Marquel, TPVs NYTimes God Is My Stockbroker Section correspondent, was learning how to spell God when he read David Brat’s Hand-of-God Economics. The congressional candidate is only the latest proponent of the tricky relationship between religion and the free market. The primary belief of his doctrine is that Protestants make the market work and that virtue makes it work better. Marquel couldn’t argue with that because he didn’t know what it meant.
He knew the ten richest nations start with Qatar, Luxembourg and Singapore and there isn’t a Protestant to be found in two of those. Luxembourg as is true of all Europe these days is not very religious and if anything is Catholic but of course it isn’t. The next three on the list are Norway, Brunei and Hong Kong. Two of those haven’t a Protestant either and Norway is famously areligious, but we can give Norway to Brat even though Marquel would prefer Norway for himself. He loves Norway.
The next country is the US. We have Protestants Marquel had to admit but surely it’s as hard to find virtue here as it is to find a Protestant in Hong Kong, also right there on the list. The last three countries are the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland, and Australia. Finally Protestants and virtue. But Marquel wasn’t sure whether Switzerland had much virtue nor whether Australia really had that many Protestants. But the UAR, without Protestants or virtue, seemed enough to disprove whatever lesson the Swiss and Aussies might be able to teach.
All in all, reality offers no support to Brat, but of course the voters gave him all the support he needed and that was probably due to his emphasis on an otherwise absent Protestantism and virtue. Marquel remained curious about how reality affected people’s beliefs.
I went to NYU to consult with one of their professors. I can’t even begin to say what he taught. It included semiotics and the minute I hear that I turn off and get ready for jargon. I wasn’t disappointed so the rest of this is basically a translation.
I asked why people insist on adopting beliefs that contradict their entire experience.
“This is nothing new, ” he said, “think of the Greeks. They constructed an entire world of gods and demigods without ever experiencing the smallest part of it. The Romans, the Christians after them. There is not even any historical record of Jesus’ existence yet you have a bible full of his possibly imagined life and a resurrection that nobody in history ever experienced.”
“I had a mother in law who resurrected a dead chicken.” I said.
“If that’s so,” he said, “even if it happened, Christians don’t worship a chicken. They worship what they want, not what they have.”
“So it’s really the opposite of the Cheney Rumsfeld doctrine of using the army you have, not the army you want.” I said.
“Exactly, in a sense” he said, “the right wing want the market to be Christian and virtuous even though they experience it as pure selfishness and materialistic acquisitiveness surpassing theft.”
“But why believe in a better world when they could legislate it into real existence?”
“That’s a difficult question.” He said. “I think it’s part fear and part manipulation.”
“You think this Brat is fearful?” I asked.
“I’m not talking of him but his followers who really believe it all.”
“Implying that he doesn’t believe it one bit?” I wondered.
“The history of these beliefs doesn’t include committed belief by the leaders. On the other hand they don’t force it on their followers. The followers are ready, almost begging for a story.” He said.
“So Brat tells the story and they follow?” I asked.
“They beg for a story.” He said.
“So what do I conclude?” I asked.
“Well I could tell you the truth or tell you a story.” He said.
“What should I choose?” I questioned.
He smiled avuncularly, “We all want stories.”
“Okay, a story,” I said.
The story he told was comforting. Brat’s story, on the other hand was and is disturbing. Perhaps we all need stories but who needs a story so demeaning as Brat’s? I won’t translate the story I was told, but it was comforting and departed from reality only in the sense that it wasn’t real yet but, if we work at it, it could be. Brat’s will never be true. Thank God.
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BY MARQUEL:
