Belief Is Not A Virtue

Belief is tricky.  I don't think it is as simple as "letting go".  I don't think a believer can make a decision to not believe in their deity any more than I could make a decision to believe in one.

I think one can decide to protect a belief.  You can make efforts to safeguard it from difficult questions.

I think the best anyone can do is to try to bring all of your thoughts and ideas into the examination process.  One can choose to do that.

I recall, as I was entering the deconstruction process, deciding that I was going to put all of my beliefs on the table.  I didn't do this lightly.  I FEARED unbelief.

I remember a discussion I had with a believing friend after I left the faith.  He was frustrated with my lack of belief in his god and seemed to take it as a personal insult.  In a moment of frustration, he declared, "Well, at LEAST I BELIEVE in something!"  He was protecting his belief by defining the state of belief itself as a virtue.

But holding to an idea isn't a virtue.  And it is problematic when we give ideas a permanent place in our identity.

No Options

I have been listening to some Vance speeches and catching interviews with the Maga crowds attending the rallies.  Their words and attitudes remind me of a kerfuffle Cracker Barrel had a few years ago.

The homestyle restaurant had decided to offer Impossible Sausage (non-meat) on its breakfast menu.  For reasons I will never understand, this caused some outrage and triggered a boycott.  Here are some reactions -

"Congratulations!  Be woke, go broke!"

"Stop forcing fake meat!"

"Won't be eating there anymore!"

 "I just want a restaurant that is normal, with normal food on the menu!"

Of course, Impossible Meat didn't REPLACE their morning sausage, it was merely an option.  Nevertheless, the choice was interpreted by many as woke, forced, and abnormal.

This is the attitude I hear from JD Vance and the Maga crowd.  At their core is an irritation and frustration when their fellow Americans have options on life's menu.  They dream of a day when THEY can control what choices are available to YOU.

Soulless

I didn't vote for McCain or Romney, but I never thought they were bad men. In fact, one can peruse my blog articles from those years and there were multiple times I defended them and found areas of agreement.

However, I have always had disdain for Trump... going back decades. From the first time I heard him interviewed on Stern when I was in college. This meme encapsulates why.

Trump has no interior life.

No reflection.

No contemplation.

He is nothing more than an exposed nerve, desiring no other stimulus than adulation. The real joys of living escape his awareness.

He isn't evil.

He is soulless.

When I can rein in my disdain, all I feel for him is pity.

If you have read CS Lewis's The Great Divorce, he brings to mind the Tragedian - pulling on the chain of what little remains of his humanity.