Demonizing The Other

Over the past few weeks I have started following some Pagan blogs, and am encouraged by the number of sane, rational Pagans out there. Things aren't perfect, though. The combination of crony capitalism and Christian social conservatism in the Republican party makes the right a perfect foil for leftwing political views combined with religious pluralism.

A few days ago, one of these progressive Pagans used Manichean language to describe the right in the U.S., calling them "nihilists" who only believe in the will to power. The impression I got was that, while Democrats were ordinary, flawed politicians, Republicans were a different species altogether, without any principles or scruples.

While I'm happy to grant that the GOP is considerably worse than the Democratic party at present, I do not believe they occupy different universes. Both parties are populated by the last people on Earth whom you'd want to be politicians, i.e. people who want to be politicians! Almost any politician who makes it to the top ranks of government is going to be driven by goals worse than a desire to serve others, and having once attained office will make more and more compromises with whatever nobler principles he or she has. All politicians are demagogues to a degree, which means you really can't take what they say that seriously. They are balancing what they believe with their need to say things that will get them elected.

Furthermore, I question the intellectual integrity of anyone in this day and age who subscribes to such absolute bifurcations between the Light and the Dark, Good and Evil. That's a relic of dualist religions, of which Christianity is an unofficial member. I suppose there is room in Neopaganism for dualism of that kind, but I doubt that Pagans who subscribe to this kind of demonization of The Other are actually aware of what they are doing.

Once you demonize The Other, you don't need to try to understand them. They are no longer really people, but forces for evil wearing a mask. Unless you believe your opponents are sociopaths one and all, you have an obligation to understand where they are coming from, no matter how repugnant their views -- or so it seems to me. To do otherwise is to make the same mistakes that led to so much human suffering in previous generations, as Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."