22 January 2009

Of brand-worship and cult of personalities

There is always a cult of personality or the worship of a created brand belonging to a large, faceless entity isn't there? And people buy into these things easily. The worship and the support of these things do bring quite a bit of monetary return for the corporation. A worshipped brand from a faceless corporate entity will, of course, outlive a cult of personality especially when that personage were to die during a liver transplant for instance. In this insidious instance, the brand will live almost forever barring a PR disaster. I guess some worship personalities, while others brands and not to forget, for some others, it will be beliefs and ideologies. Those states like North Korea and other communist states do have a religion, it's called ideology. Sometimes, it is replaced by a cult of personality. When a mode of thought is totalitarian like an ideology or religion, well, it is not hard to guess what will result. With regards to religion, the USA is presently undergoing a crisis of sorts, not unlike the hysteria and witchhunts of McCarthyism, it will not be years later when historians will recognise with hindsight the hijacking of American society by conservative Christians. Some people in this age and living within will not recognise it. Hopefully, the current rise of Christian and Islamic extremism in the USA and the Middle East, coupled with the ever changing population demographics will not see a rise in more theocracies in the world.

21 comments:

dmarks said...

"it will not be years later when historians will recognise with hindsight the hijacking of American society by conservative Christians"

It's really not that bad here. Efforts on truly "Christiam Conservative" efforts, such as teacher-led Christian prayers in public schools, have really gotten no where, and if anything are becoming less and less likely.

If you are thinking of other issues, such as abortion (click here or gay rights (Obama, a left-winger, is against gay marriage), these are not truly "Christian Conservative" issues.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Urm, I am not thinking of abortion as an issue. However, I think the site you pointed to, 'The Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League
Homepage' essentially contradicts your statement that these are not Christian Conservative issues by the statement: "All too often, I fear that I'm the only nonreligious person who opposes the genocide of abortion used as a birth control substitute."

It is a Christian Conservative issue. This dude is the odd one out.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

"It's really not that bad here."

Well, from my interaction with many Americans (not here) and from the Americans and people who have lived there in recent years, I do observe a creeping, insidious evangelicalism eroding the very rationality of American society.

Being outside and detached helps. Incidentally, in case if you were wondering, yes, I lived in the USA for about four or five years when the whole evangelical movement was just beginning to take hold of American society in a deathgrip. Moral Majority, Pat Robertson and more. Imagine if these fanatics can become mainstream politicians. Just this analogy, imagine if a mad ayatollah or iman can be a candidate and be popularly supported, would you be appalled? I would be. In American society, I saw a lot of crazies on the Republican ticket in the last election. Sad to say, I have always been more supportive of the Republicans over the years but the last elections, well... It's a cam of Christian fanatics.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

camp of Christian fanatics..


Yes, I had owned property in the USA and I decided against staying there and I sold an apartment a decade ago.

dmarks said...

The Atheist on that page appears to be a nontheist, but probably not non-religious. I've met plenty of others who are not theists, but oppose abortion.

"insidious evangelicalism eroding the very rationality of American society"

Inherent in that is an assertion that those who do not share your religious view are "irrational".

" Moral Majority, Pat Robertson and more. Imagine if these fanatics can become mainstream politicians."

Robertson ran for President decades ago. He did horribly. He is even less popular now.

dmarks said...

Thanks for your comments on my posts, by the way.

Back to abortion, there are religious groups on both sides, including Christians who strongly favor abotion (I know many of these personally). It is not actually inherently a religious issue. It is similar to the civil rights movement of the 1960s in that respect. The 1960s civil rights ideals were not inherently religious, but famous religious leaders were the major advocates.

It is similar with views against homosexuality. Obama is a left-wing Christian, but he opposes gay marriage. Atheism was the official faith in the Soviet Union, but they banned homosexuality. It has been similar in the PROC (which has a similar religious situation).

Che Guevara was a professed Atheist, but he proposed putting homosexuals in death camps. This is probably the most extreme anti-gay view I have ever seen, even compared to that of Pat Robertson. And this man's religion certainly was not Christian Conservative.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Like I said earlier, for those commies, their religion is their ideology.

Atheism isn't a religion per se. Like you said, there is a nontheism too.

"Che Guevara was a professed Atheist, but he proposed putting homosexuals in death camps. "

What kind of logic is that? Is there a bible for atheism that says that homosexuals should be placed in death camps? Whereas, if you were to read the bible, what does it say about women, homosexuals, slaves and more?

Yes, I lived in the US decades ago when I was attending university.

I am sure you know of Pat Buchanan. And recently, you get the likes of Mitt Romney and a few others of his irk. Pardon the spelling of the names.


I find Obama to be one of those big-spending Democrats, a big government type, hardly left-wing in the context of the word, perhaps in the American sense.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

"Atheism was the official faith in the Soviet Union, but they banned homosexuality."

It's not a faith. It is that faiths are banned which is of course wrong.

I notice from the beginning you made this assumption again and again. It is not a faith.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

I

"Inherent in that is an assertion that those who do not share your religious view are "irrational"."

I could say the same of you. Inherent in a lot of what you said said, it seems that:

From your reasoning, it seems to be so. One must surely be a mass-murdering commie if one were to reject religion. Is it wrong to criticise the excesses of faith? Is it wrong to show the illogic of faith?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

The Wikipedia link.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_atheism

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

And of course agnosticism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_atheism

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

And nontheism as you have said. The non-religious.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

No, from my experience with Americans, and also reading, there are 'culture wars' going on. And that's not my term.

It's very real.

American society has been hijacked for the last generation. It's not unlike McCarthyism.

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

Yes, I do read conservative American stuff.

Liberal? Not as much.

dmarks said...

"What kind of logic is that?"

That as shown by Che, there are some issues that go beyond religious divisions.

"Is it wrong to criticise the excesses of faith? Is it wrong to show the illogic of faith?"

That is what I was doing. Even if the faith is the type of atheism professed by Stalinists. But perhaps I should have made more clear that I object to excesses by the theist faithful as well.

"I am sure you know of Pat Buchanan. And recently, you get the likes of Mitt Romney and a few others of his irk. Pardon the spelling of the names."

Romney is a theist, but not quite a Christian, really. However, he lost the nomination. Public distaste for his religion was probably the largest reason.

"I find Obama to be one of those big-spending Democrats, a big government type, hardly left-wing in the context of the word, perhaps in the American sense."

I have yet to see a leftist who is not big-government. He's not as left-wing as some, of course.

Atheism was indeed the official faith of the USSR. Other faiths were banned, but not the official faith. I never said that mass-murdering commies reject religion. Typically, they enforce their own religion (strong atheism).

Many non-theists are religious. It depends on if they have a faith concerning gods/deities. The least religious people I run into tend to be agnostics, with the "I do not know" assertion. Which is not faith at all.

The teachings and doctrine of such atheists (as in the USSR) are indeed religion. They assert the faith that there is no deity at all.

Tim said...

I am glad that you two have met at my blog and are now blog pals. I love that cross pollination.

Although I am a Christian and believe in God, I am extremely turned off by Organized Religion, especially Evangelical Christians. I don't go to church anymore and have not for over ten years.

I consider Christianity "a way" not THE WAY to enlightenment. Many paths (forking, or otherwise) may lead to the same place.
I tire of EC's (evengelical Christians) getting in people's face and telling other religion believers and non believers that they'll go to hell unless they convert. Frankly, those kind of people really piss me off. Homosexuality is mentioned as wrong in the Old Testament, but if God is a God of love, I can't see how God could not love two people who love each other. There are so many things in the Old Testament that I simply have to reject out of hand, and that is just one of them. I do not favor Gay Marriage as such, but have no problems at all with them having the same rights as married heterosexuals. Because of the religious aspects, I'd prefer that it be called domestic partnership or some such thing. I don't know, I probably could get used to Gay Marriage,it's not something that is something I dwell on.

I am against abortion, but it is the law of the land and I am against making it illegal. We don't need the government controlling our lives like that. They are intruding more and more in our personal lives all the time. If my children had an unwanted pregnancy, I would do my utmost to assist in the birth of my grandchild. If test revealed a horrible birth defect, I'd have to pray real hard before coming down on either side.

Atheism I can't understand. I can understand why some people are Agnostic, but how can you say conclusively that there is no God? How do you prove that is no God anymore than you can prove that there is? Both viewpoints require faith, don't they?

dmarks said...

I am glad to have found Chuang Shyue Chou's blog as well.

Anonymous said...

and let's not forget some who worship "Science" as well

Chuang Shyue Chou said...

"The universe is a strange and wondrous place. The truth is quite odd enough to need no help from pseudoscientific charlatans."

Richard Dawkins