So, here I am at blogspot. I don't have any spontaneous content on hand to dazzle anyone with, so, for a little while, I'm going to cherry pick what I think were decent notes from my facebook. The first, I will present in two parts, a few days seperated. This is also my final paper from Sociology of Religion. Once I start generating new thought, I will source my inspiration as well, so those with bountiful free time can add to their reading lists.
In modern and now postmodern times, religion has become wild and varied due to the number of ideologies which are acceptable for people to embrace. Much of the Western world enjoys a freedom of religion never before enjoyed by anyone in history, but this is not to say that religion is no longer a source of conflict. Prior to the enlightenment, warfare was conducted across Europe, as often on a religious basis as not. While substantive religions (Christianity or any denomination thereof, Hinduism, etc) conduct very little open conflict against each other any more, most of the conflict experienced in the 20th century has been fought on the basis of functional religions, namely Freedom, which we will be the focal point of this examination of modern functional religious conflicts. Freedom also exists in the United States as secularized civil religion, with its own lists of martyrs and prophets.
The concept Freedom functioning as religion may seem laughable to some, but it will seem heretical to others, and it is those who practice it religiously; as a functional description of Christianity may threaten Christians, so too does a functional definition of abstract ideals threaten those whose meanings are drawn from them. There are also those who believe that the substantively defined religions lose relevance or credibility when these ideals are allowed into the mix. Upon closer examination, we find that Freedom is replete with its own sacred institutions, rituals, and belief systems, as well as theodices and legitimations.
Firstly we must trace the history and development of the concept of 'freedom', and its application, to see how it has ascended to the lofty heights which it enjoys today. To this end, we turn to the etymology of freedom, and find that it comes from the pre-Christian German concept of “frith”, which referred to a time of peace when a clan's blood feud ended. The concept was used extensively by Hegel. Hegel appropriated portions of the Jewish Kabbalah, and developed his concept of the progression of history as a process of God growing in self-knowledge through humanity's intellectual development. The natural culmination of this process was the realization that humans are God. As we trace the history of the Western world, we trace the development of democracy as an engine of freedom, and the cultist philosophy which it is based upon.
We must now examine our current context, and see what it was that allowed Freedom to gain such a foothold in the Western psyche, and what historical and sociological factors contributed to its rise. As most North Americans know, the creation of the United States is grounded in the pursuit of individual happiness, and the negation of any factors which prevent that quest from reaching fulfillment. In the case of the French Revolution, it was to abolish an abusive aristocracy. Since these events, Freedom has been couched as much in nationalistic language (“Land of the Free, home of the brave”) as it has in religious language (“they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!” - with apologies to Mel Gibson).
The modern conception of freedom includes economic freedom (spend how we want), philosophical freedom (think how we want) and political freedom (vote and organize government how we want). It takes on many forms as well, depending on the context: freedom of assembly (gather how we want), freedom of association (associate with who we want), freedom from government (freedom from overly regulated lives), freedom of movement (we can live and move anywhere we want), freedom of the press (we print news without restriction), freedom of/from religion (believe anything we want), freedom of speech (say anything we want), freedom of thought (think anything we want) and freedom of self defense (we can defend ourselves and property rights from violation).
Our case study will be the United States, and how the myth of freedom functions in the lives of its adherents. To the believer in Freedom, the individual's choice is the sacred, inhibitions are profane. In even this most basic sense, the Hegelian construction of freedom is realized – the making of a human being into God. In this case, the myth affirms the individual rights of all to enact their will without interference from another. To extend the Hegelian principle to this, everyone is God, and is the sole wielder of power in their own lives. This extreme internal locus of control lent itself easily to the rise of existentialism as well, which was another denomination in the worship of self. To this end, it appears that Freedom is an extension of, or subdivision of humanism. As such, Freedom is inherently materialistic, and makes no metaphysical claims. There is an inherently Eastern flavor to this mythology as well, as the growth of person into God is a common theme in the predominant Eastern religions. Contrary to most Western theology, Freedom rejects exclusivist claims, in the typical relativist fashion.
The power of a mythic Freedom is readily apparent in the world around us. It co-opts the religious sphere by denying any claims to absolute authority, is co-opted by the advertising and marketing of the economic sphere (freedom is disposable income), and finds its greatest instantiation in the political sphere (Operation Enduring Freedom). Curiously, when viewed from this perspective, the United States invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq is wholly religious warfare, and something of a latter-day crusade. In direct contrast to the experience of African slaves in continental United States, modern day American Freedom is rooted in the gratification of self as immediately as possible. In comparison between archaic, folk and modern religions, Freedom is the true postmodern religion. Freedom acts colonially, injecting its way of thinking into other systems, until the internal processes of that system serve Freedom, and the former masters are forgotten. The Church remains almost only in a symbolic capacity in postmodern American life, where Freedom is celebrated as often as God is, much the way churches during the Enlightenment were rechristened 'Temple of Reason”. The term is painfully ironic, because it shows that the level of superstition has not decreased, the object of worship has become a human construction, instead of a divine mystery.
If we apply Berger's social construction motif (Externalization-Objectivation-Internalization) to Freedom, there is no compelling reason to think that this cognitive dialectic is not being used to shape an externalized rule of Freedom. Curiously, Freedom would appear to be an anti-religion, in that it directly lends itself to the destruction of other meaning systems, while replacing an objective authority with each individual as final authority. The sacred becomes humanity. An anomic state is no longer a nightmare, it is replaced with the individualist's heaven – complete acceptance regardless of what one believes or practices, and complete freedom to believe and live as you so desire. The individual fails to realize that Freedom is as much what they make it as it exists outside them, and empowers Freedom through this cognitive gap.
To continue with Berger, next are the legitimations and theodices of Freedom. Because we are all experiencing ideal (libertarian) freedom, there is no compelling reason to think that anyone should fail in life. Failure, especially economic failure, is then explained as due to some failing of the individual. There can be no failure in the system, if there is no system. Since all humans are gods, the individual must have chosen to fail, as no one can impose failure upon a god. The greatest affront to the gods is a body which claims authority, and this theology is often utilized as an argument for laissez fair economic policies. The instability of the plausibility structures within this ideal are shocking, but they feature the greatest legitimation that can be conceived in a materialist society. At the same time, every authoritarian state, and cruelty are attributed to a lack of freedom. The language of this legitimation is telling as to how people conceptualize Freedom: Freedom is not something an individual has, or attains, it is vaporous, like an ether which pervades society. It verges on the spiritual, an intangible entity which flows through a society, empowering the individual to move and act beyond the confines of social controls or other authoritarian religions. The success of those outside institutional Freedom is discredited and treated as an exception to the rule, with an understanding of people living out collective ideals as “sheeple”, or some form of less than ideal human who is so cognitively undeveloped that they cannot appreciate the value inherent to Freedom.
As De Tocqueville observed the rise of individualism and it's parasitic infection of American religion, we can see the full effects in the relative ineffectiveness of Christianity as a force for positive social change. In fact, De Tocqueville observed that the interest in religion in his time was driven primarily by wants of self. As it is observed today, Freedom is common religion, or as Herberg called it, “the American way of life”. The mystical religious experience has since been replaced by the sense of self-satisfaction that comes with the service of self. The search for man's meaning in the universe has come to the realization that humanity is the meaning of the universe.
When we speak of religious institutions in the United States, democracy may not be at the forefront of our minds, but it still is the most widely acknowledged as the source of strength for the nation. Freedom is not a one god religion, as it turns out. Democracy is understood as the agency by which Freedom is brought about, and Freedom empowers human beings. To this end, the foundational document of the United States roots being a citizen in the language of Freedom and Democracy. These values are taught in public schools, and indoctrinate children into Freedom much the same way Sunday School is used in many churches today. This also explains the strength which Freedom wields over the minds of the American populace; Freedom is taught five days out of the week, how can Christian values hope to compete with one morning a week?
What values do we find upheld in democracy? If we understand democracy as a town hall-style approach to governance, we find the appearance of a holistic, community oriented way of governing a small, and relatively unsophisticated village. If the approach favored is that of the Greeks, what is celebrated is wealth, intellectualism, and being male. In light of this, the new democracy must celebrate everyone equally, with no preference towards any class or race or gender. This ideal fits neatly into Freedom's celebration of the individual, as New Democracy gives the same right and voice to anyone, regardless of merit or ability. We are all gods, and all opinions are equal. As the French academic Faguet said, “Democracy [is] the Cult of Incompetence.”
Who then are the prophets of Freedom? We can trace the origin from concept to culthood, but ideals do not empower themselves, they must first be empowered by a human being. In Ayn Rand Freedom found a champion for self and existentialism. Rand constructed the morality of Freedom around capitalist ideologies and economic understandings of Freedom, where self-interest is based on human (rational) nature, while focusing on the human right to act according to chosen principles. The life of an organism creates the value of that organism, and whatever furthers or sustains the quality of that life is therefore good.
The morality of Freedom is a response (not directly) to the sentiments of A.E. Housmann expressed in the lines of his poem:
And how am I to face the odds
of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
in a world I never made.
The world is made by humanity, and this legitimation functions to decrease anomie through the boldest abstraction of externalization. There is nothing to fear; no estrangement from a world constructed wholly by humanity.
