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A Cold Darkness Before Sunrise by It might not be very hard to perceive for us why Mr. Bush have come out successful in this historical US election of 2004. Any intelligent analyst will put it as, 9-11 came as a gift in the hands of right wingers, warmongers and xenophobes in general. One of the most unfortunate post scripts to the 9-11 atrocity has been the clever manipulation of general public sentiment by fringe groups such for their narrow and skewed agendas. Even many self proclaimed progressive people, I have seen joined with hand of those right wingers and eventually came to a certain conclusion that only Christian fundamentalist Bush would be able to save America from "Global Terrorism"; never mind the sweet lies he produced on Iraq war, his incapability of finding WMD and Saddam's Al-Qaida connection, his disgraceful comments on liberals, feminists, lesbians and gays, violations of human rights at home and abroad rob America of moral authority. Bush has made America less respected to the outer world, less secure and less democratic. The economy has been poor ever in recent history. The valuable scientific biological research was hindered by his faith-based storms. Some of these has already been proven while some are demonstrable facts. Yet Bush proved that he was the supreme choice for majority of Americans, exactly opposite to the choice of the outer world.
It is, perhaps, precisely why we, the liberals, lost in this election. Republicans were successful to implant fear over reason in the heart and mind of US citizens. They were successful in portraying their war-monger president as firm, resolute, consistent and his opponent as genuine flip-flopper. Well some of our MM members, no matter how small in number, who like to see the gray area of life, weight the ethical concerns, read the newspapers, and change their minds if needed, based on new concerns. It’s hard to be absolutely resolute for an intellectually sane person if, of course one doesn’t wear blinders. Besides, it is not in the nature of people who don’t believe in absolutes to be absolutist. Not to be tautological, but if your faith requires a belief in absolute authority, absolute morality and guided by divine inspiration, then your entire world view flows from point: you are inline with a religious fundamentalist who follow divine order dogmatically; it is not that easy or desirable for the rest of us. We might be small in number, but we should be proud that we at least stood for reason, not for firm and absolute and dogmatic faith.
Despite the post-election gloom on us, we must recognize a powerful force has been energized: Almost 50 percent people in US still do not support Bush's aggressive and radical world-view. They did not buy Bush propaganda, they did not vote for Bush, no matter where they stand right now compared to the "mighty" opponent (Don't forget, history suggests, progressive and humanist people has always been small in number; and many evil character like Hitler was popular among his own countrymen). Also lets give a credit to the first-time voters, minority people and the young people who were politically apathetic until this election, have been reached! They are the hope, they are the future of US. Once dark cloud has gone, I am sure- glistening sunlight will penetrate, we must continue to build our hope on that base.
Lastly, as a rationalist, I also should not forget a bright side of the election result. Readers of Mukto-Mona might remember one recent article of Dr. Jaffor Ullah where he mentioned about a group of "nationally famous" Indian astrologers gave their prediction before election- "Senator Kerry will come out as the winner". The Indian astrologers miserably failed once again in predicting the result, no doubt. At this moment, no need for a detailed scientific long-term study by researchers is required, few such daily-life examples are well enough to prove astrology invalid and baseless. This is not the first time this stupid faith-based divinity has been debunked or exposed publicly. Lets keep that record in our mind for future. Now it's time to put an end to the fantastic old and bigoted claim that the constellation of stars and planets could influence or even determine the development of an individual's character, nurture the result of any significant event and influence other course of life. Let Mukto-Mona rationalists take that lead to make the life euphoric and optimistic by debunking all kind of hateful, faith-based or pseudo-scientific myths; it will indeed be a joy to experience and a wonder to behold. Love, Reason and Humanity. Avijit 11/04/2004
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