Pacify them thar masses!

Pacify them thar masses! Those in power must keep some sense of happiness amongst the masses, or risk revolution and revolt. My SPP today is about that -- read on, friends! (P.S. if you can tell me how this relates to teaching beyond making me a better critical thinker, please let me know...)

Pacification of the masses prevents social activism. “[E]ngineered optimism and its accompanying incapacity for dissent has helped capitalism survive for decades through a low-intensity democracy, driven by pitiless bureaucrats who provide just enough equality to keep people from taking to the streets in acts of civil disobedience” (p. 130). Religion is an easy vehicle for pacifying folks – historically, Christianity has influenced many. Religion thus becomes, “an instrument for manufacturing consent, marketing hope, and decapitating moral and ethical issues from political and economic ones” (p. 138). This reflects the phenomenon of Kansas we read about last year. Churches become accomplices in furthering an imperialist agenda, sometimes unbeknownst to parishioners none the wiser. Because Christianity has a history of oppression (think Catholic influence on boarding schools for American Indians) – we are able to see modern leaders using religion for further domination. Example: “Propped up as a compassionate tough guy vessel through which Lord Jesus orders the United States into the bloody theatre of battle, Bush Jr. is the perfect leader to combat the unwashed barbarians and take their country’s natural resources from their unworthy hands” (p. 124).