Moment of Truth

I usually post my essays, like the one below, at the link above. Click on it and you can read past essays, plus a lovely almanac of sorts. I thank Yosephus for allowing me to display my essays here. You can also hear them at http://www.thisishell.net - the website of the radio show on which I read them.

jd

2-5-05 THE FIGHT THE RIGHT CAN'T WIN WITHOUT LOSING

Welcome back to the Moment of Truth, delivered by Jeff Dorchen, the only pundit who will not punditize unless he has something useful to offer.

Here's what I hoped: I hoped that the individual and collective courage demonstrated by Iraqis who voted despite the danger of being exploded or sniped would have made some suicidal fanatic somewhere sit up and say, "Hey, these people are willing to die, just as I am – maybe what they have to say is worth a listen." Or maybe even that the entire suicide bombing populace of the world might have an immediate crisis of conscience.

Magical thinking, indeed. Much like the magical thinking I did after 9/11, when I hoped that somehow, the insanity of that violence and the horror of those 3000 deaths and the apocalyptic images and the bottomless grief shared by, it seemed, the entire planet, would have caused a government led by Dick Cheney et al to do something other than jump at the opportunity to use that tragedy as an excuse to reinvigorate the Cold War Petro-corporate-military-industrial Oligarchy.

It seems Islamic fundamentalists with Iranian sympathies have won the Iraqi election. The question now for the US ruling oligarchy is, I suppose, whether to lug all our stuff over to Iran to overthrow the Iranian government, or just to stay where we are and overthrow the Iranian government soon to be installed in Iraq.

Meanwhile, here at home, Walmart is costing taxpayers anywhere from $100,000 to $240,000 per store per year to pay for all the things their workers can't afford, like health care, because their wages are so low, not to mention the loss of local jobs and local business ownership. All these effects cut revenue necessary to pay for education and roads and other infrastructure while they stifle economic growth.

And half of all personal bankruptcies are precipitated by the inability to pay medical expenses. Meanwhile, there's no mention of reforming the insurance industry, only of putting caps on jury awards. Perhaps if we stopped using the term Health Care Reform and instead said Health Insurance Reform, we might be able to separate in public discourse the greatness of our nation's health care system from the inability of most of us to afford to take advantage of it. Yes, rich foreigners come here to get solid-gold organs, but I don't see Joe Canadian sneaking across the border to buy medicine.

So here I go, thinking magically again.

Here are the two things progressives need to do: Number one: start referring to Health Insurance Reform. Say it over and over. Health Insurance Reform. Not Health Care Reform. Health Insurance Reform. Even Democrats should be encouraged to say it, although they probably won't mean it.

Number two, and the most elegant portion of my two-part scheme to save the Constitution and spare the rest of the world an imperial USA fueled by fanatical Protestant patriotism: Stop fighting for science.

The Christian right STILL wants to ban the teaching of evolution. Kansas tried it, and became an international joke. So what? Well, wonder of wonders, Kansas decided it didn't like being an international joke, and changed its ways. But the Christian right is still willing to go there, and together with the Oligarchy, wants us to be the only Western nation to make it official policy that contemporary science is of no greater value in explaining the material universe than a medieval death cult with origins in the secret societies of antiquity.

Let them deny global warming, let them ban evolution, cosmology, geology, paleontology, anthropology, and whatever else they deem counter to their superstitious precepts. Let them ban all science from elementary school to the highest institutions of learning that receive any government money whatsoever.

Meanwhile, progressives should focus our attention on supporting the development of energy sources and transportation options to replace the petroleum industry. Because petroleum is going down. I mean, it's dirty and non-renewable and getting more expensive as the Cheney administration botches Middle-East policy at every possible juncture. There are solar power options in development than can be painted on surfaces and power them far more efficiently than the current solar cells. New ways of making and storing hydrogen. Back in the 1970s, it was clear that Petroleum wasn't going down without a fight, but I never expected it to hang on this long. It's well past time to retire Petroleocracy to the ash-heap of history, as we have Soviet Communism, and for many of the same reasons.

Much as Lysenkoism (look it up – you should know this anyway) helped discredit Stalin's Iron Curtain quarantine from Western society, so will Creationism and Petroleocracy help discredit the Right's policy of quarantining the US citizen from international human rights consensus, climate science, and other aspects of external reality. And as the rest of the world fights to soften the inevitable collision between humanity and climate change, the choice between Petroleum and the survival of the USA as an economic power will become clear, if not to Joe Public, at least to capitalists, who have a tendency to side with reality when the chips are down and profits are threatened.

They call it "neoconservatism," but I view the present alignment between religious nuts, nationalism, oil, transnational corporatism, and tabloid-style talking-head demagogues as the last major gasp of last century's old guard. It will certainly be the last time they're ever this powerful. So, if the worst should happen and Bush appoints a few Supreme Court Justices who want to overturn Roe v. Wade, remember that they will also be supporting Creationism v. Reality, and the one will discredit the other. This house is built on a foundation of competing fanaticisms and cannot stand against the winds of reality.

The fear, of course, is that the house will collapse on those non-fanatics who happen to be in it at the time. A sinking ship takes everyone down. An escape strategy is always advisable when the populace starts backing egregiously corrupt, incompetent leaders out of belligerent patriotism.

So, to recapitulate: Start saying "Health Insurance Reform" – even simply "Insurance Reform" will do.

Ignore the Right's fight to stifle science. If they win that fight, they lose.

Focus on replacing petroleum with new technology.

And finally, please note the location of all emergency exits. Your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device. Yes, despite Cotton Mather's opinions to the contrary, things that are lighter than water will float, irrespective of their magical qualities.

This has been the Moment of Truth: Good day!