The God of the Journalists

ABSTRACT: 
Man is never left without something to worship. A Rolling Stones reporter Michael Hastings has written an e-book explaining the positively melting effect the presence of our great leader has on journalists and reporters, who "lose their minds" when fortunate enough to have the opportunity for questions. I have asserted that Communism isn't truly godless. Wherever one finds evidence of Communism or another atheistic form of fascism  one also finds evidence that eerily resembles that of a triumphant religious revolution or revival. Glorious statues of Lenin and Stalin were erected in Soviet Russia (actually, you can find a statue of dear Vladimir in the Fremont district of Seattle), immortalizing them as supreme beings...I would argue that this fawning and gasping our President seems to elicit from members of the press is not all that different in principle to the idolizing of Lenin and Mao, or the worship of Buddha or the Virgin Mary. These journalists are not religious, God-fearing individuals, of course--they are liberal progressives and secularists who claim freedom from religion to be the purest form freedom can take. And yet here they are, uplifting Obama to a standard absolutely no other living human is privileged with, unwittingly granting him semi-divine status and pledging devotion. My husband Cody disagrees; he maintains that irreligious people can really be irreligious...they need no higher power to whom they would be attributed. I hold the opposite view, of course. Whether it be consecrated to a man like Obama, an ideology like socialism, or a cause like the halt of global warming--in the mind of every human, there is a shrine at which he kneels.



Man is never left without something to worship.

The past few days I've heard many reporters and journalists serve as easy cannon fodder for conservative commentators against the liberal/progressive Media Machine, and boy do those cannon balls fly. Honestly, it really is hard not to laugh when you hear about a Wall Street reporter who used an inquisitive sock puppet to coax some responses from President Obama.

A Rolling Stones reporter Michael Hastings has written an e-book explaining the positively melting effect the presence of our great leader has on journalists and reporters, who "lose their minds" when fortunate enough to have the opportunity for questions. Dozens of soundbites from similarly giddy contributors on cable news (well, is it news?) shows back up Hasting's claims.

I mulled over this phenomenon in my head for a while, and then was reminded of something I had said previously in a class last quarter: the discussion had been about the resurgence of Islam in Central Asia under Soviet domination, despite the atheistic Communist doctrine of the U.S.S.R. Naturally a comparison between the Communist philosophy and major world religions came up--I asserted that Communism isn't truly godless. Wherever one finds evidence of Communism or another atheistic form of fascism  one also finds evidence that eerily resembles that of a triumphant religious revolution or revival. Chairman Mao virtually wrote his own scripture to be disseminated among the masses (the Little Red Book); glorious statues of Lenin and Stalin were erected in Soviet Russia (actually, you can find a statue of dear Vladimir in the Fremont district of Seattle), immortalizing them as supreme beings, certainly far better than any other human, and worthy of universal devotion.

I would argue that this fawning and gasping our President seems to elicit from members of the press is not all that different in principle to the idolizing of Lenin and Mao, or the worship of Buddha or the Virgin Mary. What I mean is that many members of mainstream press, probably most, do not kneel before Buddha, before an altar, or even at their bedside. These are not religious, God-fearing individuals--they are liberal progressives and secularists who claim freedom from religion to be the purest form freedom can take. And yet here they are, uplifting Obama to a standard absolutely no other living human is privileged with, unwittingly granting him semi-divine status and pledging devotion and, certainly, their testimony to his supreme wisdom as granter of social justice and defender of the Truth of science. God does not bless the President; the President blesses the believers.

My husband Cody disagrees; he maintains that irreligious people can really be irreligious, with no exceptions to the absolute ordinariness of humans and the material world, and certainly no belief in anything beyond it. They may have their principles and morals (without really knowing where they come from), but they need no higher power to whom they would be attributed. I hold the opposite view, of course. Whether it be consecrated to a man like Obama, an ideology like socialism, or a cause like the halt of global warming--in the mind of every human, there is a shrine at which he kneels.