my pinko-anarcha-feminist thoughts

At the moment the Democratic candidates have leads in the two remaining contested Senate races -- Virginia and Montana. If this holds, then the Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress. But the margins are razor thin and recounts are certain.

I have mixed feelings about the election results.

A part of my mind still cheers at the sight of many blue states, and the thought of Bush as a lame-duck with no political capital is a happy one. I'm heartened that perhaps people around the world will look at the election results and think slightly less ugly thoughts about Americans.

But the votes on various referenda indicate that the country has not turned liberal overnight. Virginia, in particular, has added a particularly odious amendment to its constitution which not only bans gay marriage and gay civil unions but bars even private contracts between individuals to approximate some of the rights of marriage. Previously in American history only slaves (and children, and maybe Indians) have been restricted on the types of contracts they can enter into. Virginia has given the world a brand new type of Apartheid. Way to go, intrepid heterosexuals of Virginia! That sucking sound you will soon hear is the exodus of large corporations with non-discrimination policies packing up and moving to Maryland, DC, and North Carolina, along with their queer employees.

Also, i want to see what the Democrats are actually going to do. Will they reverse the Approval of Torture and Revocation of Habeas Corpus Act of 2006? Will they do anything about Bush's program of illegal warrantless wiretapping? Will they investigate Halliburton's corrupt war profiteering? Will they really let the wall be built on the border with Mexico? I am holding off on my excitement about the election results until i see some real action on these things.

I'm happy to see that the abortion ban did not pass in South Dakota. I'm somewhat heartened that the people of Arizona voted against homophobic bigotry, though i maintain that it is unethical for a society to vote on the civil rights of a minority. I'm disappointed by Michigan's rejection of affirmative action.

ETA: When i read that President Bush invited Nancy Pelosi and second-ranked house Democrat Steny Hoyer to lunch at the White House, my first thought was, "Don't go! It's a trap!"

(no subject)

In conversation with lady_babalon this morning, she was surprised to hear that, while i consider myself a godless atheist, i do not renounce my experience of communion with the goddess, the meaning of my dream of the green man, or many of my other mystical or esoteric experiences.

This is not an inconsistent position, and i'll explain why.

The trajectory of religion throughout human history is to co-opt and misappropriate peoples' mystical experiences, to essentially steal and mislabel them and claim them in support of various power agendas. We learn early on that mystical experiences are "encounters with the divine," and are taught to correlate our various experiences with the concepts that other people, and institutions, have about the divine, and further, with the political and social ramifications connected to those beliefs.

One who has a mystical experience is told to tie this experience to a massive edifice of ideology, and offer it in support to the authoritarian institutions which speak in religious terms.

Consequently, i don't know what the word "god" means. I don't know what "divine" means. Yes, i know the dictionary definitions, but i don't know what the words really mean. We don't know what god is made of, or what clearly distinguishes god from the rest of the universe. What makes god stand out against the rest of existence? I don't even begin to know what god is supposed to be.

So all i know about god is what people say about god. And almost all of these comments are driven by some sort of personal, political, or institutional agenda. The word is nothing but a psychological pressure point, a button which institutions press to make us bend to their will.

I don't believe in or have faith in gods, divinities, deities or spirits -- by which i mean, i don't give any weight to what other people say religiously. (ETA: well, let me temper that. I react to other peoples' description of their experiences and frequently see parallels to my own experiences therein. What i discount are proclamations of doctrine or over-arching interpretations.)

In rejecting what other people say about "god", i am not going to also reject my experiences. My experiences are all i have. The mystical experiences i have had were profound and transformed my life. But i do not offer them up for institutional or ideological sacrifice.

Unfortunately, the only vocabulary i have to describe these experiences is a religious vocabulary, which makes them all too easy for other people to co-opt and speak about, as if they knew what was going on in my head or in my part of the world.