Fantasy Is Big Business

          At my advanced age, just a few weeks from the big 79, I have learned not to worry too much about world events that I have no control over.  For example, I think that Barak Obama will go down in history as our very, very worst president thus far.  It’s hard to believe that anyone following this man could be more destructive to American tradition, ideals and Judo-Christian principles.  But the majority elected him and now the people have no choice but to cope. 

            I will admit that I was disgusted with government when it prosecuted two Immigration Agents for shooting a drug smuggler in the ass; and I was sickened when our military prosecuted Navel Seals for bloodying the nose of an Islamic terrorist.  I kept telling myself, “Don’t get upset, there is nothing you can do.  You can’t expect the honor, patriotism and probity that we enjoyed in the fifties to last into this crazy, so far liberal, socialistic century. 

            But when I heard that an American imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, wanted to build a mosque two blocks from “ground zero” and the Mayor of New York City was supportive, I felt the rancor inside me start to boil.

            The other night on the O’Reilly Factor, Bill interviewed blog-author, Pamela Geller, a pretty smart girl – because she came to the same conclusions as me.  “Islam has a history of building mosques on conquered country.”  She pointed out as an example the mosque built on the exact site of the Temple Mount, Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem.

            I know that some of you, like me, have been inside this mosque and seen the hole in the rock where Mohammad allegedly passed through when he ascended to heaven.  This is also the same rock where some true believers think Abraham was about to cut the throat of his only son, Isaac – until stopped in the nick of time by an angel.

            It was no accident that Islam chose that particular rock on that particular mount to claim Mohammad had a spiritual experience, anymore than it is a coincidence that an Islamic imam wants to build a mosque on the door step of 9/ll.  I am convinced that it is Islam’s way of rubbing salt into a wound – a sneaky terrorist attack that many Muslims interpret a victory.

            Muslims have a strange way of thinking.  While on tour in Egypt we passed a huge four story monument.  I asked our guide about the monument.  She said it commemorated Egypt’s 1973 Yom Kippur War victory over Israel.  I told her I thought Israel won that war.  She said, what it actually commemorated is the first two days of the war when Egypt took Israel by surprise. 

            In Jordan our guide said that the only reason Israel was not defeated by Jordan in the 1948 War of Independence was because of America’s intervention.  I had to bite my tongue.  Neither President Truman nor our military furnished Israel an airplane, tank, gun or bullet, not a damn thing.  America stood back and watched thinking like most of the world that the Arabs would drive the Jew into the sea.  Our guide believed what he said was true because that is what he was told by his political and spiritual leaders.

            One of my daughters, bless her heart, said the movie Inception was the best movie she had ever seen and just knew I would love it.  Actually, I couldn’t wait for the damn thing to end and would have walked out but it would have offended the person I was with. 

            I can’t tell if it’s Hollywood’s infatuation with fantasy or the public’s infatuation – probably both.  I’m so sick of loud, thump, thump music, explosions, idiotic gun battles, car chases and wrecks, and catastrophes (buildings collapsing, earth quakes etc).  All the box office hits, as I have pointed out before, our about science fiction or fantasy.  What the hell ever happened to reality?

            In my opinion Islam is all fantasy.  I’ll go one step further because God forbid I should discriminate, all religious beliefs taken on faith only are fantasies. 

            Fantasy, which in my opinion includes religion, is big business.  In touring Egypt, Israel and Jordan most all of the exciting, interesting archeological sites were the remnants of religious beliefs - in other words fantasy. We enlightened humans of today look back on the Greek and Egyptian gods – Ra, Horus, Zeus, Aphrodite – as mythical figments of the imagination.  But how different are the temples at Thebes and Luxor from today’s Catholic cathedrals, Islamic mosques and Mormon temples?   Yet the ancients must have thought their gods were real because of the amount of time, energy and wealth they devoted to the temples and monuments in hopes of appeasing them.  (Gods are primarily angry despots who are more noted for natural disasters and other events that vex humans than blessings.) 

            The public image of Barak Obama when he was a presidential candidate was apparently a mirage because it is not the same as the reality we see today. 

            Fantasy, like a drug, can lull the senses and make one vulnerable to predators and parasites.  Socialism and communism are fantasies like most religious beliefs.  There is no free lunch.  Absolute altruism is a fantasy.  We have to enact laws and invent religious principles in hopes of keeping us on the straight and narrow.  Yet, dishonesty, greed, immorality, selfishness, deception, corruption and crime, at all levels of society, including religion and politics, seem to be doing very well. 

            Think about it!  Sun Myung Moon is a wealthy man, so are the drug lords who poison the minds and bodies of our stupid youth.   A drug addict lives in a fantasy world.  Pornography provokes the mind into erotic fantasies.  We can’t help ourselves.  The victims of bullies fantasize getting even.  It’s in our DNA.  But if we understand how our genes and mind works it can save us a lot of heart aches.

            We need fewer imaginary heroes and more Abe Lincolns, Tom Jeffersons and Tom Paines.