No, Religion Won't Save Working Class Whites

It appears these days as if every manner of political elitist and his pet poodle have sage advice for working class whites. We saw it 4 years ago with the book 'Coming Apart: The State Of White America  1960-2010'  by Charles Murray. Therein he expressed the conviction that an over reliance on government "entitlements" coupled with an inability to get married or stay married caused this demographic to be on a downward spiral into indolence, moral laxity and even moral turpitude.

Not long after there appeared an odious, self-serving 'Lexington' essay in The Economist  channeling Murray's view incorporating the moral opprobrium directed at the same working class. He wrote in part:

"Most in need of instruction is a new lower class, perhaps a fifth of the white population whose plight forms the next part of his book. This class is in the throes of disintegration. Too many of its men will not work, too many of its women raise children out of wedlock, religious worship is in decline... In lower class neighborhoods the togetherness of communities has vanished...."

Okay, let's back up there. This needs an objective examination as opposed to semi-adorational slobbering in the form of a quasi book review. Let's begin with the last, that "lower class neighborhoods have lost togetherness". This very malady in fact, was addressed as long ago as 1995 by Charles Reich in his book, Opposing the System. As Reich noted therein, p. 103:

"When society itself comes to be modeled on economic and organizational principles, all of the forces that bind people together are torn apart in the struggle for survival. Community is destroyed because we are no longer 'in this together' because everyone is a threat to everyone else."

Note especially the highlighted part. We are no longer in this "together". Again, the crime or sin or whatever you wish to call it that Lex and Murray appear to want to hang on the lower classes is in actuality a direct effect of the Pareto-optimality based economic system which destroys equality and cooperation. It enables banks to foreclose homes at will (robo-closings) and thereby fractures neighbors one from the other. It rewards those who are prepared to game the system, but not those are aren't.

In such a capitalist-driven, consumerist, Pareto-organizational economic model, wherein the resource “pie” for the non-wealthy grows ever smaller, the young are threats to us oldsters, as we are threats to them, as neighbor is to neighbor. It can't be otherwise. For example, as threats to our Social Security are ramped up on account of the odious austerity-debt hawks - led by billionaire pricks such as Peter G. Peterson, we oldsters tend to pull back in self-interest and vote ardently against any increase in property taxes to support schools. While we would dearly love to support local schools via higher taxes, we are wary so long as threats exist to cut our benefits and standards of living to the point we need to turn our furnaces off to save money, or split our meds.

And at the forlorn bottom each manjack believes the "other" - his neighbor, to be his enemy as opposed to the savage debased system that spawned such inequities. How irreligious or anti-religious can one get?  In truth, the working class whites could begin by telling these wine and brie eaters that if they want them to marry then fucking provide a LIVING wage, not a mere minimum wage, to enable that to happen. Also, cease sending the highest paying jobs overseas to low wage bastions, including coding jobs, software development. They'd tell them to also provide - parting with some of their ill gotten millions or billions - some free child care services such as exist in Denmark and Norway.

Now, in his NY Times (Sunday Review, June 26, p. 8) essay ('When Paranoia Replaces Piety') , J.D. Vance would have us believe it is insufficient piety and religion. He writes:

 "Despite benefits (less racial prejudice, more community, fewer divorces) church attendance has fallen off substantially among members of the white working class.in recent years just when they need it the most".

He then goes on to cite stats to support the position that this class, by losing its church-forged piety, has fallen into the pit of paranoia including political, e.g. "evolution is a lie secular science tells to counter the biblical story of revelation, the Federal Reserve achieves satanic ends by manipulating the world's money supply " etc.

Because of this these whites have become "wolves" as opposed to "shepherds" raising their kids. Hence, no surprise the kids come from broken families, use heroin or opoids, and suffer from neglectful or abusive parents".

But is this really true, or might it be the case that even with church attendance these whites would still have come out on the wrong side? Hardly! Because at root, in nations where the working classes are most ground under there is actually the flight to religiosity in order to escape economic hardship and horrors visited every day. Don't take my word, just look at this graphic from  Free Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 1 Jan. 2009:


It shows successful societies in relation to degree of religious beliefs.. Basically, for  18 out of 19 of the most prosperous democracies,  the share of population reporting absolute belief in a god or gods ranges from between as little as a few percent to at most one-half. In some of these nations, mainly in western Europe, two-thirds proclaim to be either atheists or agnostics. Compare this to the outlier U.S. (U) where 83 percent express solid belief- and this is for the patriarchal, personal version of a hyper-engaged deity.

One of the most circulated canards concerning religious belief is that most of humankind is invested in it. We are asked to believe the vast majority – for some reason- find it essential to link up with a religion to make their life meaningful. Of course, this is tommyrot and poppycock, and now there is ample statistical evidence to back it up – starting with a measure known as the ‘Gini coefficient’ which registers the degree of economic and income inequality in any given nation, referenced as a decimal. Or, more often (in non-technical venues) as a plain number between 0 and 100.

In terms of practical applications, a Gini index of zero would denote perfect equality. In terms of western industrial nations, most developed European nations and Canada tend to have Gini indices between 24 and 36, the United States' and Mexico's Gini indices are both above 40, indicating that the United States and Mexico have greater inequality. In the whole panoply of criteria, and the full spectrum of research, the Gini coefficient (the prime indicator of income inequality) is the key factor. To be specific, across the first world (of developed nations) lower economic and income equality correlates with lower religiosity. This pattern is “statistically progressive” according to a recent article in Free Inquiry (Jan. 2009) and “no exceptions are known”.

The warp and woof of advanced, collated sociological research into religiosity and secularism and sociological health as a function of either- is well documented in the aforementioned issue (Vol. 29, No. 1) ‘The Future of Religion’, p. 24. As noted therein, the thrust of this research is that religion is falling like tenpins in all first world democracies, with the exception of the U.S., and that the least dysfunctional societies are the least theistic.

The primary finding that runs likes a thread through all this research is that religious belief and activity is a superficial coping mechanism that is easily cast aside when the majority in a given society enjoy true (not faux) democratic government, and enjoy a secure, comfortable and middle class lifestyle.Those who claim the universality of religion or that it is integral to human nature commit the basic selection effects error, in that they conveniently overlook the data which show broad secularization of western Europe, Anglo-Australia, Canada and other developed nations.
The core of research (largely statistical) directed at this issue shows the primary reason the U.S. is a statistical outlier in religious belief is income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient).
This index has seen inequality increase ever since Bush Jr. was handed his presidency, compliments of the five Supremes, in 2000.

Meanwhile, with its historically lower taxes, fewer public safety nets, more poor than rich (by more than a 25:1 ratio), the U.S. displays a greater disparity than any other nation. Moreover, it displays a much greater social pathology. Understanding the basis of this pathology doesn’t take a genius, including the inputs from globalization and worker redundancy derived from it.

Thus we read in the latest issue of TIME (July 11-18, pp. 16-17) that even after the rise of open markets, shuttering of factories, easy access to cheap labor plus "mainstream politicians who took their support for granted but served the interests of the wealthy" that "the white working class never went away". No it "stewed in its own resentments feeling variously patronized, ignored and belittled by the elites".

Hence, they have struck back by knocking down the final pillars of faith to which they had clung, mainstream government and religion in the form of the churches.  Hence, it is not surprising at all the working class to which J.D. Vance refers in his essay no longer wants any part of his hollow creed or any other. What, after all, has it delivered? More joblessness, more despair and more hungry mouths of his children while the elites travel to St Kitts for special chocolate spa treatments and 18 holes of golf.

Mr. Vance poignantly yearns the working class whites would have received from their own faiths those marvelous qualities his delivered: "introspection, moral guidance and social support".

But, of course, because they couldn't even deliver warm bread and soup for their kids' at night, they obviously wouldn't believe the mere abstractions could be delivered. And so the only natural recourse was to drop the faith and "point a finger at the faceless elites in Washington".

Sadly, just as Brexit was incepted by the political elites'  total abandonment of working class whites, so might the election of Trump be incepted here. Let's hope not,  but really, are the "paranoid" working class whites enticed to embrace any hope for their future by the Wall Street- friendly, Neoliberal warhawk Hillary?

Probably no more than they're likely to return to the pews and preacher lectures about the need to return to moral probity.

Will Americans Ever Get It? They Will NEVER Get Ahead!

In his recent blog (‘Our Suicidal Ruling Class’) Ted Rall noted:

"To be poor in the United States is not unusual. Half of Americans live under two times the poverty line. But the depth and persistence of poverty in America is unique among developed industrialized nations. The gap between the poor and the rich is bigger. Mobility--access to the American Dream--is less.

Born rich? You'll more likely to die rich in the U.S. than in other countries. Born poor? You're likelier to die poor."

This is a statement that no one in his or her right mind should quarrel with. For example, in an earlier blog:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/09/class-consciousness-or-false.html

I noted how a majority of Americans has been duped by a sustained false consciousness implanted by the elites (including the media and political elite) into believing America is a “classless” society and upward mobility still exists. This is mostly horse manure, and a merely consistent observer can show it doesn’t hold up. For example, as Rall observes, Miles Corak, an economist at the University of Ottawa, found that just 16 percent of Canadian men raised in the bottom tenth of incomes stayed there as adults, compared with 22 percent of Americans. Similarly, 26 percent of American men raised at the top tenth stayed there, but just 18 percent of Canadians. In other words economic status is much more birth-determined in the U.S. than in Canada.

An earlier, more concrete study of class in relation to income level in the U.S. was a (2003) survey conducted by The Economic Policy Institute. It asked generally where people thought they were in the economic spectrum: upper 1% (earning $320,000 year or more); upper 5% (> $80,000) or where?A full 19% in this random survey claimed they were in the privileged class of the top 1%. A virtual statistical impossibility in any random study.

In fact, internal survey cross-check questions on income category showed many of these working at a little above minimum wage, and even the highest were at barely $44,000/yr. Nowhere near the 1% threshold! Other commentators on this study (e.g. Froma Harrop, Ellen Goodman) pointed to this ignorance as a basis for supporting such crap as the Bush tax cuts, which overwhelmingly favored the rich elites. Thus, these befuddled workers who fancied themselves statistical hotshots were in reality carrying grist for the 1% even as they likely toiled in crap jobs that provided no potential for enhancement.

In fact, they were deliriously out of touch with reality. As author Michael Parenti has noted ('The Dirty Truth') 94% of all wealth comes by way of inheritance, not paid work. So, they are fooling themselves.

Or to put in much more blunt fashion, as the author of the new piece in Esquire does (‘We Are Not All Created Equal’, January, p. 54):

“Nobody wants to admit: if your daddy was rich, you’re gonna stay rich and if your daddy was poor you’re gonna stay poor.”

As the author then elaborates, correctly based on my earlier blog (see link above) on False Consciousness and Class Consciousness’:

“Every instinct in the American gut, every institution, every national symbol, runs on the idea that anyone can make it; the only limits are your own limits.

Which is an amazing idea, a gift to the world- just no longer true. As Americans continue to glide through a ghostly land of opportunity they can’t bear to tell themselves it isn’t real. It’s the most dangerous lie the country tells itself.

More than anything else, class now determines Americans’ fates”

Bingo! But why don’t Americans get it? Why do they lack the moxie to accept that an Overclass will determine how far they get and nothing else? Several reasons!

1) Americans are obdurate and perennial optimists. Unlike Germans whose native instincts are always to perceive the economic downsides of situations – so they’re more like to detect how they’re being gamed or suckered – Americans typically put the blinkers on. No where is this more evident than in how both sexes approach the stock market. Most American males, raised in hubris and bravado, believe they can beat the market by multiple trades and end up losing most of the time (more than 70%). Women, trained to be more cautious, trade much less and in more conservative outlets and gain more consistently. This same false optimism of most males, especially white, makes them disavow how they’re getting their asses kicked by a gamed economic system. No wonder then, that 63% of white males voted against Obama in 2008. Hell if they were going to buy into a “socialist” equalizer’s “dependency”. But….they bet against their own welfare.

2) Americans more often fall prey to the fundamental attribution error ( which reinforces inequality in society) because of their over-optimism. This error is such that (‘Maxine Baca- Zinn and D. Stanley Eitzen, In Conflict and Order, 1991):

“It tends to credit or blame individuals for their level of failure or success without considering the aspects of the social structure that impel or impede their progress. Thus, it results in praise of the system and condemnation of individuals who are defined as losers.”

Thus, the fundamental attribution error (mostly made by working class whites) works to perfect effect and in favor of the American Overclass because it causes an entire dispossessed electoral segment to screw themselves so the Overclass needn’t fret over their rage. They simply redirect that rage at minorities (immigrants, blacks, or women) while they stick with the political rascals (GOP) that did them in the first time.

This in turn leads to workers who are prepared to tolerate any amount of systematic abuse from a corrupt system, because they lay the blame on their own "lack of ambition" or some other false excuse contrived by the corporate thought controllers to deflect blame from their own greed.

This may well be at the heart and core of why so many of the working and middle classes vote against their own best interests: Precisely because they blame all or most of their failures to get ahead on themselves, instead of the vicious system of economic tyranny (described as “brutal economics’ in the Esquire piece) that was originally devised by Vilfredo Pareto (Pareto Optimality) and continues to be advocated by American economists with few exceptions (e.g. Paul Krugman)

Meanwhile, the evidence is abundantly around us – for those who have eyes to see- that we are in a society at least three times more unequal than that which existed in the 50s. Back then only one spouse needed to work, bank interest at 4-5% kept passbook savings flush and the middle class had the potential for growth.

Now, all of that is inverted: both spouses usually need to work, often at two jobs each, bank passbook interest is near zero percent so people either have next to nothing or chase risky yield in the stock market, and the middle class numbers are crashing as the Gini coefficient and index (the prime measure of inequality) approaches values peculiar to the Philippines and Mexico.

Meanwhile, as the attached graphic shows, hourly compensation costs - for manufacturing- have absolutely plummeted in the U.S. relative to the OECD countries (the other developed industrialized nations) and Canada. In 2010, for example, wage and benefits costs in the U.S. were barely one half what they were in Canada. As Canadian workers demand higher wages now, their bosses point to the U.S. and say: "You want us to move there for our labor?" In other words, like China and India the U.S. has become another weapon by the Overclass to leverage a race to the bottom for everyone else!

Do credentials or education matter? Not in the U.S. class system whose overseers determine a priori who they will admit through the gates and who gets left back.

In 2011 alone, roughly 85% of college grads in the U.S., according to the Esquire piece, moved back home “where they sit with an average debt of $27,200”. Is this a formula for upward mobility? Hardly, especially when most will likely achieve jobs vastly below their educational levels.

But….this is how the Overclass elites want it. They prefer the rarefied economic stratosphere of very few competitors at the upper reaches of already dwindling wealth (as the planet's finite resources are consumed and commodities prices soar). The less to compete the more for them….and they can continue to enjoy their rose wine wraps, foie gras and endless 18 holes at St. Kitts.

Maybe they never heard of what befell the likes of Marie Antoinette after she told one of her advisors, who warned of mass unrest:

“Let them eat cake!”

Religious Belief & Economic Inequality

Fig. 1: Scale showing successful societies in relation to degree of religious beliefs (from Free Inquiry, Vol. 29, No. 1 Jan. 2009)

One of the most circulated canards about religious belief is that most of humankind is invested in it. We are asked to believe the vast majority – for some reason- find it essential to link up with a religion to make their life meaningful. Of course, this is tommyrot and poppycock, and now there is ample statistical evidence to back it up – starting with a measure known as the ‘Gini coefficient’ which registers the degree of economic and income inequality in any given nation, referenced as a decimal. Or, more often (in non-technical venues) as a plain number between 0 and 100.

In terms of practical applications, a Gini index of zero would denote perfect equality. In terms of western industrial nations, most developed European nations and Canada tend to have Gini indices between 24 and 36, the United States' and Mexico's Gini indices are both above 40, indicating that the United States and Mexico have greater inequality..In the whole panoply of criteria, and the full spectrum of research, the Gini coefficient (the prime indicator of income inequality) is the key factor. To be specific, across the first world (of developed nations) lower economic and income equality correlates with lower religiosity. This pattern is “statistically progressive” according to a recent article in Free Inquiry (Jan. 2009) and “no exceptions are known”.

The warp and woof of advanced, collated sociological research into religiosity and secularism and sociological health as a function of either- is well documented in the aforementioned issue (Vol. 29, No. 1) ‘The Future of Religion’, p. 24. As noted therein, the thrust of this research is that religion is falling like tenpins in all first world democracies, with the exception of the U.S., and that the least dysfunctional societies are the least theistic.

The primary finding that runs likes a thread through all this research is that religious belief and activity is a superficial coping mechanism that is easily cast aside when the majority in a given society enjoy true (not faux) democratic government, and enjoy a secure, comfortable and middle class lifestyle.Those who claim the universality of religion or that it is integral to human nature commit the basic selection effects error, in that they conveniently overlook the data which show broad secularization of western Europe, Anglo-Australia, Canada and other developed nations.

Indeed, in 18 out of 19 of the most prosperous democracies the share of population reporting absolute belief in a god or gods ranges from between as little as a few percent to at most one-half. In some of these nations, mainly in western Europe, two-thirds proclaim to be either atheists or agnostics. Further, this de-Christianization is not accompanied by any offset via New Age spirituality or other spirituality (as seems to be occurring in the U.S)Recognizing how thoroughly most of the first world has been secularized is an important first step to solving the religious belief question. The next step, as sociologists note, is to account for the major exception – known as the “American Anomaly”- the only first world democracy wherein 2/3 of the population professes belief in God, and most hold atheists in low regard…..unlike in W. Europe where most religious are held in low regard.

The core of research (largely statistical) directed at this issue shows the primary reason the U.S. is a statistical outlier in religious belief is income inequality (as measured by the Gini coefficient).
This index has seen inequality increase ever since Bush Jr. was handed his presidency, compliments of the five Supremes, in 2000.

Meanwhile, with its historically lower taxes, fewer public safety nets, more poor than rich (by more than a 25:1 ratio), the U.S. displays a greater disparity than any other nation. Moreover, it displays a much greater social pathology. Understanding the basis of this pathology doesn’t take a genius. As anyone with more than air between the ears can see, on examining state by state budget deficits now exploding – in every case “re-balancing” is being done on the backs of the poor, the disabled, the elderly and the homeless. Loss of health care, loss of jobs and loss of overall security results, as well as increase in drug use, violent criminality and prostitution.

Other factors and pathology –distress indices have already been well documented by Michael Parenti in his book, The Dirty Truths, and these include the U.S. having the highest rates in: teen pregnancies, STDs, infant mortality, suicides, homicides, rapes, incest, child abuse, marriage failure, alcoholism and drug use, as well as industrial accidents and disabling outcomes – establishing a large population of the chronically disabled and poor.

The conclusion is inescapable: given the mass insecurity and economic discomfort – which we’re seeing a lot of in this recession as more and more lose jobs and go to food banks- the victimized citizens will turn to the aid and protection of specious supernatural powers since they can’t expect any relief from government. Fig. 1 shows a graph of major industrial nations as they fall on two axes: the vertical measuring their success by the degree of security and sociological health in the populace, and the horizontal according to the degree of secularity or non-secularity.

As one can readily ascertain, the U.S. is relatively high on the non-secular (religious belief scale) but low on the health-success scale.

British philosopher Nicholas Humphrey, in his superb book Soul Searching, has an excellent explanation for this clinging to God and religion in the U.S.

"Religions and quasi-religions offer remarkably effective medicine for orphaned minds. As Jung said: 'They give a human being that sense of wholeness, which he had as a child, but which he loses when he leaves his parents"

In other words, for the much suffering religious believer in the States - who cannot depend on the government for his sustenance or support, God and religion offer a sweet teat to provide the comfort and nurturance otherwise missing. The irony is that these same sufferers pillory Europeans as having a Nanny state - but at least the Europeans have a genuine entity from which to elicit assistance, as opposed to a phantasm of the mind.

People-citizens without government support, who are unable to pursue learning interests even when unemployed (as they can in Germany and Norway, for example) are trapped on a treadmill that demands they expend energy – mental and physical- even when they have the time to pursue individual research that would disclose the sterility of their dubious faith.

Ireland was long an impoverished Catholic slave state, but since it’s high tech boom, the influence of Catholicism has ebbed to the point the Church could not prevent a pro-choice piece of legislation from being passed a few years ago. Ireland is now typically “Euro-secular”. Spain was reliably fascist until 1975 and the demise of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. Now it is a Euro-secular state that has recently adopted gay marriage.

Meanwhile, the U.S. remains a religious anomaly because its socio-economic system is anomalous and pathological in contrast to Euro-first world norms, for example. In the U.S. by contrast to Germany - where unemployment isn’t catastrophic (since nixed workers are paid up to 80% of their normal wage benefits for nearly two years, 50% thereafter), the unemployed are ususally advised to pound pavements in search for work - rather than study at a college, even to merely improve their name. No surprise then that German unemployed workers are largely much better informed - especially concerning world affairs- than their American counterparts.

Most lower middle class people in the U.S. face serious risk of financial and personal ruin if they lose their insecure jobs and health insurance. (And as we know, in a cowboy capitalist nation like ours, a significant unemployment level is useful for profiteers & corporations since it means their wage costs and benefits packages can be lower. Thus, the army of the unemployed constitutes an unemployment “rent”- a term first used by Alan Greenspan in 1997) . Market specialists and strategists do NOT want employment rates high because they inflate the Employment Cost Index, and also:

"Inflation fears are especially acute ..because unemployment is too low. When available workers become scarce, employers must often bid more for their services and then raise consumer prices to make up for higher costs."

(The Baltimore Sun, p. 1E , Jan. 27, 1997, 'Employment Cost Is a Hot Number').

This addresses the question (asked by many) on why the DOW is still going up despite the unemployment rate hovering near 10%. Short answer, higher unemployment is a necessary fuel to the markets! As Greenspan put it in 1997, "every 1 million unemployed keeps the inflation rate down by 1%".

Personal bankruptcies involving just medical expenses number almost 1.2 million each year. A stat any other self-respecting nation would consider beyond shameful. Meanwhile, the need to acquire adequate wealth as a protective buffer translates into a Darwinian race to the top often built on debt. Until the recession began, the entire U.S. financial system was over-leveraged by 10-20%. It was precisely this, along with making bets on the debt being paid (known as credit default swaps) which incepted the bubble, and later, when the debts couldn't be paid, the collapse. Despite this, even as I write this another asset bubble is forming because no meaningful reforms (with teeth) have been implemented. Wall Street is prepared to carry on like it did before.

Advanced sociological research ) indicates the mere existence of strong income disparity (Gini coefficient of 0.4 or 40, or higher) creates widespread psychological strain. People in such nations, since income can no longer allow for necessities, must go into credit card or other debt to pay- say for medical emergencies.

In this economic morass, susceptible and vulnerable brains will be open to the palaver of religious doctrines and bunkum, as a kind of balm to salve the distress inflicted by a brutish, survival of the fittest society. Fundies, like the irrepressible dandelions on my lawn- especially proliferate, since their messages are at simpleton level and basically translate into "Believe in Jesus and get saved or else". Even if a person is the rankest child rapist, or foul mass murderer, it is no matter- since once the bounty of salvation is conferred, his soul's as pure as the driven snow. Look how Ted Bundy, who slaughtered over 200 women by some estimates, was "saved" at the last minute by none other than the Rev. James Dobson. What would those dead women think - IF there were an afterlife- at the thought of Bundy, with his leering grin - sitting on the right-hand side of God for eternity? Yet this is what the simpleton fundies would have you believe.


That so many in the U.S. middle class feel anxious and fearful enough to enlist the dubious assistance of a friendly “creator” – never mind ‘he’ exists only in their mashed up temporal lobes- is a testament to monumental gullibility, if not severe brain dysfunction. Interestingly, when surveyed, Americans claim levels of satisfaction and happiness similar to those in the Euro-secular advanced societies. This clearly suggests, as noted by the piece, that Americans use religion and their religious (or spiritual) beliefs as a form of self-medication to alleviate the chronic stress attendant on the knavish, neo-Darwinian society they inhabit.

I am sure while advanced Europeans in Germany, France or Norway merely need to go out into the fresh air for a walk to get high and escape their problems, most lower and middle class Americans get it by reading their bibles, or better- going out grabbing an unsuspecting free citizen- and "witnessing" to him or her. Once they have that poor citizen terrified of death and eternal torment in "Hell", I am sure those fundies go back and sleep the sleep of the just. Their problems resolved.

Thus, it is no coincidence that religiosity is low in every first world nation with universal health coverage and high in the only without it. What else can the hapless, beat-down American do – when denied coverage for serious illness – than seek the assistance of his imaginary god, who now also becomes his healer?

The conclusion from dozens of sociological and anthropological journals is inescapable: high levels of national religiosity are largely a symptom of a dysfunctional socioeconomic governance and circumstances engendered by that governance. High levels of secularism are largely a result of healthier, more secure governance and conditions that arise from those enlightened policies. In particular, taxes are relatively high - but are used for the betterment and support of the commonweal, as opposed to funding open-ended occupations, invasions, and tax cuts for the wealthiest. The latter must truly be amazed and secure that so many less well off citizens, who would otherwise be up in arms at their amassed and unholy wealth, are kept under full control through the use of a fantasy belief system.

"Religion is the opiate of the people"? No way, more like the Overseer of the people.