As I was reading the fundamentalist essays, I smiled to myself because it reminded me of everyday life. Charles Strozier and Katharine Boyd’s essays resonated with me the most when it came to ideas relating to dualism and time, as we see many fundamentalist ideas in today’s mainstream and regular culture. I am surprised that apocalyptic ideas fit so readily into social ideas, leading me to think that America today has a culture that is influenced heavily by fundamentalist ideas. Although the fundamentalist mindset is seen in the apocalyptic setting, the characteristics of dualism, and the distinct perception of time, the formation of apocalyptic groups can often be seen in a non-apocalyptic settings.
Dualism, prevalent in today’s culture and society, brings about the justification of violence. Boyd and Stroizer discuss how dualism and paranoia characteristics of fundamentalism strengthen one another, and that it is also seen in everyday society. A further link was made between dualism and violence – dualism causes one side to dehumanize the other side, since they are unable to find a middle ground. When comparing this to the film Dr. Strangelove, ideas such as dualism and paranoia against the Soviet Union were present. For instance, paranoia caused the dehumanization in General Turgidson when he insulted their ambassador and made stark comments while the president was on the phone with the premier. Another one is any apocalyptic film with a plague, either through infected individuals or “zombies”.
On a more actual level, the authors discuss how apocalyptic groups tend to be more accepting of corporal punishment and to inflict pain and punishment in order to uphold order and obedience. This can be found in many southern states that have a stereotypically Christian Republican background, as they tend to support corporal punishment and support the death penalty. Coincidentally many northern democratic states are against corporal punishment and many southern republican states support corporal punishment. This leads me to assume that some of the ideas of fundamentalism has either helped influenced or is influenced by political thought.
As for how time and social groups formed by apocalyptic groups are formed in today’s societies, the authors cite material from different authors to give various definitions of time and the different components of social groups. One major theory given was that time was measured in a kairotic sense – perceiving time through events rather than hours and minutes. The authors claimed that this relates to violence in the fundamentalist mindset because time is considered to be evil since time is the only concept between birth and rebirth. This leads many people to try to cause their rebirth sooner by killing on a mass level to start their own apocalypse. However, the authors cited Richard Landes to counter argue that theory by stating that apocalyptic groups are cyclic in their belief from excitement to disappointment. Nevertheless, it is still a perception of time by looking at events that have happened.
This idea of time can be seen in today’s society. Individuals mainly focus on events rather than days. A few examples are finishing a report, attending a meeting, waiting for the release date of a movie, and enjoying the holidays. Time is not measured by hours and minutes, but by days of significance, giving people a future orientated mindset. Social groups, on the other hand, have about three different reasons for why they form, which mirror how political and social movement groups are formed in everyday life. The reasons behind the formation of apocalyptic groups proposed by Norman Cohn are a large group of people who aren’t accepted by society and have low economic status, the fear of the end after a major disaster, and an event that changes social lives. With the first example, Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party are brought into mind. As for the second one, environmentalist groups are an example. For the last, groups against illegal immigrants make a perfect example. All of these examples question whether the fundamentalist mindset of apocalyptic groups stemmed from social thought or if social thought stemmed from it. Even though Charles Strozier and Katharine Boyd’s essays are about the fundamentalist mindset, the mindset can be seen in today’s everyday society.
I really agree with your initial statement about how the essays are so applicable to everyday life. I’m really interested in your second to last paragraph though, about telling time in the kairotic sense as opposed to time of day or even days of the week. I think that this is probably one of the truest sentences we’ll see for today’s class because it’s a method that has just always been present even without us giving it much thought. Telling passage of time through events allows for, I think, a more honest evaluation of history. There was no real concept of time before in the sense of hours and minutes but in the past, humans understood day and night as the rising and the setting of the sun, understood the seasons not by the three to four months that are grouped together by similar weather but because there was snow on the ground or big game to hunt. For fundamentalists, or anyone looking at the end of days in general, events is the most accurate anyone is going to get in terms of determining the when. The whole allure of the Left Behind series is that the characters are essentially everyday people and all of the events are what are important, not necessarily the specific dates.