Democracy Deficits
If our political system offered voters real choices, voters would take their responsibilities seriously. Since it doesn't, for the most part they don't, focusing instead on narrow self-interest or mass 'entertainment' — Lindsay Lohan's prison extravaganza, for example, or Mel Gibson's latest meltdown. Take away responsibility, you infantilize the population.
Which raises an important question: can a degenerate society have enough strength left to demand, and obtain, the sorts of structural reforms that would restore normal political responsibility? The jury's still out, but a recent Pew poll makes one wonder. Looking into certain details, in the South 52% overall predict a second coming of Jesus Christ by 2050, compared — and I suppose this is the good news — to only 19% of the sub-set of college graduates nationally. But think about it: in the South, a majority of persons are cognitively dysfunctional, unable to participate fully in the modern world. Is it really reasonable to rely upon such persons for desperately needed, fundamental political change? More democracy would do them a heap o' good but not only are they unlikely to help restore it, they are probably a net obstacle to it.
What a mess!
Sometimes I wish that President Lincoln had just let the South secede...
Posted by George Kenney on July 21, 2010 2:05 PM 
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Comments
Benjamin Barber's description of American infantilism as an obstacle to democracy is well worth reading because it puts this notion of stunted emotional and intellectual growth in America in perspective.
There was a recent story about men weeping openly at Toy Story III with their dates. Dates? At a cartoon?
This is more than a North/South problem.
Here's the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Consumed-Markets-Children-Infantilize-Citizens/dp/0393049612
Posted by: Lon C Ponschock | July 23, 2010 12:01 PM
Some extremely bright human beings have believed firmly in Christ's 2nd coming. Is Tom Wright, the current Bishop of Durham, a fool? Was Thomas Aquinas, by any objective standards for intelligence, "cognitively dysfunctional"? It's not flawed cognition which leads a person to believe the Christ — it's a radically different understanding of what it means to be human.
[I would suggest that at that level the belief in Christ's return is more a metaphor for hope than a literal question. g.]
Posted by: herbert vanderlugt | July 24, 2010 9:26 AM
By no means, George. That is not even debatable. You simply do not understand the metaphysics of the doctrine of the Logos.
For a very lucid treatment of basic Christian doctrines that is intellectually satisfying, may I suggest:
Reclaiming the Great Tradition: Evangelicals, Catholics, and Orthodox in Dialogue, ed by Jas. Cutsinger, Intervarsity Press.
Posted by: Brendan | July 24, 2010 11:48 PM