Dominionists are terrifying. More terrifying than the Moral Majority or Discovery Institute put together into some kind of giant robot with Pat Robertson’s head attacking a gay military funeral.
Thank god even other Christian groups stand against this idea.
It’s something I’d like to see more of from Muslim moderates, frankly, but conquest seems to be even more ingrained into the teachings of Islam.
Granted my exposure to Islam is considerably less than that of Christianity. What with all their giant robots.
Christ called for the exact opposite, for his follower to serve others, to be the humblest, lowest, as “Christ”ian (the clue’s in the name) surely he should be following Christ and doing the same. Did this man ever read the Bible?
But its all children we are after, not just little boys, its the children we are after. They are our little toys. its the children we are after, can you hear thier muffled noise. Its the children we are after.
-Chester, All Fucking Religions
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...JamesTuskGeorge: I dunno man. Interpretation of WWJD can vary wildly. In both Matthew and Luke Jesus condemns entire cities to violent death and damnation for not caring for his message or not receiving his disciples. Even literally says “He that is not with me is against me”.
But yes, in other parts he calls for humility and servitude. In fact he tells people to give away all of their belongings and give no thought for tomorrow. Pretty widely ignored advice for being in the sermon on the fucking mount, eh?
Basically it’s possible to interpret (earnestly, if not “correctly”) Jesus’ teachings to back up just about any stance you’d care to take.
What do they need a god for if they’re going to do everything for themselves?
Twee (#5301)
16 years ago
He’s like an anti-mad-scientist. @Namelis1: Athiests unite and hail Satan? I hope you’re kidding. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard today in any case. Assuming Satan did exist, what’s the point of even paying him lip-service?
…He’s a Pirate Bay supporter you see. Ba-Dum Ching!
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...Twee: Haven’t you ever seen a cartoon man? You sell Him your soul for whatever you most desire, and then you get a humorously ironic punishment in hell. I guess Sananists are trying to butter Him up because they want to renege on the deal.
Seriously though, most “Satanists” are atheists shacked up with LaVey’s little social statement because they’re either angry ex-Christians with no imagination or Randian Objectivists who happen to love Halloween. And as far as I can tell the minority of actual theistic Satanists (technically a Christian denomination, amusingly enough) can all be found within the Norwegian black metal scene. Which is a shame because it’s a waste of the perfectly metal themes of the native Norse mythology. Oh well, it’s not like you could make out the lyrics anyway.
a lot of people have felt this way for as long as historians can account. those types of christians are the last bastion of old skewl imperialism. o wait, i forgot about the American military industrial complex and corporate community.
Because if one crazy nutbag says so that means every single practitioner of the faith believes it. Are you people fucking serious with this shit? Goddamn i guess i should go to germany and yell at preschoolers and their teachers for supporting the holocaust.
Twee (#5301)
16 years ago
Good answer, greytone! The “Randian Objectivists who happen to love Halloween” bit made me laugh. I hadn’t heard of LaVey previously.
@...greytone:
AAHAHAHAH. Norwegian black metallers hate jesus so much. I love watching videos of Mayhem live.
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...thelotuseater725: Fuckin’A Lotus! You give those little kraut bastards what for!
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...Twee: Yeah, I took a look at them back when I was shopping my soul around for a new faith. LeVay had, er, plagiarized a few good ideas but man, he is a TERRIBLE singer! As a stroke of genius, I think he made an album to prove there could not possibly be a god.
@...greytone: Nah, if you read what he said there’s not a lot of confusion, and Christian scholars throughout the world are agreed, it’s only in the USA where there’s rampant confusion, the church of wealth, the dominion shit and all the general usurping of the faith into new religions.
Jesus doesn’t condem anyone to death, he’s leaving them in their own death because they refuse his life. It’s not a matter of perspective, it’s a matter of learning, and most people of religion refuse to learn about the faith, and most people of faith have no need for religion, hence the need for a very clear disctinction being made between the two.
vanvelding (#4765)
16 years ago
@...Marrock: The Dominion routinely did the ass-handing. Preference for not turning show into Star Trek: Tarak Nor, which hosted the politicking of untrustworthy, genocidal aliens, demanded that the Federation & friends win in the end. 😉
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...JamesTuskGeorge: It’s been a while so I’m a bit too rusty for name dropping off the top of my head but I remember reading plenty of prominent apologists and theologians who certainly didn’t agree with each other. Granted they agreed on some major thematic points, otherwise they wouldn’t have been so prominent. So I’m not sure I agree that there’s a consensus, and less convinced that if there were it would be authoritative.
And even if THAT were true, I stand by my point that one could back up and stance with scripture and feel justified.
It’s not only in the US I assure you but we certainly have been going nuts with new flavors haven’t we? Dominionism, Creationism, Mormonism, Southern Baptist…ism. Voodoo is one of ours too.
All the same, I think it’s mostly seems like the US is so rampant because of all the noisy struggles recently between our religious right and our secular Constitution. Something that wouldn’t happen countries with an official faith.
Jesus only “letting” people die feels like it could easily spiral into worthless semantics so I’m going to give that one some thought and come back to it. But even if I accept that, which I don’t, there’s no shortage of examples of God dealing out some vicious hands-on death. But that’s off topic.
As for most people refusing to learn about their own faith, that has certainly been my experience. Be it learning about the details and history of their creed or even looking inward and examining their own beliefs very closely.
But when it comes to drawing a distinction between the two, i don’t know, that sounds like a semantic issue as well. If you feel the need go for it, but it’s not of much interest to me to debate it. For the sake of argument I’m willing to work with whatever definitions people want.
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
…wouldn’t happen *in* countries with an official faith, rather.
SumoSnipe (#4452)
16 years ago
@Marrock: Yes, He does. @TheLotusEater725:No I don’t think that. I know that the vast majority of any religion or branch of faith are not extreme nutbags that want to impose their particular view on the rest of the world. Most of the time the best thing to do is flat out ignore them, or hope they go the route of Jim Jones or David Koresh
@...Twee: It’s a joke wiseguy. Satan is supposedly some kind of deity, an atheist wouldn’t be an atheist if he/she believed in Satan.
But certain religious people who have no idea what they’re talking about, will immediately jump on that and accuse atheists of worshiping the devil.
@...greytone: Well, maybe we broadly agree, but this isn’t the place to explore it any futher.
I don’t think it’s lack of an official faith that’s screwed the US though, I think it’s that since people aren’t taught about faiths in schools every crackpot nutter who puts on a good show has been able to find followers who have no idea one way or the other and will never read the Bible for themselves. France has no official religion, but the central tennets of all (the major) religions are taught in schools, meaning that everyone has some idea of what the whole point of them is and are armed with enough information to laugh in the face of someone trying to manipulate their ignorance of whichever faith the nutter is trying to abuse.
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...JamesTuskGeorge: Comparative religion classes would be awesome. As long as it stays out of the science class I’m all for it. But America is too Politically Correct and hung up on equality to a fault and I think that’s one of the things at the root of this. But far more important would be a much stronger emphasis on logic and critical thinking in our schools. At present there is almost none.
Thank you for an interesting and civil discussion.
Twee (#5301)
16 years ago
My parents’ church had what might be called “intro to comparative religion” as a sunday-school curriculum for the middle-school students. It included having guest speakers from other faiths (most notably a very attractive 20-something Muslim woman), and attending some services at other churches. You’ll have to take my word for it that it was a pretty unbiased comparison and that I attended a pretty unusual church as a child. I can’t say how much of that info I still retain now, but It was a pretty fun curriculum, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten much more of the Bible-study sunday-school curriculum that preceded it.
I didn’t really mention all of this to make any particular point, except I guess to say “yes, comparative religion was awesome.”
Incidentally, I took Logic/Philosophy (one class, again kind of an intro) in high-school, and that was also pretty neat.
The sad thing about these idiots (besides bowtie & haircut) is that they ACTUALLY BELIEVE they have a shot at “taking the world for christ”. Blinded to the fact: they are less and less every day, thanks to the monumental credibility loss of christianism (catholicism included)
@...JamesTuskGeorge: @...greytone: @...Twee: The school in France (CES Voltaire)that I attended, had Latin/Greek language and Philosophy/Comparative Religion as part of the regular curriculum. When I moved back to the States, I was horrified at the lack of choice in regular High Schools. I ended taking 1.5 hour (each way) train/ferry/subway ride to attend Stuyvesant. What a huge difference.
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...Twee: That sounds wonderful. The best I remember my church teaching us kids was how to tell our non Christian friends about our buddy Jesus without being influenced or corrupted when they told us about their beliefs. Some pretty sleazy seeming stuff. We were basically being trained as recruiters on top of the rest of the indoctrination.
Despite my experiences I know better than to think all Christians are as such. But I certainly take issue with that sort of system, indoctrination, the idea of faith as a virtue, and dogma as a whole.
…not that you made any point to the contrary, just ranting.
@...Smuggan: Christianism? I’m a Christianist. I believe in the existence of Christians.
Sorry, just poking fun. But yeah, I think that’s true. But it will probably come back. Religiosity, or at least religious adherence, seems to have a pendulum effect. And the dumb-ass loud angry fledgling parrot atheists are certainly up to doing their part to push it back in the other direction, sadly.
…I’m not having a great day, I should try not to take it out on the internets.
There’s no reason to judge all Christians by the behavior of some faiths. There is also no particular reason to judge a faith by a few people that practice it. Here in WV there are some serious holy rollers, including the ones w/ snakes. If I go 1/2 hour west I’m in Appalachia where there’s a church every few square miles. The haves names like Bob and Edna’s Church of Jesus and the Apostles. Most of the churches have congregations of just a few families.
All that said, if this George Grant is the leader of Coral Ridge Ministries, that’s really creepy and scary; how scary depends on the size of his congregation and how successful they are at progressing their agenda.
@...thelotuseater725: “Because if one crazy nutbag says so that means every single practitioner of the faith believes it.”
Nah, I doubt it’s their intention to claim every single last Christian believes in the ramblings of above nutjob. I’m an atheist, and I sure as hell don’t.
That said, it would be nice if more moderate, liberal Christians spoke out a little more loudly against fundamentalist idiocy, because if there’s one thing the fundamentalists are good at, it’s shouting extremely loudly about how they and their worldview couldn’t possibly be wrong, and more to the point, how their worldview represents “true” Christianity.
@...pi_neutrino: They’re also good at complaining very loudly that they’re being picked on and discriminated against because no one will let them do what they want. I listen to them sometimes and I just think “What!? The secular left is discriminating against you?! Try being an atheist and see how well your treated.” Not that I really think anyone (of any faith or lack of it)is discriminated against(as a group by those in power).
Well yeah for the most part you are right. I believe in god and stuff but i also know that there may not be any truth to my belief.
As far as “true christianity” goes you will never find it. Christianity is too subjective to have one concrete truth to it. There are some generalizations that apply to a large amount of it but the only core belief that most share is that Jesus was the son of god. And some of them don’t even think that may be true. The reason the more moderate and liberal of us don’t speak against it is because we don’t feel we should have to apoligize for the beliefs of what is more or less a small but heavily publicized group. Now i know you aren’t asking for an apology but that is the way most of us see it. Myself personally i speak out against it as much as possible. I am sick and tired of these fuckheads being associated with my faith and generally getting publicity. It’s like how a lot of americans think all muslims hate jews and christians and are terrorists. Some crazy factions get airplay and all of a sudden everyone thinks they represent the faith and all of its believers as a whole.
I seem to remember reading something like “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” in the Bible. Can’t seem to remember anything about wanting dominion, though…
greytone (#1667)
16 years ago
@...Annarchy: Maybe the meek inherit the Earth because the strong have gone off to colonize other planets and mate with green alien babes.
steve-o (#)
12 years ago
If these people don’t die out, we normal people will eventually have to kill them. Imagine what a world would be like if they ran the whole place.
Better atheist scum than christian fascist.
Dominionists are terrifying. More terrifying than the Moral Majority or Discovery Institute put together into some kind of giant robot with Pat Robertson’s head attacking a gay military funeral.
Thank god even other Christian groups stand against this idea.
It’s something I’d like to see more of from Muslim moderates, frankly, but conquest seems to be even more ingrained into the teachings of Islam.
Granted my exposure to Islam is considerably less than that of Christianity. What with all their giant robots.
The bow tie makes me want to smack him something fierce.
Christ called for the exact opposite, for his follower to serve others, to be the humblest, lowest, as “Christ”ian (the clue’s in the name) surely he should be following Christ and doing the same. Did this man ever read the Bible?
Dominion my arse.
Is he… is he “pointing” at me?
Holy fuck what a psycho. All that’s missing is a “Heil Jeebus” at the end of his memo.
——-
Atheists UNITE!
Hail Satan!
@...JamesTuskGeorge: I’m sure at the very least he read Matthew 10:34.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
PICKLES ARE BURRITOS
ANIMALS ARE BREAKFAST
TACOS ARE LIFE
Christians are not after domination. They want the the fucking apocalypse.
BOW TIES ARE POWER!
@...greytone: And possibly only that verse, without understanding or context.
@...Puulaahi: So do I, it’s gonna be fucking metal!
But its all children we are after, not just little boys, its the children we are after. They are our little toys. its the children we are after, can you hear thier muffled noise. Its the children we are after.
-Chester, All Fucking Religions
@...JamesTuskGeorge: I dunno man. Interpretation of WWJD can vary wildly. In both Matthew and Luke Jesus condemns entire cities to violent death and damnation for not caring for his message or not receiving his disciples. Even literally says “He that is not with me is against me”.
But yes, in other parts he calls for humility and servitude. In fact he tells people to give away all of their belongings and give no thought for tomorrow. Pretty widely ignored advice for being in the sermon on the fucking mount, eh?
Basically it’s possible to interpret (earnestly, if not “correctly”) Jesus’ teachings to back up just about any stance you’d care to take.
Weren’t the dominion the bad guys from DS9 or something, bent on universal domination and routinely getting their asses handed to them?
To me the bible is just another book of myths and sits on the shelf with all the rest, though, the norse myths are much more interesting.
“My god has a hammer!”
AHHH for fuck sake… what is wrong with the brains of these people!
What do they need a god for if they’re going to do everything for themselves?
He’s like an anti-mad-scientist.
@Namelis1: Athiests unite and hail Satan? I hope you’re kidding. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard today in any case. Assuming Satan did exist, what’s the point of even paying him lip-service?
@...AlecDalek: God helps those who help themselves.
…He’s a Pirate Bay supporter you see. Ba-Dum Ching!
@...Twee: Haven’t you ever seen a cartoon man? You sell Him your soul for whatever you most desire, and then you get a humorously ironic punishment in hell. I guess Sananists are trying to butter Him up because they want to renege on the deal.
Seriously though, most “Satanists” are atheists shacked up with LaVey’s little social statement because they’re either angry ex-Christians with no imagination or Randian Objectivists who happen to love Halloween. And as far as I can tell the minority of actual theistic Satanists (technically a Christian denomination, amusingly enough) can all be found within the Norwegian black metal scene. Which is a shame because it’s a waste of the perfectly metal themes of the native Norse mythology. Oh well, it’s not like you could make out the lyrics anyway.
a lot of people have felt this way for as long as historians can account. those types of christians are the last bastion of old skewl imperialism. o wait, i forgot about the American military industrial complex and corporate community.
@...Elepski:
@...Puulaahi:
Because if one crazy nutbag says so that means every single practitioner of the faith believes it. Are you people fucking serious with this shit? Goddamn i guess i should go to germany and yell at preschoolers and their teachers for supporting the holocaust.
Good answer, greytone! The “Randian Objectivists who happen to love Halloween” bit made me laugh. I hadn’t heard of LaVey previously.
@...greytone:
AAHAHAHAH. Norwegian black metallers hate jesus so much. I love watching videos of Mayhem live.
@...thelotuseater725: Fuckin’A Lotus! You give those little kraut bastards what for!
@...Twee: Yeah, I took a look at them back when I was shopping my soul around for a new faith. LeVay had, er, plagiarized a few good ideas but man, he is a TERRIBLE singer! As a stroke of genius, I think he made an album to prove there could not possibly be a god.
@...greytone: Nah, if you read what he said there’s not a lot of confusion, and Christian scholars throughout the world are agreed, it’s only in the USA where there’s rampant confusion, the church of wealth, the dominion shit and all the general usurping of the faith into new religions.
Jesus doesn’t condem anyone to death, he’s leaving them in their own death because they refuse his life. It’s not a matter of perspective, it’s a matter of learning, and most people of religion refuse to learn about the faith, and most people of faith have no need for religion, hence the need for a very clear disctinction being made between the two.
@...Marrock: The Dominion routinely did the ass-handing. Preference for not turning show into Star Trek: Tarak Nor, which hosted the politicking of untrustworthy, genocidal aliens, demanded that the Federation & friends win in the end. 😉
@...JamesTuskGeorge: It’s been a while so I’m a bit too rusty for name dropping off the top of my head but I remember reading plenty of prominent apologists and theologians who certainly didn’t agree with each other. Granted they agreed on some major thematic points, otherwise they wouldn’t have been so prominent. So I’m not sure I agree that there’s a consensus, and less convinced that if there were it would be authoritative.
And even if THAT were true, I stand by my point that one could back up and stance with scripture and feel justified.
It’s not only in the US I assure you but we certainly have been going nuts with new flavors haven’t we? Dominionism, Creationism, Mormonism, Southern Baptist…ism. Voodoo is one of ours too.
All the same, I think it’s mostly seems like the US is so rampant because of all the noisy struggles recently between our religious right and our secular Constitution. Something that wouldn’t happen countries with an official faith.
Jesus only “letting” people die feels like it could easily spiral into worthless semantics so I’m going to give that one some thought and come back to it. But even if I accept that, which I don’t, there’s no shortage of examples of God dealing out some vicious hands-on death. But that’s off topic.
As for most people refusing to learn about their own faith, that has certainly been my experience. Be it learning about the details and history of their creed or even looking inward and examining their own beliefs very closely.
But when it comes to drawing a distinction between the two, i don’t know, that sounds like a semantic issue as well. If you feel the need go for it, but it’s not of much interest to me to debate it. For the sake of argument I’m willing to work with whatever definitions people want.
…wouldn’t happen *in* countries with an official faith, rather.
@Marrock: Yes, He does.
@TheLotusEater725:No I don’t think that. I know that the vast majority of any religion or branch of faith are not extreme nutbags that want to impose their particular view on the rest of the world. Most of the time the best thing to do is flat out ignore them, or hope they go the route of Jim Jones or David Koresh
@...Twee: It’s a joke wiseguy. Satan is supposedly some kind of deity, an atheist wouldn’t be an atheist if he/she believed in Satan.
But certain religious people who have no idea what they’re talking about, will immediately jump on that and accuse atheists of worshiping the devil.
@...greytone: Well, maybe we broadly agree, but this isn’t the place to explore it any futher.
I don’t think it’s lack of an official faith that’s screwed the US though, I think it’s that since people aren’t taught about faiths in schools every crackpot nutter who puts on a good show has been able to find followers who have no idea one way or the other and will never read the Bible for themselves. France has no official religion, but the central tennets of all (the major) religions are taught in schools, meaning that everyone has some idea of what the whole point of them is and are armed with enough information to laugh in the face of someone trying to manipulate their ignorance of whichever faith the nutter is trying to abuse.
@...JamesTuskGeorge: Comparative religion classes would be awesome. As long as it stays out of the science class I’m all for it. But America is too Politically Correct and hung up on equality to a fault and I think that’s one of the things at the root of this. But far more important would be a much stronger emphasis on logic and critical thinking in our schools. At present there is almost none.
Thank you for an interesting and civil discussion.
My parents’ church had what might be called “intro to comparative religion” as a sunday-school curriculum for the middle-school students. It included having guest speakers from other faiths (most notably a very attractive 20-something Muslim woman), and attending some services at other churches. You’ll have to take my word for it that it was a pretty unbiased comparison and that I attended a pretty unusual church as a child. I can’t say how much of that info I still retain now, but It was a pretty fun curriculum, and I’m sure I’ve forgotten much more of the Bible-study sunday-school curriculum that preceded it.
I didn’t really mention all of this to make any particular point, except I guess to say “yes, comparative religion was awesome.”
Incidentally, I took Logic/Philosophy (one class, again kind of an intro) in high-school, and that was also pretty neat.
jesus built my hot rod.
The sad thing about these idiots (besides bowtie & haircut) is that they ACTUALLY BELIEVE they have a shot at “taking the world for christ”. Blinded to the fact: they are less and less every day, thanks to the monumental credibility loss of christianism (catholicism included)
@...JamesTuskGeorge: @...greytone: @...Twee: The school in France (CES Voltaire)that I attended, had Latin/Greek language and Philosophy/Comparative Religion as part of the regular curriculum. When I moved back to the States, I was horrified at the lack of choice in regular High Schools. I ended taking 1.5 hour (each way) train/ferry/subway ride to attend Stuyvesant. What a huge difference.
@...Twee: That sounds wonderful. The best I remember my church teaching us kids was how to tell our non Christian friends about our buddy Jesus without being influenced or corrupted when they told us about their beliefs. Some pretty sleazy seeming stuff. We were basically being trained as recruiters on top of the rest of the indoctrination.
Despite my experiences I know better than to think all Christians are as such. But I certainly take issue with that sort of system, indoctrination, the idea of faith as a virtue, and dogma as a whole.
…not that you made any point to the contrary, just ranting.
@...RP: Will it take off?
@...Smuggan: Christianism? I’m a Christianist. I believe in the existence of Christians.
Sorry, just poking fun. But yeah, I think that’s true. But it will probably come back. Religiosity, or at least religious adherence, seems to have a pendulum effect. And the dumb-ass loud angry fledgling parrot atheists are certainly up to doing their part to push it back in the other direction, sadly.
…I’m not having a great day, I should try not to take it out on the internets.
There’s no reason to judge all Christians by the behavior of some faiths. There is also no particular reason to judge a faith by a few people that practice it. Here in WV there are some serious holy rollers, including the ones w/ snakes. If I go 1/2 hour west I’m in Appalachia where there’s a church every few square miles. The haves names like Bob and Edna’s Church of Jesus and the Apostles. Most of the churches have congregations of just a few families.
All that said, if this George Grant is the leader of Coral Ridge Ministries, that’s really creepy and scary; how scary depends on the size of his congregation and how successful they are at progressing their agenda.
@...thelotuseater725: “Because if one crazy nutbag says so that means every single practitioner of the faith believes it.”
Nah, I doubt it’s their intention to claim every single last Christian believes in the ramblings of above nutjob. I’m an atheist, and I sure as hell don’t.
That said, it would be nice if more moderate, liberal Christians spoke out a little more loudly against fundamentalist idiocy, because if there’s one thing the fundamentalists are good at, it’s shouting extremely loudly about how they and their worldview couldn’t possibly be wrong, and more to the point, how their worldview represents “true” Christianity.
@...pi_neutrino: They’re also good at complaining very loudly that they’re being picked on and discriminated against because no one will let them do what they want. I listen to them sometimes and I just think “What!? The secular left is discriminating against you?! Try being an atheist and see how well your treated.” Not that I really think anyone (of any faith or lack of it)is discriminated against(as a group by those in power).
@...pi_neutrino:
Well yeah for the most part you are right. I believe in god and stuff but i also know that there may not be any truth to my belief.
As far as “true christianity” goes you will never find it. Christianity is too subjective to have one concrete truth to it. There are some generalizations that apply to a large amount of it but the only core belief that most share is that Jesus was the son of god. And some of them don’t even think that may be true. The reason the more moderate and liberal of us don’t speak against it is because we don’t feel we should have to apoligize for the beliefs of what is more or less a small but heavily publicized group. Now i know you aren’t asking for an apology but that is the way most of us see it. Myself personally i speak out against it as much as possible. I am sick and tired of these fuckheads being associated with my faith and generally getting publicity. It’s like how a lot of americans think all muslims hate jews and christians and are terrorists. Some crazy factions get airplay and all of a sudden everyone thinks they represent the faith and all of its believers as a whole.
“- George Grant, Megalomaniacal Stan Laurel Lookalike.”
Fix’d
I seem to remember reading something like “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” in the Bible. Can’t seem to remember anything about wanting dominion, though…
@...Annarchy: Maybe the meek inherit the Earth because the strong have gone off to colonize other planets and mate with green alien babes.
If these people don’t die out, we normal people will eventually have to kill them. Imagine what a world would be like if they ran the whole place.