derek gulbranson

Reclaiming Tolerance

Thank God someone was able to "write this":http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/08/10/notes081005.DTL&type=printable. I've been wanting to write a similar article for a while. Mark Morford steals the words from my mouth a couple times, but generally writes a better article than I would have done. Read the whole thing, but here's some excerpts.

"But I am perhaps most intolerant, not of Christians per se, not of faith, certainly not of radiant self-defined spirituality, not even of organized religion, though I do fully believe more independent spirits and raw human souls and moist sexual licks have been lost to its often narrow-minded and cosmically rigid brainwashing techniques than have ever been saved. But hey, that's just me.

"I am most intolerant of, well, of those who allow such intolerance. Of those who would, based on their narrow views of sex, God, love, hope, war, the mind, the Earth, soil and animals and air and water and fire and love and spirit and drugs and guns and dildos, work to legislate those neoconservative beliefs, codify them, make them the law of the land, force their regressive beliefs on everyone else under punishment of violence and beatings and prison. I am, in short, intolerant of intolerance.

...

"Let us take the rather flaccid word tolerance and pump it full of Ecstasy and medical marijuana and sake and real divine love and fancy book learnin', turn it on its head and spin it like a bottle and reclaim it from the neocon Right and turn it into, say, giddy outrage. Or radical reconsideration. Or ecstatic rebellion. Or wet conscious electric pointed awareness. Is this not a better way?"

Perhaps in interesting contrast is this quote from an AP "article":http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050805/D8BPJK0O1.html on Bush and his recent approval ratings.

"He's a man of character," said Cheryl Cheyney, a school bus driver from Cumming, Ga., and a Republican. "He's very honest in the things he says. I agree with his belief system, the way he believes in God and is not afraid to show it. That's very important to me."

Am I too tolerant of Cheryl? I can respect someone that is not afraid to stand up for what they believe in. I guess I think it's her right to be a naive and blinded moron if she wants. We all live in our own world to some degree. But George Bush was elected to represent *me* as well, and I consider his "religious" beliefs to be a repugnant and immoral political maneuver, preying on the fears of the uneducated with the same vile, salacious greed and lust for control as televangelists.

Perhaps "Faith" is what scares me. The idea that you should believe something, just because. Because why, I'm not sure? Isn't Faith the thing you must believe without evidence? Why must I? Because everyone else does? Because the ancient religious text says it's the unaltered word of God and it says if you don't believe it, you'll burn in hell? I guess once you've made that "leap of faith" it becomes very easy to loose your way. Compound that with feeling obligated to only associate with other people that share this delusion, and the social pressures to conform can become quite intense. As they look at the world, from within this box, the freedoms of those who don't share this delusion make them fearful. This happens wherever organized religion becomes dominant, be it the Middle East or Alabama. This is also why delusions like "Saddam attacked us first" are so comfortable for them. They're used to believing in things with no evidence.

I just don't know what I can _do_ about it. I think "yelling and waving signs":http://derekgulbranson.com/2004/07/20/this-isnt-working-anymore/ is inadequate. Running for public office seems extreme. Ignoring it is much less stressful and leaves me a happier person. I post comments on the blogs of bigots. I give money to progressive organizations. I post articles on my blog and let my opinion be know whenever discussion happens. But I can't spend my life with the stress of "the dark and violent road down which this nation seems intent on careening like an Escalade on meth" on my shoulders. I'm too sensitive.