The most disturbing thing about the Bush administration for me is the degree to which it is shot through with people who believe truly bizarre things. I can understand conservative ideology on the economy, foreign relations, taxes, the environment, privatization, etc. I disagree with conservatives on these issues, but at least when I discuss them with my Republican friends, I don't get the sense I'm talking to someone from fantasy land.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, however, appears to be one of those epistemologically weird people that are attracted to Bush--people who don't just differ from me in terms of politically philosophy, but whose fundamental frames of reference are totally alien. At least this is the conclusion I draw after considering the book Gutierrez has laid out in his waiting room for people to peruse before coming to see him:
The Atlas of Creation is prominently displayed in the waiting room to his office. Written by the Turkish writer Adnan Oktar (under the pen name of Harun Yahya), the Atlas offers an Islamic version of creationism and blames Charles Darwin for modern terrorism–including the 9/11 attacks. A recent visitor to the office tells me that the Atlas is impossible to miss, both because of its huge size–it weighs in at 12 pounds and has nearly 800 pages–and because it is prominently displayed on a stand at the entrance to the room.
* * *
A caption from the book, below a photograph of one of the planes striking the World Trade Center, reports: “No matter what ideology they may espouse, those who perpetrate terror over the world are, in reality, Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy that places a value on–and thus encourages–conflict.”
Darwinism is also to blame for fascism and communism. As the Atlas explains, it “is the root of various ideologies of violence that have spelled disaster to mankind in the 20th century.
Whoa.
(h/t to PZ Myers)
Comments