Either in religion or “patriotism”. There’s a Catholic book called “The Lives of the Saints” (actually an encyclopedia of Saints, quite a few volumes) And one argument that got dug out of the repository concerning a trial for Heresy, wherein the Saint, who apparently wasn’t the defendant in the case, states (here I paraphrase, I don’t rightly know which Saint it was, my instinct screams “Augustine” but my instincts weren’t trained by the Catholic Church anyway)
Faith that would not stand questioning, is no faith, merely a stubborn refusal to examine any evidence. What could be said of our God if He were to disappear and be rendered powerless by a question? Nay, brethren, Doubt is merely a reflection of faith and neither could exist without the other.
Turn that by the simple substitution of a word. Stephen Decatur, who was famous mostly for being an overly aggressive wannabe Dictator, penned that Stupid Bumper Sticker slogan “My Country, Right or Wrong.” What sort of faith in a country does that display? Doesn’t that loudly proclaim that you don’t believe the nation to be in the right, and that you’re also too cowardly to do anything to make it in the right?
But unquestioning belief is often expressed in Slogans. Has to be, actually. The more words, commas, colons, semicolons, ellipses…
The more question marks? the less Absolute anything becomes. It’s midnight.
Hippies are reviled by Absolutists, regularly, because we don’t have absolute “faith”. Because we have been lied to in the name of “our country” so often that our conditioned reaction is to question everything. Maybe if those who do the propaganda, and write the slogans, as did Young Mr Decatur… would have toned down their inflammatory rhetoric with a little reason, a little calm, a little less eating-of-the-mushrooms-crazy-zealot raving about Absolutes… then the rest of us, in these succeeding generations, could have questioned their “absolutes” with a little less rancor. If only, yes…
If a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his ass each time he jumps, either. The damage is long done and apparently the only way left to undo the damage, is to ask the questions. Demand real answers instead of bleated slogans like “Freedom isn’t Free”
Make me believe, Slogan Chanters, make me believe that My Country IS right. Hint, screaming threats of violence against my person or anybody else who doesn’t live in an Absolutist Fantasy,… Probably ain’t gonna convince me. Soldiers who stand by while such threats or even physical violence is directed, dudes, you forfeit any claim to be “fighting for freedom”. You’re just more voices in the Chorus of Hatred.
Does it not disturb you, when you witness or hear on the Radio and TV the prophets of Hatred telling you it’s OK to kill Americans? Does it not bother you that people who profess such great love for “our country” are willing to tear it up and murder our countrymen? WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?
