Help, Help, I’m Being Repressed!

The persecution complex goes back to the roots of Christianity. It’s one of the few ideas an early follower would recognize from today’s Christianity. If memes are like genes, then the idea that Christianity is so dangerous to the status quo and must be stamped out is like the genome of a shark or a crocodile. It plays its role so well in its own proliferation that very little adaptation has been required regardless of changes to its environment. As far as the New Testament goes, it starts in what biblical scholars consider to be the earliest of the four Gospels:

 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

And it goes on through the latest. Jesus liked the idea of being persecuted so much he got all hipster about it in John 15:18

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

Vote For Me, I’m Incompetent

Art Robinson (visual approximation)

Last week Rachel Maddow had this amazing interview with a Republican congressional candidate called Art Robinson. He’s a funny guy who reminds me a lot of Lenny Horowitz in both his views and how he presents them. And there’s a lot of funny things to be said about him, but there’s this one line in his campaign ad I wanted to focus on. It’s also on his website:

Send an independent American to Washington, NOT a career politician