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PoliticsThe Town VoiceBalanced 

 

Mob Rule 2019

By Arlon Staywell
RICHMOND — February 2019  —   Three and a half years ago in July of 2015 on this website in a special section for coverage of the campaigns for the 2016 presidential nomination is an article titled Mob Rule describing the lack of understanding of real science in the Democratic Party and comparing them to a mob.  Perhaps it helped defeat Hillary Clinton thereby, although it predicted her nomination.  It did not anticipate the nomination of Donald Trump.  It did not anticipate to what extent the Republican Party under his leadership might also behave as a mob.  This article addresses that issue.

When Trump was elected that November this website did caution that people supporting him might also act like a mob as described in the article titled Election Neither Science Nor Theology.  Consider this review of the problem tuned to current events.

Where the Problem Began

In 1925 in the famous Scopes trial a substitute school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of teaching human evolution in violation of a state law, Tennessee's Butler Act, prohibiting such teaching in any state funded school.  At that time a "debate" had arisen between "creationism versus evolution" in the general public sphere.  Even then though it was not a professional debate.  On one side uneducated poor people argued for a literal interpretation of the Bible, when the Bible itself admits more symbolic language.  On the other side uneducated poor people tried to extend evolution to things not yet alive, which neither Darwin nor any school after did.  "Religion" and "science" each came to be represented by uneducated poor people, obviously to the dismay of actual theologians and scientists.

There were several significant events in science in the eighty years between 1925 and the Kitzmiller v. Dover case in 2005.  In the 1930s Thomas Hunt Morgan identified the "chromosome."  In 1952 the famous Miller-Urey experiment synthesized simple proteins known to be the building blocks of life using somewhat plausible (miniature lightning) natural conditions.  Later of course with the increasing understanding of RNA chains, laboratories sought to witness an original beginning of life using simple, lifeless RNA chains, giving them every opportunity necessary and natural.  The results did not support the construction of long or complex chains.  It was then that the sides switched.  It was the schools who argued against random assembly of life, not the state. The state took the side of the uneducated poor people (that's what the state often does) who believed their "science" had eliminated the need for any god and thus the need for any religion.

In 2005 in Kitzmiller v. Dover, the public school system, not the state, argued for intelligent design, and the state argued with Tammy Kitzmiller against what it considered the "religious" aspect of the school's argument, a reversal of sides from 1925.

Today many Trump supporters believe their party represents the "religious right" and many Democrats believe their party represents science.  However both parties are dominated by uneducated poor people who do not understand religion or science anymore than people did in 1925.

What Fueled the Problem

A very significant political change had begun fueling the problem in 1979.  The Shah of Iran was overthrown and much western influence in the Middle East was rejected.  Before that the United States Military had been on the political right against communism.  Since then they have been aligned with the political left against conservative religion.  Of course there is much confusion about where anyone stands in the new order, but the alignments are difficult to avoid.  Aligning with the state of Israel doesn't help because it is a secular state and not as conservative as the religion of Judaism or Islam.  Adding to that was the fall of communism later.

Already dominated by uneducated poor, and now uneducated rich also, the United States has not dealt well with the new political order since 1979.  The national debt since then has risen dramatically and continuously, with little pause.  Each party imagines itself solving anything when it is in power, while only the party out of power recognizes, or appears to recognize, the real trouble.

The Condition of the Problem Today

In the United States today uneducated people dominate political power more than ever.  They dominate both major political parties.  The Trump administration has only made the problem worse.

The Democrats are still trying to save us from the Nazis.  The Trump supporters are still trying to save us from the communists.  Both parties are trying to save us from bad government in a somewhat "Christian" way but neither party is showing any talent for developing a set of good rules, thus the national debt.

All the problems in the 2015 article on Mob Rule have worsened.

Economics as taught in schools is based on a guiding principle of efficiency.  Trump's trade policies violate those and are inefficient uses of resources.

Schools are still prevented from advancing real science by the decision in Kitzmiller v. Dover because Trump supporters side with Tammy Kitzmiller, and because Trump supporters are too ignorant of science to understand the need, and too ignorant of religion to care.

Arguments against overturning Kitzmiller v. Dover often include that "religious" people are less well educated, earn less income, and have other problems like higher divorce rates.  That is only because the surveys count "Christians."  Members of almost every other religion have lower divorce rates, are better educated, and earn more income than atheists and most Christians.  Members of every other religion are more careful than atheists and most Christians.

Having to recognize an intelligent designer would give atheists and many Christians pause, exactly what they need to become more careful.  The Constitution is silent on issues of marriage and abortion and many Christians who would change marriage and abortion laws are not capable of understanding that.  They believe incorrectly that Trump's Supreme Court appointments can be any help.  The problem with marriage and abortion is that people are not more careful and do not fear any god.  Overturning Kitzmiller v. Dover would correct that given enough time.  The meaning of marriage was ruined by no fault divorce laws long before same sex marriage was seriously considered.  Only by more careful people restoring meaning to marriage will it become different from the arrangement homosexuals have.

The Solution to the Problem

The solution to the problem is in sight but obstacles remain.  It has become rather plain and obvious that neither Democrats nor Trump supporters have even begun to set up any good rules, nor are they likely to set any up in current conditions.  The uneducated people since the 1930s have used their power of the state incorrectly.  The main thing preventing them from finally yielding to more schooled direction is their dependence on a "majority" for every decision they make, and the fact that as yet no well schooled majority has appeared, or perhaps been allowed to appear.  They cannot accept that both political parties are wrong.  They must assume that one party, especially theirs, must be right because they are incapable of any other means of making decisions. Their answer to the old question parents asked their children, "If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?," is that they would have no idea what else to do and jump.

To avoid facing the impending realization that both parties are wrong, and remain in the way of more scholarly direction from outside politics, many Democrats are now beginning to side with Donald Trump, ridiculous as that is, and obviously a continuation of the failed direction since 1979.  For example they are abandoning Democratic governor of Virginia Ralph Northam.  The excuse appears to be that he once wore "black face" and they consider that an egregious insensitivity to racial tensions.  How "egregious" it is has only recently been adjusted.  It was decided publicly less than a year ago that wearing black face on Halloween was offensive.  Megyn Kelly was dismissed from her job at NBC for failing to agree soon enough that Halloween was not a good time to use black face.  Perhaps she was confused by the fact that stage performers often use makeup to adjust their genetic identity, skin color, hair color, and so on without offense, or that some, if not many, Halloween costumes are not scary.

D.W. Griffith is still considered a pioneer of cinematography, a great director and writer by some students of cinema despite his being what could be described as a wide open racist.  DVDs of Birth of a Nation and other films of his are still collected for their place in the history of cinema by people who are not racists at all.  It appears Northam's contributions in politics to better conditions for blacks will not survive the current mob, despite the fact he is not racist.  Their complaints lately do not seem to acknowledge that he did not have as much control over the situation, who took pictures from where, as would be required to justify their reaction.  It is likely that many people who defend the rights of homosexuals are nevertheless thoroughly repulsed by homosexual acts.

The campaigns for 2020 are beginning and there will obviously be people whose astounding ignorance of economics, religion, science, and politics shoving their way to the stages, mob rule in 2019.  It can only be hoped that the way they wear their visor caps is the solution to anything after all.