07/07/2007 Katrina My Love...
Just wondering; has anyone thought that perhaps Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for Mardi Gras? I mean, I know all you conservatives think that you're going to get locked up for saying what you think (their most calculated of complaints; one must give them credit for brilliantly using what artists call “negative space” to essentially lie about their opponents), but really. Didn't Reagan get away with saying that A.I.D.S. was God's punishment for gay men? If “everything happens for a reason”, then what exactly is the reason for Katrina? Now, granted, the guy in the White House hasn't said anything to that effect. But if he did believe it, I should point out, then he likely would have acted no differently.
Other than Christmas, Mardi Gras must be considered one of the greatest remaining popular pagan rituals. Not as popular as Christmas, but certainly a famous one. It should be remembered that the early Americans outlawed Christmas as feeding avarice. Their Christ's birthday was at a different time of year, to be celebrated by fasting. Try selling that to this crowd. Could it be the old rituals that we observed have some effect on today's obesity rates? We learn to get pleasure from foods today, and the latest products, even from our politics. Once upon a time, we got pleasure from self-denial. That's missing from our lives today, no? In fact, it's considered downright exotic, if not insane.
As liberals put out protest albums and try to convince us that they have values, we see the role pleasure plays in our public discourse. As the news degenerates into a battle of who can tell us we're right, the religious groups and movie makers have each chosen their side. On the right, we have the Heritage Foundation, Big Oil, and/or A whole Group of large corporations that would see a vow of poverty as being on the same level of wisdom as thinking the earth is flat. So where once a great Jewish prophet told us to turn the other cheek, today's “christians” tell us that the richest country in the world is so because of their values, that they are the chosen ones and that we need to kill the dark-skinned heathens before they kill us. Meanwhile, the turn the other cheek idea is being peddled by celebrities who go on television shows and slobber over themselves before getting into their limos and going off to their mansions or private beaches.
With self-denial gone from the equation and business firmly in the positive ethical space as far as exploiting pleasure for their own gain, we see the political arena and religious institutions becoming businesses. With our religions supporting politicians that turn a blind eye to the poor, who reduce standards on emissions that cause deadly smog that kills the old and the weak, that advocates guns, and that wages war, they contradict the spirit of their own dogma. What is their focus? Gay sex. Abortions. Look in the media; how much of the commentary on incestuous relationships come from conservative commentators and religious advocates? From them we hear of the dangers of having sex with the same sex, how it's the same as marrying your sister. How gay people are bringing about the apocalypse, how they want to teach their kind of sex to children, how teenage girls are using abortion as birth control. And when I remind you that words put images into your mind as effectively as television, then you'll see why our churches are our new houses of pornography. Factor in the physical pleasure one feels when one is told that they are right, and you'll see what I mean when I say that hollywood and the religious right worship at the same “alter.”
Towns and cities that are trying to get restaurants to put the calories next to the menu items might want to consider requiring themselves to take the words, “Democrat” and “Republican” off their ballots. How else to make room for truth that goes unfunded? If someone wanted to tell us to “turn the other cheek”, to preach self-denial as a means of achieving happiness and to treat all beings with compassion, who would fund it?
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