Religion of the State

 My regular readers will know that this topic will be somewhat divergent from regular posts - but it does tie in, and I'll make that point at the end.  I want to talk about religion, and its incorporation into the lives of everyday citizens by the State.     

First of all, I want to say that I believe religion plays an important - maybe even critical role - in our development as human beings.   Historically, religions have created doctrines and codes by which we live - albeit not necessarily collectively  - and even some of our most critical cultural infrastructure has been born from roots in religious meaning. Such developments have evolved over time to become necessary for all, and yet we may not have had them had there first not been religious ceremony surrounding their use. 

In the West, however, we fancy ourselves  an agnostic nation - a nation of rational thinkers who separate church and state.  I'm using the word church here loosely - you can substitute the title of any other religious structure there.    We separate masjid and state, or synagogue and state, or whatever.   The fact is, we deem ourselves non-religious; secular.   But this is only a self-indulgent fiction.   

The fact is, here in the West, we've shifted our religious focus.   We have left behind the institutions to which we previously adhered, and in their stead we have erected a deeper, more demanding religion supported by (and deeply intertwined with) our State.  This state-sponsored religion has various names, all innocuous and subtle, but all ever-present and pervasively sewn within the very fabric of our lives.  Its voice permeates our media, our social institutions, our educational systems, our healthcare, our food supply, and much much more.    

In fact, our western religion is so imbedded in every aspect of our lives here that we do not recognize it as a religion at all.  We consider it instead a way of life.   This religion of ours has various names - all informal titles that we use arbitrarily, sometimes in everyday conversation.   We offer liturgy and prayer (and even alms) in the name of this religion, and most of us do not even realize we are doing so.    So intimately woven is this religion into the very fabric of our lives that we cannot even recognize its stronghold over us.  Our servitude to the deity that is central to this state-induced religion is absolute;  so much so that we do not even recognize ourselves as slaves. 

By now, my readers in the West are probably scratching their heads, wondering which religion I could possibly be referring to.  After all, we're informed; educated.  We don't bow to superstition anymore; we no longer assign celestial meaning to thunderstorms or floods.  Doesn't that mean we've evolved? That we're beyond such nonsense?

 I'm afraid not.  You see, here in the West, the religion of our state is economy, and our god is money. 

We worship at temples in the form of banks and financial institutions.  We offer our time in the form of labor to this demanding deity, so we can have just a bit more of it.  We trade precious moments of the gift of our lives for its coin.  We crave ever more of this deity - toiling for its affection, often resorting to malevolent tactics (lying, stealing, cheating, murder, etc.) to try to capture its attention.   

Here in the West, we worship money as god. 

A great of my readers will disagree with this.  However, I will post this question:  

What can be done without  money?   And if your answer is something benign like "walking in the park" or "spending time with my dog," I ask you: are you certain you aren't spending money when you do those things?     If you walk your dog, back at home, don't you still have utilities?  Food? Fuel in your automobile?  And did you get those things without purchasing them? No, you did not.  So even those who would propose that they are free from this enslaving deity can see that the reality is altogether different, no matter how much we want to deny it.    Nothing we engaged in here in the west is free.  It all is paid for with money, which is acquired by selling moments of our time in exchange.  

So what does this religion do to our lives? How does it affect our death? 

Our lives it governs nearly entirely.  And no matter what we do, we cannot escape praying at its temple, or worshipping at its altar.   If we allow it, it will enslave us so completely that we spend every moment of our lives in pursuit of it.   It will even make us believe that a legacy we leave behind when we go must pay homage to it.   But we can reject all of this. 

We can determine our own religion - and it needn't be the accepted religion of the state.  By waking to death and life, we can begin to loosen the chains that have enslaved us for so long, and start to look at both life and death through a different lens.