Religion Dispatches
…less controllable. Sarkozy knows this, and he understands the deep age-and-class divides that animate the current animus, in Greece and elsewhere. “Look at what is going in Greece,” he warned ruefully, shortly after things began. “The French like it when I’m in a carriage with Carla, but at the same time they’ve guillotined a king.” This connection, between Paris in 1798, Paris in 1968, and Athens in 2008 is an instructive one. It may help to expl…
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…Feminist Side in Islamophobia” —ed.] Clearly the eschaton is upon us. The American Family Association is worried about hate speech and an organization headed by Bozell is concerned about misogyny. The lion is laying down with the lamb. The messiah is due any minute. Best get right with God, folks, because it’s all Hicks paintings, angelic choirs, and vegetarianism from here on out. Before I rise to meet the Lord in the air, though, permit me a…
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…ret Religion.”] Finally, popular culture and the occult associations are a class issue. Jay-Z and Beyonce are a top-earning couple who made $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009. If they keep doing what they’re doing, their great-grandchildren will have old money one day—money that’s passed down through generations. (Jay-Z’s enterprise is named Roc nation in a nod to the Rothschilds and Rockefellers.) It could certainly be said that many of…
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…nator as a credible candidate. We shouldn’t forget that what many read as “class warfare” and raw resentment of the overclass always arises from a deeply moral center. It’s not just that the 1% sucks up more than 90% of all new the new wealth generated in this country; it’s that their arrogance and presumption regarding their entitlement to power and wealth is widely seen to be undemocratic and simply wrong. But it appears that Clinton and her tea…
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…s, a garrulous visitor asked me how I reconciled Muhammad’s teachings with American life; since Muhammad was primarily a political leader and a general, was it not impossible for me to be loyal to a secular society? “I don’t have that problem,” he volunteered, “because my Savior never engaged in those kinds of actions.” Of course, no American Muslim I know has these conversations, not in many years—the debate in favor of democracy was long ago dec…
Read More…activities reflected such particular combinations of personal proclivity, class privilege and education that they weren’t generally relevant. That’s why I never thought of this book as a memoir; my goal wasn’t represent myself, but to offer myself and my experience as ways of thinking about broader issues of being human. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? Even today, when books, articles and TV shows about transgender i…
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…ven to the point of fallacy. At one point Langdon is rescued by an African-American man who is a thirty-third degree Mason of the Scottish Rite and a lodge brother of Peter Solomon, which is highly unlikely. American Freemasonry, including the Scottish Rite, has always been unofficially segregated. In the 1780s, Prince Hall, a black Bostonian, was initiated by some Irish soldiers. The white lodges in Boston refused to accept him, so he formed his…
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…left. Conservative elites thumbed their noses at the staid mores of their class by celebrating NASCAR, megachurches, guns and cheap American beer. They congratulated themselves for being more in touch with everyday people than their snobby peers. And then something changed, and suddenly they realized they had little in common with people like Joe the Plumber and the acolytes of Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin. Social conservatives, especially the r…
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…longer live in that world. Congress’ deference to a professional military class of virtually priestly stature is legendary, and a matter for grave embarrassment. The President demonstrates little concern for the responsibilities and ethical complexities of centralized modern warfare; he contents himself with the bluster and bombast of his own rhetoric. Two military branches have become five: the Marines, the Air Force, and the Coast Guard are now…
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…ce have anything to do with it? A: Race has nothing to do with it. Q: Does class have anything to do with it? A: Class has nothing to do with it. Q: Does partisan affiliation have anything to do with it? A: Partisan affiliation has nothing to do with it. Q: Does gerrymandering have anything to do with it? A: Gerrymandering has nothing to do with it. Q: Does political polarization have anything to do with it? A: Political polarization has nothing t…
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