This mythological worldview, one that has no use for science or dispassionate, honest intellectual inquiry ... offers a lying world of consistency that addresses the emotional yearnings of desperate followers at the expense of reality. It creates a world where facts become interchangeable with opinions, where lies become true — the very essence of the totalitarian state. It includes a dark license to kill, to obliterate all those who do not conform to this vision.
An accurate description of the "Islamofascists"? Pretty much. But Chris Hedges is writing about someone else.
These Christian utopians promise to replace this internal and external emptiness with a mythical world where time stops and all problems are solved. The mounting despair rippling across the United States, one I witnessed repeatedly as I traveled the country, remains unaddressed by the Democratic Party, which has abandoned the working class, like its Republican counterpart, for massive corporate funding. The Christian right has lured tens of millions of Americans, who rightly feel abandoned and betrayed by the political system, from the reality-based world to one of magic — to fantastic visions of angels and miracles, to a childlike belief that God has a plan for them and Jesus will guide and protect them.
Hedges writes about disturbing similarities the Christian right has with the German Christian Church and the Nazi Party. Read it and weep.
Or read Philip Roth's The Plot Against America.
