Narrow Way Cafe

Orphangelical

“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“Every saint has a past, every sinner a future.”

Oscar Wilde

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They fail to alter their views to fit the facts. Instead, they alter facts to fit their views.

Dr Who.

Pictures Worth A Thousand Words

Dgg

Charlton Heston’s (potentially) self fulfilling prophecy

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

It used to be that facts were facts. A photo could be trusted. It presented an inarguable truth. This is no longer the case. The epistemology of conspiracy1 has evolved so that alternative facts anchor whole ecosystems of subversive cultish belief.

I’ve remarked elsewhere that science and actual truth can still be known, that devotees of realism must emerge as victors in a rational battle for the soul of our culture. We need to reassert ownership of important symbols and over patriotism in our dialogues. Our affiliations – are paramount – the US Flag, and pre-19542 pledge of allegiance, for example. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance) Voting rights and equal representation. Prejudice is not the same as Idealism.

So, it’s my assessment that the First Amendment is failing. I mean specifically that reason has no power over deliberate anti-intellectualism. Unbridgeable political polarity – prejudice vs idealism – is the evidence. And this (to me) clearly implies why the Second Amendment exists. The 2A is another birth-right we must reassert ownership of … and *disconcertingly* doing so may require fulfilling Charlton Heston’s challenge. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_my_cold,_dead_hands)

Put me down as deeply worried that apparent, honest facts are no longer required to drive legislation or elections. I’m stunned that pictures are no longer worth 1000 words. Put me down as torn and wounded but rigidly unwilling to concede to liars and cheats.

Maybe it’s always been this way, and that’s why the founders amended the constitution for us with the Bill of Rights. Why did they author the First and Second amendments, listed as they are, 1st and 2nd? What does this relationship imply? Is it that when the first fails, the second becomes a bulwark and defense against tyranny and oppression?

1
Gray Areas
The Epistemology of Conspiracy
Something that may be of interest from my reading table… “How Conspiracy Theorists Argue: Epistemic capital in the QAnon social media sphere.” Source: Religious Studies, Open University, Gifford, UK School of Religion/Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada…
Read more
2 years ago · David Gerhart

2

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill codifying the addition of “under God” to the US Pledge of Allegiance into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.[44] Eisenhower said:

From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty…. In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.