The Taking What's Not Yours Awards
Last week's Newsweek featured the cover story, "The Giving Back Awards" (July 10, 2006). It was a "special double issue" supposedly about 15 showcased people who, I imagine are giving back. On the cover were a couple of notable individuals, Brad Pitt and Rick Warren, and some others I didn't recognize. But then I didn't look too closely. I didn't even read it-- I just happened to see it on the table of an office.
Now how can I critique it if I didn't even read it? Simple, because I'm pretty sure I already know what the whole thing is about. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Here are some of those "beautiful" people who magazines like to feature, all doing really really really really really good things somehow somewhere someway-- a double issue's worth of super good things. And the concept of giving back means that these people have had so much fortune heaped upon them that they've listened to their heart and done a bunch of things to help others out who we presume have not been as fortunate. Seems okay.
Until we use our brains and actually think about what all this is.
Forgive me, but I can think of very few things that are as putridly wretched as this. I just can't figure out how anyone with a molecule of brain matter would think this was anything but. Actually I really should be saying a molecule of soul matter-- I say soul matter because the smartest people frequently do the stupidest things.
Does anybody not know this is merely a bunch of people blowing their trumpets in the public square so everyone can see how fabulous they are? How many golly-gee spiffy things they've done? How much money they've given so they can be ever-so fabulous? I mean, didn't Jesus say something about that?
The most repulsive thing is the whole giving back concept. Now come on, think about that. "Giving back." Usually-- no, wait-- all the time, what it means when you "give back" is that you've taken something that belongs to someone else. So, ahem, we're giving "awards" to people who're just doing what anyone should do?
What have these people taken that doesn't belong to them? Let's use Brad Pitt as an example. Now I'm not picking on Brad Pitt per se; here he's just a guy who represents any individual living richly in the Catholicist Nation. Brad has got millions of dollars from films and promotional appearances he's made over the years. Why does he have those millions of dollars? Well, he could only have gotten them one of two ways.
He either earned them-- and therefore, really, has no reason to give anything back, or he stole them-- and giving it back is just something he should be doing to make restitution to begin with.
We could even look a bit more at each. Did Brad Pitt earn that money? Well, if a gazillion people went to see his movies enough then, yeah, I guess he did. But does what Brad Pitt do really merit that kind of take? In other words, do these people really know what they're doing when they lavish him with all that money? To put it more simply, couldn't it be the case that Brad Pitt is seen as an idol, not just a movie star-type idol, but a real demonic captivating idol to which people assign their worship?
If this is indeed the case, then the whole thing about giving back is just a way to make the idol more "worthy" of his parishioners' worship. "Hey, look at this everyone! Look at what a magnanimous man Brad Pitt is, doing this and that for him and her oh how disadvantaged they are!" The Newsweek piece just becomes another chapter in the grand Catholicist mythology.
At this point it doesn't much matter whether he earned it or not. Whatever the Powers-That-Be in the Nation say is okay, then it's okay. They're brilliant myth-makers. (I think there is a word for "myth-makers" but I forgot what it was.) In the Catholicist Nation you gotta have those idols, especially the ones -- oh I get goose bumps and warm fuzzies-- who are "giving back." It's all part of the spectacular Mythology Show.
And you know what? There are just as many Jesuses in the mythology.
Gotta have 'em.
Just as long as no one finds the Real One.
Here's more on the Catholicist Nation.
And here are some of the Jesuses in the Mythology.
(Real quick, a perceptive Catholicist might look at all this and ask, "Oh but what about all the people they're helping?! How can you so cold-heartedly dismiss them?!" Hey, it's great that they're getting whatever nice things they're getting-- I'm not saying those are bad things at all. But it should be pointed out that without Christ they're all still dead. Furthermore, people who get nice things from Brad Pitt would get a thousand times that from Jesus Christ. But they don't want stuff from Christ-- a lot because the Catholicist Powers-That-Be convince them not to-- so they settle for the piddle Brad Pitt offers.)
Now how can I critique it if I didn't even read it? Simple, because I'm pretty sure I already know what the whole thing is about. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Here are some of those "beautiful" people who magazines like to feature, all doing really really really really really good things somehow somewhere someway-- a double issue's worth of super good things. And the concept of giving back means that these people have had so much fortune heaped upon them that they've listened to their heart and done a bunch of things to help others out who we presume have not been as fortunate. Seems okay.
Until we use our brains and actually think about what all this is.
Forgive me, but I can think of very few things that are as putridly wretched as this. I just can't figure out how anyone with a molecule of brain matter would think this was anything but. Actually I really should be saying a molecule of soul matter-- I say soul matter because the smartest people frequently do the stupidest things.
Does anybody not know this is merely a bunch of people blowing their trumpets in the public square so everyone can see how fabulous they are? How many golly-gee spiffy things they've done? How much money they've given so they can be ever-so fabulous? I mean, didn't Jesus say something about that?
The most repulsive thing is the whole giving back concept. Now come on, think about that. "Giving back." Usually-- no, wait-- all the time, what it means when you "give back" is that you've taken something that belongs to someone else. So, ahem, we're giving "awards" to people who're just doing what anyone should do?
What have these people taken that doesn't belong to them? Let's use Brad Pitt as an example. Now I'm not picking on Brad Pitt per se; here he's just a guy who represents any individual living richly in the Catholicist Nation. Brad has got millions of dollars from films and promotional appearances he's made over the years. Why does he have those millions of dollars? Well, he could only have gotten them one of two ways.
He either earned them-- and therefore, really, has no reason to give anything back, or he stole them-- and giving it back is just something he should be doing to make restitution to begin with.
We could even look a bit more at each. Did Brad Pitt earn that money? Well, if a gazillion people went to see his movies enough then, yeah, I guess he did. But does what Brad Pitt do really merit that kind of take? In other words, do these people really know what they're doing when they lavish him with all that money? To put it more simply, couldn't it be the case that Brad Pitt is seen as an idol, not just a movie star-type idol, but a real demonic captivating idol to which people assign their worship?
If this is indeed the case, then the whole thing about giving back is just a way to make the idol more "worthy" of his parishioners' worship. "Hey, look at this everyone! Look at what a magnanimous man Brad Pitt is, doing this and that for him and her oh how disadvantaged they are!" The Newsweek piece just becomes another chapter in the grand Catholicist mythology.
At this point it doesn't much matter whether he earned it or not. Whatever the Powers-That-Be in the Nation say is okay, then it's okay. They're brilliant myth-makers. (I think there is a word for "myth-makers" but I forgot what it was.) In the Catholicist Nation you gotta have those idols, especially the ones -- oh I get goose bumps and warm fuzzies-- who are "giving back." It's all part of the spectacular Mythology Show.
And you know what? There are just as many Jesuses in the mythology.
Gotta have 'em.
Just as long as no one finds the Real One.
Here's more on the Catholicist Nation.
And here are some of the Jesuses in the Mythology.
(Real quick, a perceptive Catholicist might look at all this and ask, "Oh but what about all the people they're helping?! How can you so cold-heartedly dismiss them?!" Hey, it's great that they're getting whatever nice things they're getting-- I'm not saying those are bad things at all. But it should be pointed out that without Christ they're all still dead. Furthermore, people who get nice things from Brad Pitt would get a thousand times that from Jesus Christ. But they don't want stuff from Christ-- a lot because the Catholicist Powers-That-Be convince them not to-- so they settle for the piddle Brad Pitt offers.)
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