Hightower now on The Murdock Report

that homespun texas populist is now a regular feature on the big show. be sure to catch it this and every tuesday on wgnu

Sylvester Brown Rocks!

Hey folks, just wanted to let you know that, if you missed the Murdock Report this week, you missed a doozy! Sylvester came on and had a lot of great ideas about the urban food desert dillema, plus we got some insight on his stint at the Post Dispatch.
You can check out his site at Sylvester Brown Jr.
Next week, as promised, we'll have Dr. Susan Lerner of Common Cause on, where she'll tell us about the conflict of interest involving the Citizens' United ruling.
Veddy, veddy interesting....

Wow, what a show!!!

We have to thank our guests for an entertaining and informative program, Katrina Vanden Heuvel of the Nation magazine,and Steve Gregali, special assistant to Mayor Francis Slay.
Kenny and I are completely blown away!
If you missed it, go to WGNU's website and check out the podcast.

On the January 18th edition of the Murdock Report...

Hey folks,
My apologies for the lack of activity on the ol' bloggerino thingamajug. The Little Show That Could takes quite a big job to keep the standards we strive for. I will endeavor to be more diligent in the future.

All props to Mark Magus. The guy's a trooper,and I hope to have him on the show real soon.

Anyhow, We have couple great shows coming up. This week, we're talking about civility in the media
Craig Barnes, Common Cause National Governing Board Member. He's an author, playwright, radio host, and Founderof Common Cause Colorado he'll address how media influences people’s attitudes and the way we communicate with each other.

Well also have an interview with author Jessica Harris, whose book "High on the Hog", a new perspective on our country's food traditions and how African Americans helped shape everyone's diet, and how slavery altered theirs.

Next week, I'm really excited about. Steve Gregali from Mayor Slay's office will be on to give us a report on Slay's role at the US Confrerence of Mayors. Mayor Slay is the the Chair of the Jobs committee, so it will definitely an important meeting. Mayors do quite a lot for their communities at these types of events ecause they can from different realtionships with other cities, what works and what doesn't. Plus cities really need a new strategies to deal with a less friendly Congress who has more of an anti-urban bias.

Later in the show, we will do a preview of the State of The Union address with none other than Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor & publisher of the Nation Magazine.
Persaonally, I'm almost giddy.
Gregali & Katrina on January 25th, Barnes & Harris on the 18th.

And I am outa here...

The China Hub show! 12-21 edition of The Murdock Report.....

Join us when we have St. Senator-elect Maria Chappelle-Nadal and Jo Mannies of the St. Louis Beacon. We'll also have a lively discussion about the repeal of DADT.
Join us, would you?

The Millennialism Psychosis

We have touched on the concept of millennialism on the show, but I should state what it is once again. It is, perhaps, the most dangerous part of the appeal of the religious right. They are the World Ending Fables that attach themselves to religions. These fables become all-consuming to many lay followers, and often are the sole reason that families adhere so ardently to their Imperialistic religious paradigm. As we all know, we live in an age of incivility, and part of the animosity is generated from the uncompromising attitude that emanates from the religious right and their allies in politics. In my opinion, it is directly related to the psychological effect that such world-ending fables produce: millennialism.

Some would argue that millennialism went away with the Y2K scare. I respectfully disagree with this notion. The tragedy of 9-11 made sure that it would become a powerful undertone in our society, and it has been reinforced by war, recession, natural disasters, and things like the Mayan calendar, planets aligning and even reports of an asteroid that wil projected to come dangerously close to earth in 2027. Society has faced great challenges in the past, like the black death that was the bubonic plague, and has survived. We shall do so again.

But what exactly is millennialism? It's the belief that a powerful, omnipotent deity will bring all of existence to an end, the good being redeemed, the bad sent to a place whre they will be punished. Millennialism is also a pillar of each of the four great monotheistic religions. We are most familiar with the Christian paradigm, the Revelation To John, in which Christ will establish a one-thousand year reign of the saints on earth before the Last Judgement. For the Jewish faith (where Christianity borrowed the idea) it is the coming, unknown Messiahs, one spiritual and one a political leader. Muslims have a similar story with its' "hidden imam", and Buddhists have the expectation of Maitreya, a kind of messianic final incarnation of the Buddha. Indigenous, anti-imperialist (or anti-colonial) and new-age style movements all have millennialist characteristics with a multitiude of variations, but the theme is always the same; God will judge the living, resurrect his loyal subjects who have died, and reign as supreme temporal ruler who will deliver the ultimate divine justice. There are two streams of thoughts to millennialism: pre- and post-millennialism. Pre-millennialism sees the millennium as requiring God's supernatural intervention to initiate it; post-millenialism sees it as the climax and goal of all human progress, and humanity should contribute to this so-called "divine plan" and God will then come to rule. Millennialism can be construed as positive in some cases, like when it's used as the impetus to build infrastructure and better peoples' daily existence, but they seem to be rare. The power of these types of movements ebb and flow with the events that happen to humanity, but they are generally popular in any age. Yet, no matter how many times they have been predicted, they go unfulfilled. However, the key to its' appeal is not the time frame they exist in, but the earthly nature, the perceived tangibility of their cosmic message of a "new world" will come and sweep away all the suffering and oppression that has gone on for countless generations. It means an end to the current institutions of power and, therefore, gives all millenialist dogmas a revolutionary quality that has made them unwelcome to most who occupy positions of power.

This makes them almost irresistable to politicians, and the parties they belong to, who want to exploit them for their own ambitions. A perfect example of this is Newt Gingrich's newfound love of the "clash of civilizations" rhetoric. This, and similar messages, is how millennialism has infected the political arc that has come to define our world today: With the downfall of Communism in Russia and the Soviet bloc, the world reverted back to the old religious rivalries that had  previously dictated world history, which was quite unexpected to many. It produced a kind of "quickening" in society that turns into a longing for a messiah to produce himself and start the apocalypse. Since this "Judgement Day" is anticipated but goes unfulfilled, millennial hopes have given fresh fuel to a very conservative influence in politics. In quieter rimes, when societies aren't faced with war, natural disaters (like massive earthquakes and mega-hurricanes), and economic turmoil, millennial hopes merely console the suffering and inspire patience. They have even given birth to new sects, like Mormonism and the Seventh-Day Adventists in America. However, when the world is in turmoil for one reason or another, millennialists can become disruptive, even engaging in revolutionary efforts to overthrow the sociopolitical order in an attempt to foster the atmosphere that will bring about this celestial kingdom.

Here lies the real threat; every time the apocalyptic fever overtakes a population, two things happen; the efforts to create the millennial kingdom on earth have led to disaster, and the predictions always turn out to be flat wrong. From the days of Alexander the Great to the Jewish revolts against the Roman Empire, all the way up to the Taiping Rebellion (which led to the death of 20 to 35 million people in China), the Cold War against Communism or even the "War on Terror", such movements tend to self destruct, bringing great global catastrophes that exacerbate suffering and oppression.

Millennialism is part of what the Republican party has exploited to once again attain political power, and it's been part of their playbook for the better part of a century, if not longer. Millennialism arrived with the Puritans, and has been part of the American political landscape to this day. You see and hear it all the time, yet you rarely equate the two. It's there when Glenn Beck is prostelyzing to his listeners, then segues into an ad urging his listeners to buy gold from GoldLine, or to buy "Food Insurance". The term "American Exceptionalism" is a direct appeal to millennialists who tell themselves that they are one of "God's chosen", no matter what sins they may be guilty of. It fuels the current strain of Islamophobia that led to protests over an alleged mosque being built in New York's Times Square. It is central to the rise of hate groups associated with White Supremacy and Christian Identity movements all over the country.

With this exploitation from the GOP comes a strident anti-intellectualism; the demonization of anyone and everyone who would challenge the conservative power bases within America. Elite liberals are cast as the heretics that the religious right would like nothing more than to round up and burn at the stake. It is this dangerous undercurrent that most Republicans wink at on the campaign trail, and for the more cynical (and less sophisticated) ones like Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Steve King of Iowa, Rand Paul, Minnesota's Michelle Bachmann and Delaware's Christine O'Donnell, pander to openly. The women on this list are especially notable, since not only are they just socialist-hating McCarthyites; they are conciously attempting to channel Joan of Arc, another figure of history who thought she was fighting for God and the world was about to end. The message was the same then as it is now: conform to our radical vision of the world or be damned, possibly destroyed, by these self-described pious culture warriors.

Of course, the GOP brand of postmodern millennialism would not be as popular if it weren't for the constant repetition of the drum beaters that inhabit the Christian media Empire. Entire networks, like DayStar, TBN, and dozens of local media outlets reinforce Millennialism and the uber-authoritarian, Dominionist, and reconstructive theologies that accompany them on a daily basis. Here, they give the Jack Van Impes, Hal Lindseys and Tim LaHayes of the world a forum to preach death and destruction billed as "miracles".

However, Pat Robertson, John Hagee and Ron Parsley are just examples of the postmodern American models. We also have their Islamic counterparts; the Iranian Mullahs, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar are just a few that we are aware of now. Each global monotheistic religion has their radical element out there. These men use the millennial message to undermine secular leaders legitimate power that there were (in most cases) elected as Chief Executives of their nations. All religious activists who use the legends of death as part of a greater agenda; to justify their violent and destructive actions under the historical precedents of religious sanction to kill for their religious theology. It is not just an American dynamic. In fact the American religious right may be the most passive of all the global religious insurrections. Not only are there the Islamic jihadists, but Orthodox Jews, Indian Sikhs and even Buddhist monks who engage in what they define as justified warfare and murder in the name of god in every (rounded) corner on the planet.

Then, there's the money factor. Since the days of Marx, there has been a sizable portion of religious leaders who sought out the corporate aristocrats, princes and nobility of the world to fund their holy wars against labor unions, civil rights movements and "communists" that threatened their positions of priviledge. In the America of the  late 1920's and early 30's, when the power of unions was at its' highest, corporate moguls were still tarnished (justifyably) as robberbarons and cold, uncaring elitists who only worried about their bottom line, and the great unwashed masses be damned. It was this characterization that gave union organizing its' own sense of missionary zeal. To counteract this, many within the clergy allied with the robberbarons, along with men who worked in the advertising field, repackaged their image and sold them to America and the world as pious crusaders engaged in a new capitalism, redefined as "God's work", in a strategy that was known as "publicity engineering". This is a carefully crafted message, 80 years in the making, that many white protestants want to hear because they've been indoctrinated to respond to it. They are told that they don't have to choose between God and Mammon, and those opposed to the religious right's agenda are ungodly and unpatriotic. It served as a way to vilify those who fought for social justice from the workplace to the ballot box, reinforces homophobia, cultural pluralism, sexism and racism with the idea that, since these redeemed robberbarons were engaged in "God's work", then anyone opposed to them must be heathens, ungrateful, arrogant people who rejected God's will, or worse, "satan's" minions. It is a message that the great despots of the world, including both Hitler and Stalin (although Uncle Joe cut his own path) have used to gain power. Hitler is way too easy, and used far too often to vilify people today, so we'll use Stalin.

Stalin was a well-known Atheist. However, it is a capital fact that he did study to become a seminarian in his native country of Georgia. His mother was widely known to be disappointed with her son, who rejected the priesthood, for the rest of her life. Stalin was said to be amused by this, but he did take the lessons learned to heart. Stalin used the cult of personality to instill a religious fervor in his dictatorship, promoting himself as a "God-man"- something that religious teachings can, and have, influenced. Stalin was also notorious for his anti-semitism, another Christian characteristic, which he employed against his political rival, Leon Trotsky. He also borrowed from the Inquisition the show trial, a lovely trick later used by Tailgunner Joe McCarthy. Hitler was quoted as saying that bolshevism was the bastard child of Christianity. Why was Stalin successful? Because the Russian Czar the Communists eventually succeeded also used religion, divine rule, the clergy and its millennialist undertones to maintain their hold on power for centuries. Stalin knew how to tap into that and designed his Communist party to mimic religion.

Let's return to the current political atmosphere and the conservative groups that are now engaged in the exploitation of millennialism. What interests do these three groups share? First, they all despise the secular states, plus the rights of the common person that are enshrined in documents like our Bill of Rights and France's Declaration of the Rights of Man, regardless of the disingenuous rhetoric to the contrary. Second, they resent the rules and regulations such countries have established to rein in the power of the aristocratic classes, whether they be nobles, royals, clergy or corporate CEO's. These people think all secular politics is invalid, unless they can control it and exploit it for their own self interests. These three groups, religious activists, the GOP and the corporate aristocrats who fund them, have come together in an effort to essentially rebrand the ancient, flawed idea that humanity should be under divine rule. It is, in a way, a one-world ideology that is openly hostile to democracy so they can do whatever they want without repercussions, and milllennialism is an essential lynchpin to their overall strategy to gain absolute power over all of us. They use all of their resources to hang the end of the world over our heads like the sword of Damacles, a constant threat to peace and prosperity in order to destroy all that democracy has gained since the dawn of the Enlightenment era. In short, all three partners of this power trio are out to sabotage real freedom and liberty, and the end of days dogma is one of their most effective weapons.

So, the question becomes, are these people serious? I would agree with the great philosopher Seneca the Younger, and personally doubt that most people highest on the food chain actually believe in millennialism. They just use the message to manipulate mankind for their own cynical purposes. However, there are plenty of people who take this very seriously, which leads us to the ultimate danger that only the modern world has faced; nuclear weapons. Some religious leaders see the mushroom cloud as a means to divine retribution, so they  delude themselves into believing that they will somehow return from their atomized state and rule at the side of God. Therefore, they do not care if we cure diseases or solve Global Warming. The threat of global thrermonuclear war is real, which makes such millennialist preachers, imams, mullahs and monks, along with their flocks, eminently more dangerous than just the despots of the past who have used millennialism. Their psychosis consumes and drives them to almost provoke such actions, just so their tale of destruction will be the narrative that will be the end of the world as we know it. It's an end that any rational human being knows there is no resurrection from.

Except for the atomic cockroaches.

One day, the apocalyptic hysteria will die down, like it always does, and the religious right will proclaim another "great disappointment", hole up in the boonies and go back into a holding pattern. It will be only then when rational heads will prevail, and we will have to ask some really hard questions about our society and it's attitude with religious freedom. Do people have the right to believe whatever they want about the world, creation and deities? Can we allow religious freedom to overwhelm the rest of civilization, so they can impose their worldview and canon laws upon the rest of society? If we do indeed allow this, aren't we then inviting another inevitable wave of millennialism?

These are difficult questions. However, we have to ask them and debate the merits, or we may in fact doom ourselves to a self-fulfilling prophesy that the religious right is programmed to follow.

Coming up on the Murdock Report

Here's who we have penciled in for the show in the next coming weeks:

On December 7th, former CIGNA exec-turned-whistleblower Wendell Potter joins us to talk about his latest book, "Deadly Spin". Wendell has worked tirelessly as an outspoken critic of corporate PR and the distortion and fear manufactured by America’s health insurance industry.  He's made frequent appearances on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

December 14th will mark the return of Cathy Sherwin, Communications Director for the Missouri AFL-CIO to talk about the possible threat of the State of Misery going "Right to Work (is a RIPOFF)", and most likely tax cuts for the rich while the Party of NO lets us workin' folk starve and go homeless. We also have penciled in Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Let's hope he can join us.

We've got a show on the movies of the year planned for the 28th, and we will have our first movie ticket giveaway on the show for "Made in Dagenham", a story about how women in England fought the system, and WON, equal pay with men. Truly inspiring!
Be sure to tune in this and every Tuesday at high noon for the Murdock Report on WGNU 920 AM!