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church

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At its root, the logic is that of the Grand Inquisitor, who bitterly assailed Christ for offering people freedom and thus condemning them to misery. The Church must correct the evil work of Christ by offering the miserable mass of humanity the gift they most desire and need: absolute submission. It must __anquish freedom_ so as __o make men happy_ and provide the total __ommunity of worship_ that they avidly seek. In the modern secular age, this means worship of the state religion, which in the Western democracies incorporates the doctrine of submission to the masters of the system of public subsidy, private profit, called free enterprise. The people must be kept in ignorance, reduced to jingoist incantations, for their own good. And like the Grand Inquisitor, who employs the forces of miracle, mystery, and authority __o conquer and hold captive for ever the conscience of these impotent rebels for their happiness_ and to deny them the freedom of choice they so fear and despise, so the __ool observers_ must create the __ecessary illusions_ and __motionally potent oversimplifications_ that keep the ignorant and stupid masses disciplined and content.

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Noam Chomsky

Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies

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In big ways and small, I knew exactly how selfish a war could make me, and I saw all around me how fear and need drove other people to terrible betrayals. Yet over and over, I also saw how war created a community, a people, and how that community was nourished by gestures of sharing. It was sharing that didn't depend on personal intimacy, and a community that didn't depend on everyone's being friends; it foreshadowed what I would come to understand as church, at its best.

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Sara Miles

Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion