The Hucksterism of Political Homiletics

Typically, my Facebook Feed provides a more or less steady diet of homilies of one sort another: the importance of being kind, the need to help those in need or to have our neighbour's back, the way to find balance amid the turmoil, to bring out the positive in life or to achieve a sense of community while being mindful, cheerful, hopeful... and so on.  These gently nagging but uplifting thoughts are accompanied by pictures of a sunset, a rose mandala, a firefighter, a giggly sweet child or an adorably cute puppy and, of course, of Jesus.   

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic the number of such moralizing posts has surged, compounding the usual number of homiletic exhortations one could expect at Easter.  And so it was I learned the other day that someone out there was looking for the "opportunity" to love me in order to be able shout ..Alleluja, Alleluja. Alleluja, Christ is risen!"  Evidently, the solution to the economic and health crisis we are in is to smile on your brother; everybody love one another right now!

Arrgh!!!   Arrgh!!!  Arrrgh!!!

I've had it with religion. Throughout its history Amurkans have confused homiletics with politics. Politics is about how to organize obligations and benefits within a society; how to produce and distribute social product. You don't need a lot of aspirational feel good/do good stuff for that. It is a practical question.

To the extent it arises at all, a moral issue arises with the primary question of what is the purpose of living together at all? There are two possible answers: either society exists as fodder for hucksters or it exists to provide fodder to all.

The question was posed at the beginning of Plato's "Republic." Thrasymachus gave the first answer stating that what is called "justice" is simply the advantage of rulers who manipulate and exploit the demos as sources for their own profit. The second answer, given by Socrates, was that justice consisted in promoting the well being of all in accordance with the capacities of each.

You don't need religion to make the choice. A study was done some 20 years ago with Bonobo apes in which a group of six apes were given a task to do at the end of which they each got a banana. For several weeks the apes did the task and got their bananas. Then, one day, they did their task and everyone got a banana except one who got nothing. The apes immediately raised a ruckus, threw their bananas at their keepers and refused to cooperate further.

Evidently, the apes did not need Buddha or Jesus or Mahomet or Swami Prachtamuchtananda to make their choice.   Unfortunately, Amurkans are all but genetically predisposed to substitute preaching for political discourse whenever possible. 

In fact, homiletics is just the other side of hucksterism. De Tocqueville noted that while "acquiring the good things of this world" was the prevailing passion of Americans, certain momentary outbreaks occurred, "when their souls suddenly burst the bonds of matter by which they are restrained" and whole families trekked off into the woods to listen for several days on end to wandering preachers who hawk about the word of God from place to place. "Religious insanity is very common in the United States."

But just as common is hucksterism. Just as whole businesses are devoted to religion, whole business (lucrative ones at that) are devoted to branding and marketing one worthless box of cereal over another. Worst of all are the political hucksters who sell aspirational cornflakes while shoveling public treasure to banks, corporations and those whom Thrasymachus called the "true rulers."

In fact, the homiletics is used to detract attention from the hucksterism. As Clemenceau famously said of Wilson "He talks like Jesus Christ but acts like Lloyd George." Our politicians are always tear jerking us with hopeful homilies about this and that while they lead us to economic slaughter. Meanwhile gaggles of preachers, do-gooders, self-improvement specialists, and swindling swamies of one sort or another detract us from the task at hand with vague nostrums about finding self and helping others. It is all beside the point. Social activity must never be based on philanthropic flim-flam, but rather must aim at the elimination of the basic deficiencies in economic and cultural life that lead to the degradation and degeneration of the individual.

I have nothing against harboring private religious sentiment or practicing goodwill toward men; but eliminating the basic deficiencies in our economic life does not require Jesus. It simply requires counting bananas.

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Post Script. The day after I wrote this, David Dole posted the latest tee vee ad from Joe Biden which serves as a perfect, paradigmatic example of how homiletics substitutes for real politics and carries water for political hucksterism.  Watch and Gag.

https://youtu.be/_68E2ghjNis

©WCG, 2020