The Legends Supporting the American Religion
by Jonathan Goodwin
Religion (noun)
In this article, I intend to explore the legends underlying the American religion. By American religion, I mean to suggest the belief by a large segment of the population in the structures and institutions of government, and the belief that these structures and institutions are used for purposes beneficial to the people. In other words, the religion is belief in the benevolence of the state and the goodness of the political leaders. Legend (noun)
There are several American legends that either support this religious belief directly, or otherwise contribute to the deification of the state and those who act through it. Such legends, taught in the public schools and perpetuated through various mainstream media outlets – movies, books, and magazines, as well as mainstream web-sites – create a common foundation as the basis for the desired religious belief: belief in the state.
Many have done valuable to work toward the shattering of one or more of the key legends, thereby contributing to the loss of faith in the religion. These efforts can only be beneficial to freedom. The work of shattering these legends is the work of revisionist historians, although not all revisionists support the idea of shattering the religion of state. Such historians have toiled tirelessly from the inception of each legend, yet many worked in relative obscurity. Certainly the internet has made their work easily available to any who care to look.
There are many such legends in American history. I will explore three of these, and suggest that these three may be the most foundational due to the magnitude of awareness in and acceptance by the population at large – most importantly, due to the importance of these legends to the foundation of the American religion. Proximity in time, I suggest, is not the key criteria – one event occurred 150 years ago, while the most recent is only ten years old. But what these three cases hold in common is the level to which the legends have been internalized by large portions of the population.
A major impediment to shattering the legends is that such action runs full-force into a brick wall of “we the people.” Too many accept the idea that “they” are the government; that the people are in charge; that the government and the country are the same; that I vote, so I have control. As opposed to control through dictators and kings (where the self-interest of the rulers at the expense of the people was never in question), representative democracy has done a wonderful job of convincing the people that they are the rulers, choosing politicians to work on their behalf for their good.
Because they have been taught to believe that they and the government are one-and-the-same, they cannot accept that the legends are not only false but shed light on the murderous actions of government. They cannot damn themselves. Additionally, they cannot accept that the legends are false, because to do so will suggest that they have been dupes.
I do not intend to refute each legend in detail in this post – I am not qualified to do so, even if I chose to. My purpose is to suggest the three that I view as the more important legends to burst, specifically because they are so deeply ingrained and hold significant sway as basis for the religion. Lincoln and his War The first such legend is Lincoln’s war, commonly (and inaccurately) referred to as the Civil War. One legend holds that Lincoln fought to free the slaves and give them equality. While it is certainly true that the war ended slavery in the United States, this was not Lincoln’s objective: the truth is that Lincoln didn’t care one bit about the slaves, other than proposing to send them back to Africa. Lerone Bennett, Jr. captures the lie behind the legend in his book “Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream.”
Another legend from this war was that Lincoln fought it to preserve the union. Of course, Lincoln did not preserve the union, but instead transformed it into that which opponents of the Constitution most feared – from a confederacy of states with a limited central government to an all-powerful central government to which state government would become increasingly subservient. From “The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution,” by Brion McClanahan:
Any assurances to the contrary offered by supporters to the Constitution were killed during this war, along with 700,000 or more victims of Lincoln’s needless aggression. Tom DiLorenzo has done significant work regarding the myth of Lincoln. One of his books is “Lincoln Unmasked: What You're Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe.”
From the Amazon description:
Lincoln is memorialized via his own temple in Washington, DC. The design echoes a classic Greek temple, “structures built to house deity statues....” It is ironic that the site has become an almost sacred venue for those advocating civil rights.
For those interested, I have written a review of Bennett’s book; this can be found here. World War Two It can be suggested that a discussion of the legend of World War Two without first exploring America’s entry into and subsequent impact upon the First World War would render such discussion incomplete. For purposes of historical accuracy and understanding, this is certainly correct. However, for purpose of legend – legend behind religion – this is not necessary. Most Americans don’t make the connection, and the connection isn’t necessary to the belief of the legend. The images of World War Two stand alone, and stand vividly in the minds of every American. The attack on Pearl Harbor; the concentration camps; evil Japs / nips and evil Huns / krauts; Hitler as the ultimate evil; the D-Day invasion; naval battles; island-hopping marines and soldiers across the Pacific. We have seen these images countless times – in newsreel and on the silver screen. World War Two stands out for most Americans as the Good War, the one case where there can be no doubt that America was in the right: subject to an unprovoked attack; fighting on the side of freedom and against tyranny – the tyranny of the Nazis and Hitler, and the tyranny of the Japan and Hirohito; where the two bombs were dropped, thus avoiding the need for a direct invasion of Japan and thereby saving a million American lives while bringing the war to a sooner end. All myths. All legends. Even supporters of Roosevelt admit that he did all he could to enter the war – first by attempting to provoke Germany, then later Japan, into attacking the United States – while all the while telling the American people that he was doing all he could to stay out of the war. One very good book in this regard is “The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable,” by George Victor (a supporter of Roosevelt’s actions):
As to fighting against tyranny, this seems hardly plausible given that the Americans sided with Stalin, who at the beginning of the war had far more blood on his hands than did Hitler. From Herbert Hoover’s “Freedom Betrayed”:
Freedom Betrayed is a significant volume by Hoover, examining the foreign policy of Roosevelt (and then Truman) from the period 1933 through the end of the war. It is a remarkable account, not because he breaks any significant new ground (at least not by the time it was published, fifty years after his death), but because he was a former president. I am aware of no other volume of comparable significance where one president so directly criticizes the foreign policy of another – especially one as revered as FDR. For example, no president has written a comparable, critical account of Lincoln. Meanwhile, the legend of the atomic bomb lives on, unquestioned in the mind of the general public. Here I suggest “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb,” by Gar Alperovitz. He presents convincing evidence that the bombs were unnecessary toward the objective of ending the war sooner (in fact, delaying the end of the war); that the bombs did not save Americans from an invasion of Japan – no invasion was necessary in any case.
This view is not merely hindsight, fifty years after the fact. This was certainly the view of key military leaders at the time:
Alperovitz also documents the significant myth-making machine activated after the war regarding the atomic bombings. I have written numerous articles regarding Hoover’s work. I have also written reviews on the books by Victor (regarding Pearl Harbor) and Alperovitz (regarding the atomic bomb). Additionally, I have covered other aspects of this war. All can be found via the search engine on this site, for those interested.
September 11 This event is terribly important as it has ushered in a change to the country no less drastic than that brought on by Lincoln’s victory over the southern states. It is also an instant legend – here the images are even more vivid and real than those from the Second World War – and this without the overt help of Hollywood. The revisionist history here is not nearly as well developed. If for no other reason, this can be attributed to time – we stand only ten years removed from the event. I am not aware of any credible and verifiable descriptions of the truth of what happened that day; however, there are certainly many credible questions about the official explanation – these questions remain unanswered. An internet search for “September 11” + questions returned 2 million hits. A search through these will serve better than any incomplete list I could provide. A starting point could be “Architects and Engineers for 9/11Truth.”
More than 1,750 architects and engineers have publicly signed the following petition:
I suggest this not because I know it to be more credible than any other effort – I have no reason to believe this one way or another. However, I find it credible if for no other reason than the fact that almost two-thousand (inherently) well-educated architects and engineers have decided to put their names and reputations on the line firmly questioning the official story of the legend.
While we don’t know the truth about what happened, we do know for certain that members of the official government-appointed commission have doubts about the story they were told by various government officials:
Summary I have selected three of the major legends underlying the American Religion. I can think of others, but to my mind they do not affect the emotion and psyche of the average American as these three do. Two of the three have already been exposed with well-documented research. One is still awaiting such treatment – not due to a lack of effort on the part of revisionists, but perhaps because time has not yet allowed the erosion of the secrecy. Any efforts to broaden awareness of the fallacies behind these legends can only serve to undermine the religion, and therefore ultimately help de-legitimize the state. As with all attacks on faith, the faithful can and do respond with aggression and abuse. But time and effort opens more eyes. Once the scales are lifted, the sighted do not voluntarily return to blindness. Reprinted with permission from the Bionic Mosquito. January 2, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Bionic Mosquito
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