Elaine Cassel
March 16, 2008
Elaine Cassel is an attorney in Virginia and DC as well as a professor of law and psychology at Concord University School of Law and Marymount University. She holds degrees in law, psychology, and English Literature. She's the author of many articles as well as the books Criminal Behavior (with Douglas A. Bernstein) and The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights.
Revising her talk entitled "It's Authoritarianism, Stupid," Cassel spoke of how not only the religious right and republicans have used authoritarianism to promote their goals, but gave examples of how it has spread throughout our society and all aspects of our lives, including into the democratic party and the currect political race for the presidency.
Between the two democratic canditates, this is evident in their bickering about who said what about whom ("You take that back") and not only their willingness to mention their religious affiliation or practice at every opportunity, but the unspoken requirement that they must be religious to even be considered for public office.
She spoke of the hypocrisy in the lives of authoritarian leaders who believe the rules don't apply to them (even when they are the ones who signed the laws into being) and how they use hatred, fear, prejudice, bigotry, and anti-intellectualism to keep themselves in power and the people in line.
Secularists must begin grass roots efforts, have facts on their side, and pick their issues and battles carefully to concentrate their focus and enact change in the governments which have been hijacked by the authoritarian right.
