Disenthralling ourselves from the elaborate mythologies of other people’s power struggles is a tall order, but it’s a crucial work if we’re to avoid becoming an America that can’t stand to be questioned, Americans more in love with their preferred mythic reality than the lives of people who have yet to fit within their side of the mythic Them and Us. To the extent that we’re uncurious, uninterested in the differences between Iraq and Iran, and unmoved by any testimony that doesn’t confirm our advance publicity, we’re caught in the throes of what Orwell called doublethink, the mind trick whereby citizens learn to deny freedom to their own minds. As we buy into the projections of strength, calm, and victory we demand of our elected leaders, we become tragically closed to the biblical witness against our pridefulness, and the gospel is no longer a living element within our vain imaginations.
David Dark
The Gospel According to America
