Yeah, obvious, I know. But there’s a great facepalming moment in this video at 50 seconds in:
Then I got to wondering what the hell this “9/12 Project” is, so I googled it. And I found this website. And on that website, I found this picture:
And in that picture, you’ll notice two references to Thomas Paine.
If Glenn Beck has read Thomas Paine, he’s being intentionally dishonest. And if he hasn’t read Thomas Paine, then I’m not surprised. His hordes of moronic supporters have no excuse either, since anyone can check out his works in a public (Ooooooooooh! Scary!) library if they like.
The reason I feel confident in saying that is because only a few seconds before hilariously misspelling “oligarchy” and somehow not realizing that “oligarch” is, in fact, a word, he rants about internationalism. This is one of Beck’s boogeymen – the scary internationalist idea of tearing down arbitrary borders and uniting people in common interests. It apparently sells well for people who hate foreigners but are at least conscious enough to know that they shouldn’t just come out and say that. They need some pseudo-rational justification for their xenophobia, which is where fear of internationalism enters into the discourse (not all opposition to certain kinds of internationalism are based on that fear, but it would be foolish to deny that it exists, and that people like Beck capitalize on it).
Thomas Paine had some things to say about nationalism and internationalism. Let’s take a look:
“In stating these matters, I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because I thought them improper, but have declined rewards I might with reputation have accepted, it is no wonder that meanness and imposition appear disgustful. Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are,without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.”
–Rights of Man, Chapter 5
In other words, Paine is saying that there is nothing special about his position as an American, and his independence includes independence from duties for a specific country and against another. For someone to have the world as their country is about as explicit of an endorsement of internationalism as one can get.
And not only that, but has Beck ever read The Age of Reason? Jesus. If his audience thinks that the “new atheists” are hostile to religion, they really should maybe bother to read this major work by someone they claim to admire. Here are some quotes from what Paine had to say about the Bible and religion in that book:
“In many things, however, the writings of the Jewish poets deserve a better fate than that of being bound up, as they now are, with the trash that accompanies them, under the abused name of the Word of God.”
“But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person alone. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.”
“[T]he theory or doctrine of redemption has for its basis an idea of pecuniary justice, and not that of moral justice. If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, … another person can take the debt upon himself, and pay it for me. But if I have committed a crime, every circumstance of the case is changed. Moral justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty even if the innocent would offer itself. To suppose justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its existence, which is the thing itself. It is then no longer justice. It is indiscriminate revenge.”
“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.”
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.”
I wonder how well that would sell to Beck’s audience. Maybe he should run some of that by the suits at FOX and see how that sticks. Forget FOX, I think even someone like Richard Dawkins would find these excerpts a bit too over-the-top in its hostility to the kinds of values which so many of Beck’s audience hold to so fanatically. After all, Dawkins seems to get along well with more liberal believers, but Paine went one step further in just flatly saying that he detested Christianity and the Bible as a whole.
Actually, you know what? Someone really should call up Glenn Beck’s radio show and read that last quote to him and see how he handles that situation.
Atheist Hobos 