The Good Old Days

In the past, men were sent to war by the state and the reaction was predictably subservient. People would march into certain death with the same grim determination to conform as the modern day suicide bombers in the Middle East. We have come a long way since then and when the state wants war, many people oppose it. There is more natural opposition to war today than there was during the Vietnam era.

In the past a man ruled his castle as he saw fit. Many men saw it fitting to beat the hell out of his wife and kids. Mothers also routinely beat the hell out of children and generally, anybody in an authority role had the power to arbitrarily abuse those under them. Teachers did it, bosses did it, parents did it, and people were generally ruled by fear as opposed to reason.

These social structures of the past were rooted in feudal tyranny and religion. Today, thanks to the nature of capitalism and it's intolerance of obstacles to profit, these feudal social monstrosities have been reduced to small corners of fanatics that long for the time when everyone knew his, and perhaps more importantly, her, place. Traditional authority has lost most of its legitimacy and has been replaced by rational authority.

It is natural that people like George W. Bush and his ilk have declared war on judges. Although they tend toward ruling in favour of the rulers, they are ruled by and are conduits of rational authority. Their loyalty has to be to whatever legal bill of rights they happen to be operating under. People like Bush and the cabal that is running America these days are obviously tyrants and the Constitution of the USA is a nusance and an obstacle to their brand of tyranny. They look at judges and they see subversive "activists" with enough power to retard the neo-con agenda.

But to come to the point here, and it is a good one.

The point is that we are progressing forward. With the regressive forces of inertia and reactionary panic, history is still moving forward in a positive direction. Even in the face of those with power, and the present American administration has biblical power, the movement into the future continues on. In the face of this extreme conservative climate that exists now, we continue to move toward socialism and away from feudalism. And we have the rationality and freedom that is inherent in capitalist society to thank for it. It is an amazing journey we are all on.

Gay marriage is the latest issue in a long, long list. The social engineers of conservatism will try their best to stop it, but this is the will of the people and thy will be done, - on earth. Hegel was correct.

Capitalism has pushed all the -isms under the brilliant glare of reason. Sexism, racism, and all the other -isms must stand the scrutiny of reason because we have become reasoning beings. We no longer hide behind bibles and tyrants in ignorant fear. We demand reasons for all laws and policies.

But there is one more -ism, and it is a dandy, that has to withstand the glare of reason. It is classism. It's about time we begin to examine it.