinthians, he writes, "Love doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil," among other notable instructions (1 Corinthians 13: 5b, ASV).

John supports this idea of love both in the story of Jesus Christ within the Gospels and in his own epistles. The Gospels attribute a number of quotes about loving kindness to Jesus himself. In Mark, Jesus repeats the Old Testament exhortation to “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Mark 12:31, ASV). Matthew reports that Jesus said, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you" (Matthew 5:44, KJV). Finally, John quotes Jesus saying, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13, KJV). John pointed out in both of his epistles that love was obeying the instructions of God. From these collective instructions, one must conclude that loving others was central to Christian belief and practice and that Jesus both defined what love is and how it was expressed.

Understanding these basic facts about early Christianity gives new perspective to the type of Christianity practiced by evangelicals in our time. Pat Robertson, an influential conservative televangelist and one time Republican candidate for president, and (the late) Jerry Falwell, the president and founder of a Christian college, proclaimed that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were God's judgment on a wayward nation. The Gospel of John seems directly to contradict this point of view. In it, John states, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17, KJV).

Forsaken Concept

The Old Testament has a passage that reads: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14, KJV). Because Christians call themselves by God's name, then perhaps it is the evangelicals who need to humble themselves in order to heal this nation. They could repent for ten years of anti-government rhetoric. Rather than embroiling themselves in the nation’s petty political life, they should have busied themselves in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the imprisoned. This work would not have to be confined to the grassroots level. Wealthy and powerful Christians could create well-paying jobs or reform the justice system. The Old Testament sums up all of God's instruction for man’s behavior in Micah 6:8, "He hath showed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (KJV). Alas, this does not seem to be a part of the religious rights current agenda.

Basic Cycle Theory

The Fourth Turning

Back in 1997, I came across The Fourth Turning ( William Strauss and Neil Howe, Broadway Books). This work by William Strauss and Neil Howe is considered controversial. From the standpoint of history, it is a valid representation of patterns. Roughly every 80 years the Anglo-Saxon culture goes through a crisis period. That Saxon influence in our culture may be a key in understanding what is happening in the United States today. The Fourth Turning’s prediction is based on each “season” within a cycle being 20 years in length. That is based on each generation reaching the age of majority at age 20. However, my calculations are based on the generations reaching the age of majority at the current age of 18. This began with the Baby Boomers, and continues to the current generation.

Crisis Mentality

According to The Fourth Turning, the Anglo-Saxon culture is due for a crisis in 2010. Taking the key parts of their data, I brought the inception of the crisis time to 2001. Born in 1945, the Baby Boomers begin to reach a majority in 1965. Born in 1965, Generation X comes to majority in 1983. Born in 1983, the Millennium generation comes to majority in 2001, and the Surviving Generation, born in 2001 and after, begins to come to majority in 2019. Because we are a constitutional democratic republic, the age at which a generation begins to have influence on our culture is decreed to be the legal voting age: 18 as of right now. We are currently in 2006. If my understanding of this dynamic is correct, we should be past this crisis mentality in only thirteen more years. I look forward to saying adieu to it.

Hysterical Events

I don’t see the events that are happening around us as an actual crisis; I see the conservatives trying to push hysteria. It looks like an overreaction to stimuli. This is unusual for classically stoic conservatives. We have:

The War on Terror
SARS
Avian Flu
West Nile Virus
The invasion of Iraq
Iran’s Nuclear ambition
Inflation of basic commodities
Peek Oil
Hurricane Katrina
DHS/FEMA incompetence
Global Warming
Mad Cow Disease
The neo-conservative Right

All of this is evidenced in screaming headlines, at one time or another, that demand we fear the future for our nation. To me it all looks like overreaction and opportunism gone to the Xtreams (that is not a typo) in the face of the stimuli of historical events. I am not too sure that should not be written “hysterical events.”

Better Angels of Our Nature

Rather than trust our better natures, we seem to be in a panic mode. We seem to refuse to engage the challenges of the future. We seem to lack any kind of confidence that we can live up to the greatness of our humanity. It is as if we are afraid that when the sun goes down over the far horizon, we will not see light again. It seems as if factions want us quaking in a primal fear of the darkness. We seem to be unwilling or unable, to trust one another anymore. There are indeed many who are using this fear for their own gains. We do seem to have a bit of a mess on our hands, but it looks like it is a mess of our own making.

The table of the politics of the neo-conservative Right has to be set in order for us to feast on the enlightenment that should follow. I have my suspicions that we are faced with all these tales of horror around the world so that, like a revival meeting, we will be scared into accepting the god-king Jesus into our individual lives. This is a basic evangelist tactic. In the 1970s, before LayHaye and prior to Jerry B. Jenkins bringing out his Left Behind series, there were a series of films on the same topic.

They all had one purpose: To panic people into “coming to Jesus” before it was “too late.” All of that is coming out of Texas, along with Bush and Chaney. I have a nagging notion that we are being subjected to the same intent in today’s headlines. It is as if we are in a national revival meeting.
In his First Inaugural Address(Quote DB, Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, http://www.quotedb.com/speeches/lincoln-first-inaugural), Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, proclaimed:

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

For The Record

We failed to do so in 1861, and if that is any indication of what is to come, we will fail to do so now. However, history is only an indicator of what has happened. It is not a dictator of what can happen. We are the captains of our own fate. Only the division that we have among ourselves as citizens of the United States can allow our enemies to vanquish us. There is no other threat greater than our own division.

Thank you,

Cliff Potts -- May 10, 2014.

A Call to Alms

Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies was written as a blog in 2006 following the release of American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips. It was a difficult work to write. It was a task to address the excesses of the Religious Right Minority without condemning the Majority of Christians in the world.

Some eight years later, it still walks the fine line between criticism of a small minority using religion as a political tool, and abject rejection of religion and those who adhere to Christianity.

This work is dedicated to all those souls who have suffered for the cause of truth and liberty under the subjugation of the tyrants, and to the future generations who will inherit whatever comes from the decisions we make today.

Cliff Potts -- May 7, 2014

A Call to Alms

We are falling under powers that promise a new dark age. This is, in part, the thesis behind Kevin Phillips’ American Theocracy. He is not in error. Liberty is under attack. Science is under attack. Religious expression is under attack. Free speech is under attack. Reason is under attack.

For too long, working people have suffered neglect. We have been pressed aside and marginalized. The members of the neo-conservative Right, with their Calvinist leanings, have inflicted misery on working people. They feel no pity for us because they believe what they are doing is the will of God. It is at this point that we begin this discussion of the neo-conservative Right.

Theocon Rising

There is a new word surfacing in the political lexicon of the nation – Theocon. Theocons are people who are deemed theologically correct neo-conservatives. Such people are similar to the supporters of Chairman Mao Zedong during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. That “revolution” was a disaster in China. Starting in 1966, China purged people who were not in ideological alignment with Mao.

We have already seen shades of ideological alignment in this country. Newt Gingrich stepped aside as Speaker of the House in 1998 under allegations of an extra-marital affair dating back to 1995 (Gingrich: Do as I Say, Not as I Do, By Robert Scheer, Published August 17, 1999 in the Los Angeles Times).

In Pop Culture

The Dallas singing sensation, the Dixie Chicks, has also fallen from grace. Group member Natalie Maines publicly criticized President George W. Bush in 2003 (Wikipedia: Dixie Chicks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks#Political_controversy). The group has since lost audience, lost air play on the radio (KERA editorial, Dawn McMullan, May 19, 2006), and has received very specific death threats (Dixie Chicks Reveal Death Threats, ETonline, May 12, 2006, http://et.tv.yahoo.com/newslink/14731/).

This is just the tip of the iceberg. A woman with a Kerry sticker on her car was fired from her job. Her employer said that if she wanted to support Kerry, she could work for the presidential candidate. Kerry was also called the Anti-Christ by fundamentalists during the 2004 election campaign (Kerry tied to ‘666’, WorldNetDaily, October 27, 2004).

Toxic Politics

At no point in the past 48 years has the political language been so toxic. My memory and my resources may be limited, but I have not seen politics this twisted in my lifetime, not even during the Vietnam War. Political alignment is not the only consideration now. People must also be religiously aligned. In other words, we have become a nation where creed matters in politics. This has led U.S. Representative Christopher Shays (R-CT) to express in anguish, “This Republican party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy.”

Reflecting Jesus?

I don’t think the majority of Christians in the U.S. want a theocracy or share the extremist views of the neo-conservative Right. However, the neo-conservative Right is powerful, wealthy, radical, and will stop at nothing to seize and hold the power of this nation. That is proven within these pages.

The neo-conservative Right is using the Christian faith as a political tool to divide and polarize the nation. They mouth the words of Jesus while engaging in corruption for their own gain. They want us to think this is a division between Christian and Non-Christian. It is not. It is a fallacious dog-and-pony show to allow themselves the advantage of obtaining unquestioning followers.

In the original release of this blog on May 29, 2006, I attempted to make the nation aware of the blend of radical religious views and ultra- conservative politics that are crippling the nation. I was hoping that it would serve as a wake-up call. Now, less than a month later, having been virtually ignored by the mainstream media and press, I can see this work has taken on another dimension.

Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies is not for the waning Silent Generation, or the empowered Baby Boomers, or the cynical Generation X; it is for the emerging Millennium Generation. It is written for those who were born between 1983 and 2001. If there is any hope for this nation whatsoever, it resides in their hands.

For reasons we will explore in brief in this tome, we have decided that we are going to be a de facto theocratic nation. History shows that we Americans see ourselves as superior to the rest of humanity in the world. That form of pride gives us a blind spot to our basic humanity. We are gifted with a great geographic location. We have developed into a superpower because that geography made it difficult for the enemies of democracy, pluralism, and diversity to lay waste to our cities during World War II. This in turn left us in a position to rise to power while the rest of the world was recovering from the wounds of that conflict.

Which God is it?

If there is any god involved in this, it is not the god of antiquity. It is the more common god of the collective will of the masses, expressed in a cultural identification that knew we could succeed in throwing off tyranny. Today, however, that same tyranny we avoided is in the pulpits, the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the White House of the United States of America. It is a tyranny of thoughts dictated by propagandists, of free expression squelched by radical right political correctness, of commercial gain at the expense of fellow citizens. It is the tyranny of winner-take-all social Darwinism.

The Rise of the 1%

I am concerned about the near-term effect of what we see in the nation today. I am uneasy that the Democrats seem to have lost their way. I worry that the Republicans are the only viable political expression left to the nation. I worry that reason and decency are being destroyed by the economic punishment of the new neo-feudalism movement.

Neo-feudalism is an economic model that controls people by controlling who has the economic resources to live a comfortable and secure life. When people are forced to scratch the ground in search of crumbs from the rich man’s table, they are reluctant to raise a cry of protest. That is what that model relies on. Those who are given meager resources are kept in utter ignorance through amusement and infotainment. Mesmerized by flash and dazzle, they won’t look behind the curtain to see the little man pulling the strings of the great Wizard of Media Manipulation.

However, neo-feudalists know that money doesn’t buy loyalty for long. Loyalty and goodness towards others are the only things that can buy loyalty. The Neo-Feudalist is incapable of breeding loyalty. He only knows how to feed the greed of the privileged few.

China and The "B - School" Trust Children

The Neo-Feudalists, with their crisp clean MBAs, can’t think more than ten years in advance. Today we have B Schools (Business Schools) around the nation teaching classes that focus on China. The grand foolishness of this is that China is in a very precarious sociological situation. It has gone from an agriculturally based collective economy to a pseudo-capitalistic economy in a very short time. This has been punctuated by the recent acquisition of advanced military equipment (armored personal carriers, helicopter gun ships, etc.) by the Chinese riot police. The reason given for these military acquisitions is that agitators are disrupting the peaceful transition of the economy.

According to a story that aired on NPR over the past two years, a defector from China’s business community (remember, China is still a Communist nation no matter how we strive to forget that) has warned that China is unstable. Reports from within China tell of entire villages being evicted in order to make room for commercial development. The uprooted villagers, made up of generations of families who farmed on the same plot of land, are rioting with primitive scythes and pitch forks against corrupt officials. The officials, in turn, are calling for police back-up to restore order and to send the leadership to prison where they can work for Wal-Mart. That is not unlike what we see here in the United States of America. Opportunity has decreased, and the prison population is swelling.

The rise of the economy of China is not unlike the rise of the Japanese economy in the 1980s. The “Japan which could say No,” as one popular Japanese book put it, became the Japan of a bust economy by the end of the decade. China’s boom in the 00s, fueled by Wal-Mart’s massive marketing of cheap goods to the U.S., will just as soon come to an end. China is plagued by corruption and internal instability. It is only a matter of time until that becomes apparent. By the time the current batch of B-school grads receive their diplomas, China will have already begun to burn. However, be wary of the disgruntled Chinese peasant, for his view may not only be an internal view.

Thomas Jefferson and the Beginnings Class War

It cannot be surprising that the Neo-Feudalists, who have authored such wanton chaos in the world, are bringing that form of pandemonium to the U.S. as well. Thomas Jefferson warned, “Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”

Make no mistake about this - Neo-Feudalism is nothing more than the caste system of lords and ladies and serfdom of the medieval ages. This is a system where people know their place because their socio-economic class has been ordained by God.

The rising Theocons are empowered to make sure that the Neo-Feudalists have a subservient class to fulfill their will within this nation. The question is: what is that will? Neo-Feudalism seeks nothing but the utter domination of all they survey because in their subjective view of their collective will, they are the chosen of God. This is the basic tenant of Calvinist Theosophy.

Apples for Sale

Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies was written as a blog in 2006 following the release of American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips. Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies in was initially titled Theocon Nation, but re-titled by WordTechs press when picked up for publication in 2008. It is a connection of essays written from 2005 to 2006 which a bit more of a sardonic, tongue-in-cheek look at The Religious Right. As Matthew Doherty of Readers Daily Review wrote, Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies "...illuminates that we – Americans -- could be our own biggest threat." This, of course, was before the Tea Party, and The Occupy Movement.

Posting the work here brings it full circle.

This work is dedicated to all those souls who have suffered for the cause of truth and liberty under the subjugation of the tyrants, and to the future generations who will inherit whatever comes from the decisions we make today.

Cliff Potts -- May 2, 2014

Apples for Sale

"Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?" (Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner on the Ten Commandments ruling, June 27, 2005)

Historic Reruns

During the early days of the Great Depression of 1929, displaced workers took to street corners selling apples at a nickel each. In the late 20s, President Hoover praised such individuals as being the shining example of capitalism and free-market enterprise. They were actually desperate people doing anything they could to get a little money in their pockets.

During the 2004 election, a woman managed to get through the screeners to tell Bush that she was working three jobs to make ends meet. Mr. Bush’s retort was to the effect, “Isn’t America great?” That comment showed an unashamed lack of mercy toward the privation which Bush has brought upon this nation. With idealistic zeal, the Christian community helped George Bush get re-elected. That is a poor commentary on our country, and an even poorer commentary on the Christian community in the United States of America.

War on Religion

Once again, good Christians are bringing the wrath of humanity down upon themselves in the naive belief that they are standing up for Jesus. Unfortunately, they cannot see the damage they are doing to the nation as they try to turn the United States into the Kingdom of God. Having been given assurances of wealth and prosperity, Christians have turned their backs on the words to which they demand adherence:

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see (Revelation 3:17-18 KJV).

Such words fall on deaf ears. Why? Like the religious leadership at the time of Jesus, today’s Christians think they know God, that he is pleased with them, and that they can do no wrong. In their righteousness, they are unwilling to admit to any error, human frailty, or lapse in judgment. Christians exalt themselves before their God and condemn all others. They don’t question themselves. Their way is supreme. They go unchecked.

Excuse Me for Being Too Polite

People don’t discuss religion or politics in polite society. Because these issues are not addressed, power-hungry Christian despots have been ignored. I had a recent conversation with a conservative who told me that the neo-conservative Christian Right was a very small part of the GOP. He assured me that the mainstay of the Republican Party could keep the Christian Right in line. As he said those words, I could hear the echoes of Chamberlain’s assurances that Hitler could be reasoned with. It did not happen in 1938, and it is not going to happen here in the United States in 2006. There is no reasoning with a political group that views everyone else as inferior.

Ignoring, or appeasing, these power hungry clerics is not going to make them go away. According to their own words, it is just going to make them stronger.

They are Not Your Founding Fathers

Our nation’s founders believed in reasoning with the likes of the Religious Right. However, as time has shown repeatedly, there is no benefit to reasoning with extremists. As it was with the Nazis, the Taliban, and the religious fanatics in Iran, these groups know nothing but the belief in their own superiority over all others.

These people, and the ones they support, have to be swept aside if we are going to come out of this grave, which we have all dug for ourselves. How long do you think the American people will sit by and allow our current government to run unbridled through the globe? How long will other nations allow it to happen?

Grim Headlines

The June 3, 2006 business section of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tells of flattening job growth, with May’s job increase 100,000 fewer than projected. At the same time, top executives have netted millions in stock options. Ethanol, used in the E-85 alternative fuel blend, has hit an all-time high of $3.86 a gallon at the Chicago Board of Trade. According to another article, the U.S. ethanol industry “lacks sufficient capacity.” This is all part of the idealist approach to the “free market” economy: Some play (the top executives) and some pay (the rest of us). This is as I said in Well Past Midnight.

This evening, I stopped at a gas station to pick up my weekly treat, a fried pie and a coke. While waiting in line to pay, I saw the current copy of U.S. News and World Report, its cover describing Bush’s declining ratings. I wanted to pick up a copy, but I could not afford it. It cost more than my fried pie and coke. It was nice to see, however, that the mainstays of the GOP are worried.

Where Does That Leave Us?

It seems that most of us are out on street corners selling apples, working one, or two, or three survival jobs, and we are all forgotten by the people running the country.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. – Jefferson.

Is Mr. Bush speaking for God? Do we need the schools turned over to the churches, and the unions abolished by Rev. Falwell? Do we need our CIA murdering foreign leaders who disagree with our policies, or our own State Department nuked to please Rev. Robertson? Are those the hallmarks of a legitimate government? Is the government of the neo-conservative Right, the Theocon Nation, a legitimate government?

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