Sheep is Sheep

Ok. So athiests in North Carolina bought a billboard on Billy Graham Parkway that says “one nation indivisible” not a single thing wrong with that. Their cash. Non offensive message. NO PROBLEM. Then someone spraypaints “under god” with an arrow inserting it in the original phrase. First off, vandilism is bad, mkay! Second…the arrow inserts the phrase in a grammatically awkward position if you ask me. Third, apparently it was an atheist group that rented the sign, but honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed that as an atheist message until these ass hats called attention to it. So my judgement is Athiests 1 Christians 0.

But that’s not the interesting question to me. If you are buying advertising space, you are pushing something. It doesn’t need to be appropriate or effective. By definition you are promoting a point of view/product/idea. In the case of the agnostics/atheists group(I know they are different. THEY named themselves using both terms. That’s a point of ignorance I’m preparred to ignore at this point…) you are promoting the concept of NOT believing. Proving a negative is tricky. Doing it in 3 words, even tougher. Using a billboard on the Billy Graham Parkway in North Carolina, while deliciously ironic, isn’t exactly the most effective medium or location or audience.

The obvious point was to poke the bear of christians in the area. Wrapping it in the flag on July 4th week was a brilliant move. Makes it kind of awkward to respond without tripping into saying something anti american.

But let’s say, the idea was to provoke thought on the topic. I’ve always had a problem with the idea of preaching the idea of nonbelief. By the same token that christians can’t PROVE god. No one else can DISPROVE some higher power. Which means, athiests profess a belief in NO god. Which at its base isn’t any different than christians professing a belief IN god. Its just a belief. No more no less. Which means one side is truly no different than the other. Much as the followers at the top enjoy vilifing the leaders opposing them, they are mirror images.

The VAST majority of people fall somewhere on the agnostic scale. Little science, little mojo, little god. And a whole lot of no clue, just trying to make it through the day.

Its like people who throw a fit over the muslim family who owns the jiffy mart. ‘They are so damn muslim, but they sell us porn and bongs? What the fuck!’ First of all, that guy isn’t “blow up a building guy.” That guy is “I gotta make my rent guy!” HE IS JUST LIKE YOU! And you know why he sells porn and beer and bongs? Because THAT IS WHAT SELLS! Because most people like to get off, and they like to get high. They aren’t good or bad. They just are people. They are just like you.

The problems start when you project the theatre preformed by their ‘leaders’ as how they truly are. Leaders are the extreme in any group. They present themselves as more stoic, or entertaining, or intelligent, or physically, sexually or mentally capable. Or whatever they deem as the quality that will best hold sway over their flock. And there is power in them there flocks. As they grow they throw off cash and influence and perks their leaders would never enjoy without them. There is a LOT of incentive in building and maintaining the flock. And the easiest way is to come up with a common enemy for the flock. Catholics have protestants. The ‘Niners have the Raiders. Democrats, republicans. Etc etc.

In the process of growing the flock and positioning it, the flockees are manipulated. Told they are not of the same stuff as their opposition. That they stand above them in whatever way will best hold their fascination. And eventually they see themselves as wholly different and superior to whoever has been placed in opposition to them. Most of the time no one really knows why or how or for what reason they are ‘better’. They just know how things are, or how they appear.

Build a big enough flock, and you will even isolate yourself, as the leader, from the constraints of reality. You see yourself as not only above your self created opposition. You see yourself as above all logic or reason. And you get leaders defaming themselves in any number of ways. Typically by demonstrating that they are, in the end, just like us. Just trying to get through the day. Work in a couple beers. Maybe an orgasm would be nice.

So at the end of the day, we are all sheep. You may be the lead sheep. But eventually it will come out. You are a sheep. And no matter what flock you are associated to, or why you are associated to it, or what your function is within that flock, you will act like sheep.

No matter how flowery your language. How sophisticated your reasoning. How powerful your sword arm. You are just like him. And her. And that guy over there. And all the rest of us.

Everyone believes in something. Even if its believing in nothing. We would be better off to recognize the similarities rather than get tunnel vision for the differences.

Might actually make us ‘one country, indivisible’.

Maybe more than that.