God and Capital
(Essay on the relationship between
religion and power)
By Kostas Lampos PhD
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"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
*
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
- George Orwell
*
There is a myth of the immortal soul, of
the omniscient, almighty and most merciful God, of life after death, of heaven
and hell, of the moralistic role of religions, of the charitable purpose of the
churches as well as the “holiness” of priesthoods and priests. This is just a
hypocritical facade which helps the minority retain its control of the
majority. The great disease of lies and hypocrisy ruined the human vision of
happiness and prohibited the human civilization from seeking social equality,
leading it instead to the current state of capitalist barbarity. This
obscurantist and authoritative myth, based on ignorance, fear, deceit and
violence must be revealed. Humanity must abolish it in order to follow once
more a path towards knowledge, conscience, compassion, struggle for social
equality, global peace and an ecumenical humanist civilisation.
*
Lies cast a shadow on truth only to become
the “one and only truth”. The obscurantist myths and ruling class ideologies
usurp history and replace all the authentic experiences, as well as the
people’s Logic and memory. The dominant power strangulates all kinds of
scientifically proven and socially useful knowledge and presents instead a so
called science-investigation-discovery fusion masked as a mixture of
religion-faith-apocalypse. Hypocricy replaces nobility, fake and virtual things
are being presented as genuine and real. At this point, darkness becomes the
light of ignorance, a “holly enlightenment” that is blinding. As a result,
human beings become shadows of themselves, mere instruments that produce wealth
for their tamers, while their lives tend to become even worse than the lives of
working animals.
Humans comprise packs of fanatics which
undiscerningly regurgitate myths, obscurantist nonsense and ruling-class
ideologies. The victors used violence to impose slavery and the ruling powers
formed a state which legislated individual ownership of land and means of
production in general. At that time, the obscurantist myths became
soteriological religions, the ruling class ideologies became instruments of
intimidation and violence, coercion and submission of the subordinate subjects.
Likewise, the subordinate subjects have been trying ever since, through
countless struggles and sacrifices, to improve their living conditions and
create the necessary requirements for permanent liberation from the
obscurantist myths and ruling class ideologies, which originate from the
obscurantist elitocracy of their exploiters. Social equality has always been
their objective.
In this struggle, the subordinate subjects
needed the help of all those who, despite standing on the other side of the
fence, have been willing to offer their knowledge in this claim for a better
life.
The result has always been a tiny step
towards improvement but their complete liberation would take a very long time
to come, much like old age or the ripening of fruits on the trees.
Disappointment and hope walk together hand in hand, forming a relationship
where hope grows bigger at the expense of disappointment. This happened because
the forces of Employment, Science and Culture, through their struggles and
experiences, gained knowledge, came up with ideas, created utopias and
constantly dreamt of a better world. Thus, as they gradually became wiser, more
and more people started to increasingly comprehend that the social equality
they claimed would only come as a result of their social liberation, which
would never be offered as a gift by their incumbent rulers. This could be
exclusively their own accomplishment. The new struggles contributed to the
accumulation of new knowledge, new experiences and new ideas. At a certain
point the question, “why so many people were stuck on obscurantist myths and
ruling class ideologies”, started to touch upon “holy and inviolable taboos”
and to demistify the authoritative role of religions.
Hence, by disputing authority, we started
to dispute its grand creation, its secret symbol and fetish, the concept of
God, revealing that the myth of God is substantiated through the myth of the
“immortal soul” and the supposed life after death. This revelation disrupts the
vicious circle that connects authority with religion. The latter is gradually
losing ground as refuge for all those persecuted by dominant authority and as a
supplier of voters and followers to the ruling elite, along with political and
social legitimacy. As a result the ruling elite itself is weakened.
This subject is still a taboo for many
fellow citizens and mentioning it is “an insult to their faith”. As for the
obscurantist ruling elitocracy, this is considered a “high treason” crime.
Perhaps, this is the reason why many notable thinkers avoid talking about it.
Partly they do not want to embarrass well-intentioned, devout people, but
mainly they do not want to challenge the obscurantist elitocracies which have
proven to be ruthless and do not play around.
It is well known that no person has chosen
his religion or faith. It was planted on them, it has been systematically
cultivated in their head, purposefully, by the incumbent obscurantist
elitocracies. We also know that very few people manage to permanently get rid
of their religious beliefs. Some may change their faith under conditions of
direct or indirect violence to save their lives or to keep their work.
On this particular subject, which has its
roots in violence, in lies and private/class interests, I believe that silence
is not golden; rather, it is a conscious complicity in a crime which has been
committed intentionally against humanity and its civilization for a very long
time. Therefore, I wished to write this book in good faith, in order to raise
the issue again to the public debate. Nobody ever lost from this, except for
people with an interest to cover up situations and keep them away from the
public debate.
I also wish to declare responsibly that it
is not my intention to insult anybody’s well-intentioned faith, with which I
may disagree but I respect it as their fundamental personal right. I feel that
I have a moral obligation, in defence of the deceived but well-intentioned
devout people, to accuse all those institutions, like the ruling classes,
religions, churches and elitocracies who act hypocritically, intentionally and
shamelessly manipulating and exploiting the faith of naïve people for
financial, social and political gains.
I feel an even greater moral obligation as
far as the young people are concerned, the newly born generations that come
into this world, unable to judge, to compare, to choose or reject. They end up,
unprotected, following a sterile and stupefying “religious tradition”, becoming
part of a foul class-oriented educational system which fights their genuine
curiosity for knowledge and lobotomizes their brain so that it prefers myths
and ignorance.
For all the above reasons, I would like,
in this book, to protest against the obscurantist ruling-class elitocracies
which use the youngsters’ minds like trash cans, stuffing them with toxic,
rotten ideas, with expired and useless intellectual and cultural byproducts,
with nihilist, individualist, ruling-class ideologies. I also wish to protest because
the naivety of the “devout” and the malevolent activity of religions, churches
and elitocracies does not only influence adversely my life among others; it
also mangles humanity as a whole, pushing it towards a theocratic capitalist
barbarity and obstructs the future of our children and of humanity. Still, I am
glad because the human mind resists. It manages, slowly but steadily, to push
developments ahead, giving way to the optimistic view of history, according to
which a new, better world is possible.
The modern forces of Employment, Science
and Culture must utilize their brain and adopt this kind of historical optimism
to break the vicious circle of decline; to pave the way for humanity’s next
step towards social equality. For exactly this reason, they need to realize,
sooner than later, that the youngsters’ mind is not a trash can. Hence they
must stop violating young minds. Instead they must protect them from
obscurantism and ruling-class ideologies. They must help them become part of
society, cultivate their critical thought and make their own choices in life;
teach them to love life and fight for social equality, freedom and humanism,
even if they must clash with all the authorities, religions, ideologies and
their fancy scarecrows.
The only worldview for the person of the
21st century can be the defence of concepts such as: life, survival of the
human race, progress of societies and humanity, dignity of the individual and
harmonious co-existence of society and Nature, in conditions of social equality,
self-management, peace and freedom. Only this perception of the world, beyond
religion and power, may provide an answer to the eternal question: what happens
to people, who are born free and equal but end up spending their lives like
slaves in conditions of extreme economic and social inequality?
The elitocracies, along with the rulers,
claim that there is an answer to the above question: it has to do with the
“imperfect human nature” which comes from “God’s will” and hence there is no
solution to the problem of social and economic inequality. Others claim that
the answer to this question is not the “imperfect human nature” because human
nature is not an arbitrary and unchanged creation of non-existent, imaginary,
metaphysical forces, like “Gods and demons”, but the product of specific
historical social forces and conditions. As for the “incomplete human nature”,
it is the creation of social forces which act like a “selfish, unjust and
inhuman class manipulated type of social organization”. Hence, there is a
solution to the problem in this present juncture of the 21st century, towards
the abolition of obsurantist myths, religions of hatred and authoritative
ideologies. A natural consequence of this would be the abolition of the selfish
capitalist organization of society which works at the expense of society and
humanity.
However, in the end, the course and
direction of history is not determined by the obscurantist elitocracies, which
may come and go, but from the timeless forces of Employment, Science and
Culture, which are steadily focused on social equality and ecumenical humanist
civilization. The misrepresentation of truth as a lie and vice versa, to
promote the authoritative ideologies, has become a lethal Gordian knot which
must be cut in order for humanity to finally breathe and for civilization to
shine.
This sums up the orientation and
skepticism of this book and I trust that many of our fellow citizens share the
same thoughts. Anybody who has something better to suggest regarding humans,
the society-humanity and its civilization, should not keep it to themselves but
speak out. This would be their moral contribution to the struggle of Man for a
better world, a world striving for social equality, a classless society of
direct democracy and for an ecumenical humanist civilization.
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