Angels and Demons - living in a world of absolutes
October 12th, 2009
How judgments based on ideologies, parties and peers kills free thinking and innovation.
by Richard Markosian
Everybody loves absolutes: good-bad, demonic-angelic, love-hate. Absolutes make life easier and more simple. It is, after all, our nature to characterize, label and conclude. But there are a few major societal problems that are the result of not understanding issues, people, products, plants and ideas on a deeper level than the category of absolute good or absolute evil that our peer group has deemed to toss these issues into. When we simply conclude that one party or authority is always good and right we become mindless lemmings. Mindlessness seems to be running rampant--especially among our political leaders
Currently, the political divide between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats is a giant chasm. We look at our individual representatives and hope that they are free-thinking and discerning of ideas that aren't simply marching orders from their party leaders. However, an examination of congressional records demonstrates that free-thinking, crossing party lines or cutting the strings that bind representatives to their party is rarely deemed courageous or patriotic and more often is spun as betrayal of "party values."
The same happens to free-thinkers within church congregations. But the rhetoric to describe these people is "apostate" or "spiritual drift" or the worst "heresy." If someone is too free in their logic and questioning they become labeled a "heretic." As Martin Luther demonstrated 400 years ago, grievances--no matter how legitimate--posted against a church, are only made by "those who are acting under the influence of Satan." Today, Luther is considered by some to be a saint, even after being excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Our founding fathers were all very free in their thinking and chances are if there were strong party alliances as there are today, we wouldn't have a Constitution. The problem today is that we are allowing our groups and allegiances to define us, which produces a lack of examination. We are not questioning the "angels" of our society nor are we examining the "demons" that appear unstoppable.
Today, few would argue that the U.S. is not only in an economic decline but an intellectual decline as well. Certainly, Americans are still at the forefront of science and technology, but science departments at all major universities are filled with foreign students. Our prison population is nearly double that of the rest of the Western world. And the overall health and well-being of Americans has been in decline since the early 70s. These trends beg some questions that the mainstream media fail to ask. Could 20 million Americans really be so evil that they need to be locked up behind bars like wild animals? Do the majority of Americans really need big pharma: anti-depressants, anti-hunger, anti-aggression, anti-anxiety drugs? Couldn't these symptoms be solved without tweaking molecules in ways that mother nature never intended? The amount of money that Americans spend on health care is certainly out of control and unsustainable, but why not examine the reasons why so many Americans require so much expensive health care, rather than condemn the free market?
Utah has been somewhat immune to the terrible conditions that so many around the country have been experiencing. Yet the public discourse concerning our problems is stuck in a morass of fads, superficiality and labels. It seems anything labeled "green" or "organic" is accepted as simply good -- no questions asked. And anything that is "industrial" or "corporate" is bad. Certainly many green ideas are good and many industrial practices are bad; but there are a lot of green ideas, products and fads that aren't so good when the bigger picture is examined--and there are plenty of industrial corporations that do more good than harm. However, buying locally grown food, products and services is the best way to ensure that our local economy remains somewhat immune to the problems on Wall Street throughout the recession.
Utah is a state that is great at bucking trends: full of people with a strong work ethic and an inclination to succeed. We are known for strong family values and traditional, stay-at-home moms--but we still lose children to the evils of the world. We have some of the highest per-capita usages of anti-depressants and rank 16th in the nation in crystal meth addiction. These are problems that we tend to sweep under the rug. Why not confront issues, ideas and problems head-on? Skirting the difficult issues is the status-quo of the mainstream.
In this issue, Utah Stories examines some ideas, trends, people, products and plants that have either been unjustly demonized or granted an "angelic stature" without proper scrutiny. Most of these topics are polarizing subjects that readers have heavily-loaded preconceived ideas about. All we ask is to set your bias aside for a few minutes and see how angels can sometimes kill and some demons might not deserve eternal condemnation.
We will be publishing articles from our October issue in the coming 10 days. These include articles on The FDA, marijuana legalization, green energy, demonizing beer, hunting and fishing and many more! Subscribe to Utah Stories (free-of-charge) and get updates as we post these articles. Or visit Squatters in downtown SLC and get your free copy of Utah Stories magazine.
Readers are invited to comment on this special op/ed issue. Please use the form below.
Read articles from our previous issue:
Rage Against the Complicated Life: Voluntary Simplicity
Rage Against Bad Food and TV: Meet Amy Thompson, the Progressive Pioneer
Rage Against Business-as-Usual Vet Care: Holistic Pet Care
Rage Against Businesses that Suck
Rage Against All Work and No Play: Uinta Brewery Expanding
Rage Against Poor Community Planning
