These
are pictures of Afghanistan.
[as
reported by Mohammad Qayoumi on
Foreign Policy.com]
You'd think from absorbing the intel from our own media, Afghanistan
was always some bleak, desolate, hopelessly backwards, Stone Age
shithole, but here we have some actual examples the country was
making some headway towards becoming Westernized before America and
Russia decided to have one last proxy pissing contest. Un-shrouded
women being educated, people buying records and going to the movies.
Two things destroyed this budding modernization—war and religion.
The USA funded and elevated the religious nuts because they were
crazy enough to take on the Soviets. WE gave power, weapons, and
legitimacy to the assholes who would become the Taliban. Funny,
you'd never know that from paying attention to the "news" networks
which have become the bearers of propaganda, misinformation,
misdirection, distraction and lies. But that's another rant for
another time.
My point in bringing these photos to the fore
is to show that in less than fifty years, a society can degenerate
into something unimaginable, and it could happen here. We're already
seeing aspects of America deteriorating. Education, health, civil
liberties, infrastructure and even our communication systems are
second tier compared to other First World nations. The promise that
existed in Afghanistan was, as I said, ruined by war and religion,
and that's pretty much all we've got as a country. We sell arms to
other countries and prop up the worst kind of government leaders so
we can declare them an enemy in the future and stage a profit-driven
war. Religious creeps all over the place are being taken seriously
and making advances for their "cause" at every turn. It doesn't
matter that they're outright con-men and charlatans like the fat
fuck from the Saddlebrook "ministry" or "sweeter" types like that
Joel Orsteen (or whatever his name is). The Mormon and Catholic
hierarchies are blatantly defying the tax-exempt agreement by
busying themselves in political shenanigans, and any attempt to rein
them in will only give them ammo in their "war on religion"
bullshit. The churches are flexing their power, and as we all know
when the economy sours, desperate people turn to the gods for hope.
Look at these Afghanistan photos and consider
that none of these folks ever dreamed that their homeland would
slide back to a state like the Middle Ages during their lifetime.
And now, think of the possibility of America doing something
similar. Generating more poor people, more homeless people, more
people driven into debt, more people railroaded into the privatized
prison system, and more people "medicated" into zombies while the
wealthy isolate themselves in gated communities and hoard their
money.
I don't have a solution. I'm not even saying
that it is absolutely inevitable. I'm just saying that our freedom
and our quality of life is at risk and it is something we should all
be very aware of. I'm worried that the queer community especially
might take it for granted that the legal and social achievements
we've made in recent years are part of an irreversible trend—nothing
is safe, nothing is secure. When things turn chaotic the religious
institutions will scapegoat and demonize us with even greater fury
than they currently wield. We have already seen the attempt to force
women back into "traditional" roles with their campaign against
abortion and contraception. There are strange things afoot and
strange days ahead. All I'm saying is: don't become socially
complacent; don't settle for the popular version of "what's going
on;" and keep your eyes open. Might also be a good idea to keep your
passports current. War and religion. They are both bad. But as a
combination, they are a danger to our civilization as we understand
it. And those two destructive forces are the fumes that the American
engine is running on right now.
Later. |