The Faith in America

America truly is a nation of faith. I am not talking about any religious faith, though there are many. People in America have faith in more than they think. The monetary system is based on faith. It was taken off the gold standard in 1971 by president Nixon. There is no basis for our currency and with the new computer abilities. We must have faith that the money in our account and that which is direct deposited into our account is really there and really exists. Money trading on the stock market in futures is based on the faith that there will be product in the future. Terry Pratchett has this most graphically shown when he introduces the "pork futures warehouse" where pork-to-be goes backwards in time to the present when it is removed from the warehouse. Often the trading in futures actually shapes the future.

We hold faith that our electoral process works. Even though it is rife with mistakes and fraud, vote caging, and some voter discrimination. We are encouraged to believe that our individual votes count. We are told that it doesn't matter how much money a person has, he or she can become president (supposing they qualify per the constitution). All of this is true for a given value of true. Yes it is possible that each person's vote counts the same or that each of us could become president, but it is fairly unsound. If we were in a political vacuum where ideas were weighed against the constitution and there were no lobbyists then perhaps this would be true, but it really seems to be fluff to keep people content. The greatest example of all of this is the 2000 election where there is evidence that former vice-president Al Gore actually won the election.

The faith in law is a really important one. For the laws to actually regulate anyone and the police to be effective, people have to have a mental check in place to stop them from stepping over the line and breaking the law. This is one place where religion is useful as it has people pre-programmed for this type of thinking with the commands and punishments they teach. I am in no way saying that without religion people would break the law or not follow it. I am simply agreeing, I think it is with Marx, that religion is a way of keeping people docile and happy where they are ("the meek shall inherit the earth" IE keep your head down and don't make trouble). My point is that without mentally accepting the laws, people have no reason to follow them. The number of policemen in areas where people don't hold the laws as a barrier has to be greater than the overall average of policemen in the country. This is why there are problems with some laws and controversy surrounding them. If a law is considered unjust and doesn't fit into peoples mental image of where the boundaries are between law and preference, then we get riots and revolution (tea, anyone?). The faith in the laws and justice system in the country is tantamount to its survival. If people really started questioning the laws and fighting the police, there is no way the police would win, especially when they are outnumbered by their family and friends as well as the country.

In short America is a country of faith.