Religious Fundamentalism in Orwell and Pynchon

[Michael Joseph]

>
> > Oh, Ari, sweetie, "a broad cause?" Time to look in the dictionary.
> > According to the OED the first/oldest def. of crusade is . . .
> >
> > 1. Hist. A military expedition undertaken by the Christians of Europe in
> > the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to recover the Holy Land from the
> > Muslims.
>
> This is a little disingenuous, isn't it,

Ok. Wow. I can see why you would think so, Jbor, but I didn't intend it to
be.  I turned to the earliest definition because of Ari's use of
"tradition." I assumed he meant to evoke an earlier definition, one that
has the authority of tradition. If he meant 'usage' he should have said
so. I think "tradition" is disingenuous, don't you agree?

> seeing as there are several other
> definitions listed. Unless your point is that Bush has mastered time travel
> and was planning to go back and wreak vengeance on the evil Saladin and his
> army of infidels?

Whether Bush has mastered time travel is a non sequiter here. His plans
may well include wreaking vengeance on evildoers of the past and other
ghostly legions. Who can tell anymore?

> crusade n. 1. (often capitalised) any of the military expeditions undertaken
> in the 11th, 12th, or 13th centuries by the Christian powers of Europe  2.
> (formerly) any holy war undertaken on behalf of a religious cause  3. a
> vigorous and dedicated action or movement in favour of a cause  4. to
> campaign vigorously for something  5. to go on a crusade  (Collins)
>
Don't know what dictionary you're using, but here's the definition from
the OED that fits:



2. fig. An aggressive movement or enterprise against some public evil,
or some institution or class of persons considered as evil.

1786 T. JEFFERSON Writ. (1859) II. 8 Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade
against ignorance. 1839 DE QUINCEY Recoll. Lakes Wks. 1862 II. 184 This
new crusade against the evils of the world. 1855 MILMAN Lat. Chr. (1864)
IV. VII. i. 25 Dunstan's life was a crusade..against the married clergy.
Mod. The Temperance crusade.

> Meanings 3 and 4 are pretty standard ones
and the word is used, like
> "homeland", in common parlance.

You know the word homeland is contested here so it's a dicey example. I
think the use of homeland in contemporary rhetoric/narratives to mean
America the land, or the polity, is particularly worrisome because it
references a previous sense of primordial unity, which American ideology
had been supposed to supercede, hence the concept of American
exceptionalism, inalienable right, the separation of church and state,
etc. Imposing primordial unity by fiat upon a diverse, sectarian,
populace, even at the level of myth, seems like a sanction for a radical
return to the exclusivism of the 1890s. Seen from a slightly different
perspective, conjuring up a threatened homeland seems to be yet one more
example of an evocation of a displaced paradise, a forsaken tradition, a
plea to in illo tempore. It's because I see the tracery of such religious
thinking that I am allergic to terms like 'tradition,' 'homeland,' and
'crusade' in contemporary American political discourse.


> As there is nothing else either in the
> rhetoric or subsequent events and actions which gives any credence to the
> idea that the U.S. was embarking on a "religious war", or that it has any
> plans of embarking on one any time soon, then it seems plausible to accept
> that this idea of a "broad cause" is exactly what was meant when the word
> "crusade" was used. The unforeseen connotations of the word became a media
> beat-up within a day or two and it was withdrawn pretty much straight away
> after that.
>

Gee. I'm not even certain what a broad cause is, but I think it has
nothing remotely to do with the fixed, finite, secular purpose being
claimed for the crusade. Anyway, sorry if I seem to be belaboring what the
media has lost interest in, but I assure you it's merely accidental. I was
actually less interested in the term than in Ari's incoherent definition.
But you've made a good defense of it, and I'm grateful. Thanks.


Michael





> > {alpha} 1577 HARRISON England III. iv. (1878) II. 29 At such time as
> > Baldwine archbishop of Canturburie preached the Croisad there. 1616 JAS.
> > I. Remonstr. Right of Kings Wks. 445 All such..as undertooke the Croisade
> > became the Pope's meere vassals. 1753 CHESTERFIELD Lett. (1774) IV. 6 His
> > history of the Croisades. 1769 BLACKSTONE Comm. IV. 416 The knight
> > errantry of a croisade against the Saracens. >
> >> Q Does he regret having used that word, Ari, and will he not use it again in
> >> the context of talking about this effort?
> >>
> >> MR. FLEISCHER: I think to the degree that that word has any connotations
> >> that would upset any of our partners, or anybody else in the world, the
> >> President would regret if anything like that was conveyed. But the purpose
> >> of his conveying it is in the traditional English sense of the word. It's a
> >> broad cause.
> >
> >
> > "Broad cause?"
>
>
>