The Republican Party has been able to disconnect the economic
self-interest of regular fols across the country from their mores and
values. Politics is now about things such as abortion, gay marriage,
the ten commandments, and other cultural issues. Politics is no longer
about the real priorities of the Republican Party---low wages,
deregulation that hurts regular folks, tax cuts for the rich, and other
economic issues. To a large extent this is a result of demographics,
i.e an aging population, or even a generational effect, i.e. the baby
boom generation turns 20 and the country has a sexual revolution, the
baby boom generation turns 50 and the country starts thinking about the
life of the world to come. Those regular folks in the conservative
movement don't mind when their votes let the 16 year old son of the
business executive drive an expensive sports car, because they believe
they are storing up treasure for themselves in heaven.
The G/wi of the central Kalahari Desert had no ideas of a life
after death, except for those who worked on ranches and had been exposed
to christian missionizing. These reported a belief in !Nadima's
(=God's) skyland where people went when they died. In general,
hunter/gatherer egalitarian societies had no ideas of an afterlife,
while in contrast, agricultural hierarchical societies are famous for
their various ideas of an afterlife. The settled life of agriculture
allowed the construction of buildings and monuments that spanned
generations. These were crucial to the development of ancestor cults
and eventually ideas of an afterlife.
However, it is impossible to ignore that these same agricultural
societies, as they developed, contained great inequalities between their
members. In some cases it is obvious that promises of an afterlife
functioned as compensation for those who got the short end of the stick.
For example, only Viking warriors who died while fighting in battle were
suppose to go to Valhalla. More relevantly, christianity pitches its
promises of rewards in heaven to the poor and downtrodden. The
Republican Party has cynically exploited these beliefs of older voters
and their family members. George W. Bush revealed the true nature of
his professed christianity when he turned down a plan for the G8
governments to do more to help Africa.
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