Democracy/Capitalism: Discussion Question

I came across this thought on page 175 in Chris Hedges' book When Atheism Becomes Religion:

"Community centers, village squares and town meetings, the public spaces that made democratic participation possible, have been replaced by privatized space, by shopping malls, where we are permitted to enter (only) as consumers....And while we sit mesmerized (by spectacle/entertainment/advertising), corporations steadily dismantle the democratic state."

Adam made the comment that while public space and forum are less frequented, we as Americans now use our dollar as our primary democratic voice. We, hopefully, invest our money into our personal consumer choices, which in turn shapes the state.

To what extent do you see our "democracy" better defined as a "capitalistic society"? Do you agree that public space is being replaced by the private corporate sphere? Are we no longer citizens, but consumers?

What are your thoughts?

Spicy Book Summary

When Atheism Becomes Religion: America's New Fundamentalists, Chris Hedges passionate discourse about the face, function, and feuling of fundamentalism in American culture, is a fiesty read! I highly recommend this book to all atheist, agnostic, and religious people: orthodox or liberal, moderate or extremist, as well as anyone interested in politics, art, literature, and the human condition. In this book Hedges seeks to dissect the worldview of "new atheists", a self-defined group of contemporary writers (such as Christopher Hitchens or Stephen Harris) and propose this mentality as dangerous, disfunctional, and fundamentalist.

Basically, the "new atheists" blame religion as a central cause to disfunction and destruction on an individual and societal level. Instead, these contemporary thinkers invoke the realism of science, rationality, and reason to guide one's life and search for meaning alongside a fight towards the obliteration of religion. While the author remains fairly neutral towards both religion and secularism, he questions the rhetoric, logic, tactics, and beliefs of the "new atheists" arguments, describing them as fundamentalist and utopian. Hedges shows how both Christian fundamentalists (among other religious extremists) and the "new atheists" profess a belief that humanity can progress morally and rationally only through their own respective and specific truths. Hedges explains this belief as a dangerous one, as it creates a binary world of "truth" and "non-truth" (which becomes characterized as evil). These high ideals cause a celebration only of those within the truth, and allows a lethal hostility towards the "other" to develop, which sets loose in each group the dark recesses of human depravity. Furthermore, Hedges argues that humanity is flawed and fractured, that we are all irrational animals with the ability to sometimes choose the rational and to justify. Even our mere concept of self is just that-- a concept-- but the reality of our being is illusive. The belief that humanity can progress morally and rationally is unfounded. He claims that to use either the "cult of science" and rationalism or the dogmatic proclamations of religion to define the Ultamite Truth indulges one in the delusion of human perfectability, and the intoxicating power of "rightness". This conviction has lead to some of the most atrocious crimes throughout history. The author argues against contemporary voices like Hitchens that it is not religion that creates conflict, antagonism, and violence, nor is it sacred texts proposing these cruelties, but the utopian dreams of fundamentalist people. This utopian idealism is built collectively from politics, culture, circumstance, economics, and so on, while groups of identity (such as Christianity) become a banner fitted to a deeper belief and feeling of threat. Chris Hedges views the "truth" of existence as complex, impossible to understand, abstract, mysterious, and paradoxical. He implies that religion (without fundamentalism) seeks to express the glimpses of the sacred and transcendence, and that science flourishes as a way to quantifiably define and technically explore the material world, in all its elusive evanescent glory.

To further give you a taste, here are some interesting quotes:

"The shudder of awe is humanity's highest faculty,
Even though this world is forever altering values..." (Goethe, Faust, page 9)

"The question is not whether God exists. It is whether we contemplate or are utterly indifferent to the transcendent, that which cannot be measured or quantified, that which lies beyond the reach of rational deduction. We all encounter this aspect of existence, in love, beauty, alienation, loneliness, suffering, good, evil, and the reality of death. These powerful, non rational, super-real forces in human life are the domain of religion. All cultures have struggled to give words to these mysteries and moments of transcendence. God--and different cultures have given God many names and many attributes--is that which works upon us and through us to find meaning and relevance in a morally neutral universe. Religion is our finite, flawed, and imperfect expression of the infinite. The experience of transcendence-- the struggle to acknowledge the infinite--need not be attributed to an external being called God." (Hedges, page 15)

"... this need for the sacred, propels human beings to create myths and stories that explain who they are, where they come from, and their place in the cosmos. Myth is not a primitive scientific theory that can be discarded in an industrialized age. We all stoke and feed the fires of symbolic mythic narratives, about our nation, our times and ourselves, to give meaning, coherence, and purpose to our lives." (Hedges, p. 16)

"Any form of knowledge that claims to be absolute ceases to be knowledge. It becomes a form of faith." (Hedges, p. 20)

"The dangerous myth that confuses moral progress with material progress permits us to believe we have discovered a way out of the human predicament." (Hedges, p. 21)

"Atheists... have often been a beneficial force in the history of human thought and religion. They have forced societies to examine empty religious platitudes and hollow religious concepts. They have courageously challenged the moral hypocrisy of religious institutions. The humanistic values of the Enlightenment were a response to the abuses by organized religion, including the attempt by religious authorities to stifle intellectual and scientific freedom. Religious authorities, bought off by the elite, championed a dogmatism that sanctified the privileges and power of the ruling class." (Hedges p. 25)

"Since scientific knowledge is cumulative, it lends itself to the illusion that human history and human morality are cumulative. A belief in the limitless possibilities of science, and the belief that science will save us from ourselves, has replaced, for many, faith in God." (Hedges p. 47)

"The extinction of our species, though tragic, would not mean the extinction of life. The human race is not at the center of creation. We are bound to the fragile ecosystems that make life possible." (Hedges p.56)

"If we can determine a particle's position, we cannot determine its momentum. We can measure momentum, but in this measurement we lose the particle's exact position. We can know a particle's momentum or its position, but we cannot know both with definitive accuracy." (Hedges p. 63, on Werner Heisenberg's 'uncertainty principle' relating to quantum physics)

"Where rigid, formal obedience to law allows the adherent to avoid ethical choice, the truly moral life grapples with the inscrutable call to do what is right, to reach out to those who are reviled, labeled outcasts or enemies, and to practice compassion and tolerance, even at the cost of self-annihilation. And all ethical action begins with an acknowledgment of our own sin and moral ambiguity." (Hedges 92)

"The story of Christ's death is a reminder that what is sacred in life always appears to us in flesh and blood. It is not found in abstract ideas or utopian schemes for human perfectibility." (Hedges 95)

"The expression of the sacred, part of the human desire to preserve and honor that which cannot be tallied and quantified, is what makes the ritual and the liturgy of religious life powerful and real, despite the corruption of the institutions behind them." (Hedges 162)

"It is culture, history, circumstance, tradition, economics, and the deep self-interest of the tribe or the nation that more powerfully inform belief systems than the contradictory and often impenetrable pages of the Bible, the Koran, or any other sacred text." (Hedges 174)

"God was an experience. God came in the profound flashes of insight that cut through the darkness, in the hope that permitted human beings to cope with inevitable despair and suffering. God came in the healing solidarity of love and self-sacrafice." (Hedges 177 on God's answer to Moses' request for revelation, as influenced by Paul Tillich)

Goddess of the Month Club-- Valentine's Day Special

Hine-Pukohu-Rangi, this month's highlighted goddess, appears to us in the mythology of the Maori. This story contains themes of lust, love, heartbreak, and redemption-- perfect Valentine's day drama! The term "goddess", in this circumstance, I use loosely. A more accurate word for the "sacred status" of Hine-Pukohu-Rangi would be an "atua",or "mariekura", meaning departmental god, and female spirit respectively. You may observe this distinction within the myth I will soon tell, and I will later discuss how a figure like Hine-Pukohu-Rangi fits into the traditional Maori cosmology. But without further ado, I present to you the legend of "Uenuku and the Mist Girl", summarized from A. W. Reed's anthology of Maori Myths and Legendary Tales, pages 86-90.

Our scene begins where the forest meets the lake. Uenuku, walking between the trees, sees and unusual formation of mist, rising over the lake in a column instead of lying low to the water. Transfixed, his curiosity leads him closer and he sees the cloud of mist is, like a silver veil, wrapping around two beautiful bathing women. Kneeling before them, Uenuku introduces himself, and asks the name of such a vision. Hine-pukohu-Rangi responds, calling herself the Daughter of the Sky, Girl of the Mist. She introduces her sister, Hine-wai, the Misty Rain Girl.

Uenuku, astounded by her beauty, professes his adoration to Hine-Pukohu-Rangi, asking her to "come and live with me in this world of light... I am strong and will take care of you." Hine-Pukohu-Rangi declines, as she cannot leave her home. Uenuku describes her home as cold and empty, and this (earthly) world as warm, with "the summer sun shining through the leaves of the trees and in winter the glowing fire of the hearth. There are birds and their songs, men and women and their laughter."

Tempted at such a poetic plee, Hine-Pukohu-Rangi steps toward Uenuku... but draws back replying that he would not be happy with her. Uenuku, steadfast, professes "but I would always love you". Hine-Pukohu-Rangi, the Girl of the Mist, explains that she comes from "the outer space" and she may spend the night with him, but would have to return to the heavens when the morning sky turns light. Smitten, stubborn, Uenuku still wants her, despite his possible lonliness during the days. "Please come and live with me" he continues...

This time, smiling, the Mist Girl accepts.

Uenuku and his bride slip unnoticed into the night. He takes her to his house, where no one hears their sounds of love. The following morning, before the sunrise, the Girl of the Mist meets her sister, and the two drift into the sky like clouds.

This continued each day into the summer months when the days were long. Women began mocking Uenuku for the bride he claims that they've never seen. They ask him to prove this beautiful woman exists. Uenuku got to thinking about how much he missed his bride during the days-- her laughter, her song. He couldn't take it anymore. He covered the windows with mats, and pushed moss into the crevices of the house. The Mist Girl entered unsuspecting that evening, though the house was as dark as a moonless night.

When the sun rose, Hine-wai (Rain Girl), Mist Girl's sister, called for her to come along into the sky. Hine-pukohu-Rangi began to gather her things. Uenuku stopped her, explaining that it couldn't be morning, as it was completely dark. He told her Hine-wai must be mistaken. Hine-pukohu-Rangi stayed, and Hine-wai's voice became fainter as she eventually left. Upon hearing the forest birds singing, Hine-pukohu-Rangi still felt that something was off. She thing heard voices of the village people, and rushed out of bed. She ran out of the house without her cloak, and the sun filled the house. The village people gasped-- she was more beautiful than anyone they had ever seen-- she did not look like she belonged to the earth. Uenuku was happy that others envied him for his wife. Hine-pukohu-Rangi jumped onto the roof though, and covered her body with her hair. She began to sing a sad song of pain, longing, and love. A cloud descended from the sky and wrapped around her until she could no longer be seen-- only the sound of her song. She ceased singing, and the cloud drifted upwards until dissolving in the sunlight.

Heartbroken, Uenuku waited each night for his love to return. She never did. Finally, he left home in search of Mist girl. Adventuring and traveling brought him to many places, but never to Hine-pukohu-rangi. He died, old, toothless, bend, and lonely, in a distant country. The gods thought Uenuku had paid for his thoughtlessness and pride, and so pitied him. They turned his body into a multi-colored rainbow in the sky for everyone to see. Now, as hine-pukohu-rangi rises from the damp earth in the warm sunlight, Uenuku, the rainbow, encircles his wife with a band of glowing color. (the end)


Hine-pukohu-Rangi is of what james irwin, in his book An introduction to Maori religion refers to as part of the realm of ultamite reality. Within this cosmological framework, you first find Io, considered the supreme being, from which all things have eminated. Io is much more of a force than an anthropomorphic character. (A quick note--Some question whether the entity Io existed in the Maori cosmology before the arrival of the Pakeha. Much of the Maori worldview regarding the sacred and divine, along with subsequent myths and rituals, have changed through time particuarly since the 18th Century. The Pakeha's introduction of Christianity, along with many other new ideas, inevitably shifted the culture. While today Maori spirituality certainly retains it's traditional collection of myths, rituals, and beliefs, these are widely assimilated into Christiantiy... creating a unique hybrid of each culture's traditions. For the purposes of this blog, though, I am mainly discussing the pre-18th Century traditional worldview).

From a mythical standpoint, Rangi (the sky-male) and Papa (the earth-female) created all things in the realm of the human. These two main, or high, gods mated, and produced numerous offspring. The offspring, though, were stuck between Rangi and Papa as they embraced. Working together, the gods seperated their parents, sending Rangi to the sky and Papa to the earth. I have heard it is believed that the rain are Rangi's tears for Papa, and the fog is Papa's tears for Rangi. Anywho. These offspring are considered "departmental gods", presiding over and resembling the elemental aspects of the earth they embody. These gods are morally ambiguous-- sometimes tricksters and manipulative-- and fill the earth with mana, or spiritual power. Less powerful or stable within this heirarchy, there are considered to be spirits, monsters, guardians, and the much revered ancestors. All mana, which makes things tapu, comes from the realm of ultamite reality. These gods, though, do not remain static within this cosmology. As we see in the myth of the Mist Girl, the earth possess beings that are not of the earthly realm, and the gods can make a mortal into something elemental, of the ultamite reality, like Uenuku's transformation to the rainbow. Also interpenetrating with the realm of the human is the realm of the dead. From here the god of evil and disease comes forth, as well as a concept of an 'underworld', or life after death but before joining the ancestors.

As you have surely deduced, the Maori worldview was polytheistic. Many gods and goddesses exist in a richly varied hierarchy. Note here my usage of the word "worldview" instead of "religion". When regarding the traditional cosmology of the Maori, the word religion seems much too modern... it almost assumes a compartmentalization of the aspects of one's life or the life of the community into "religious" and "otherwise" or "secular". For the Maori, the gods and godesses, the myths, the rituals, the concept of what is sacred (tapu) and what is common (noa) is entirely infused in each aspect of the lifestyle and state of being-- from cooking to cleaning to property management methods to hunting to greetings. These "religious" notions inhabit the core of one's innate perspective of the world.

A few words about "myth"...
My stance on and concept of the nature of mythology is still developing. Many post-Englightenment philosophers suggest that Myth existed as a way to explain natural phenomena (so, rainbows form because of the penance paid by Uenuku as the natural gods decided). In this framework, science can how replace myth, as it serves the same purpose more accurately. Despite technology and modern science, though, mythology remains, serving an important purpose for societies. I am still learning about the function of mythology, but I partly see it as a way to bring definition and identity to a group of people... it allows for a needed cohesion in what could be a collective social chaos. I also believe it to convey, or encode important information to the culture generations down the line. in this sense, the emergence of a rainbow is, through myth, illustrated as sacred, related to love, passion, redemption. How one should regard rainbows or mist has been culturally encoded through myth. Mist is understood as an elusive element-- at times unreliable, and not of this earth. Due to its mystery, it is, in effect, dangerous. It has great tapu, as it can wrap one up and cause dissapearance. This emphasis remains regardless of a technical understanding of each element's natural occurance.

And fewer words on this myth...
While I chose to showcase this story for the Goddess of the Month club, it is as much about Hine-pukohu-Rangi as it is about Uenuku. Uenuku is regarded as an important war god in the Maori worldview, and this myth very well explains his emergence as an elemental force.

That's all for now! YOU GO, GIRLS AND GODESSES!!