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I'm watching this show on Satanic cults last night; I love cable.
They found a nice little group that didn't mind their cameras capturing some neo-anton-gardner ritual silliness. They found a disturbed kid who killed his family, never mentioning the evil, satatic posters on his wall were all from D&D books (that's a different show). They also found some poor bastard who's made it his life chasing evil cults and sees their influence under every tree and shrub.
The cult chaser had all the books of Satan and pulled out something from Crowley and read aloud a passage on child sacrifice. "See. SEE! It's even in their literature!" Alistar would have loved this guy, would have bought him a drink or a shot of heroin. You see, Al liked to mess with people and was compulsively sardonic. If you don't get the joke, too bad for you.
I felt bad for their expert, but not too bad. He was happy. He had found his Adversary and, in doing so, his purpose. It didn't matter if I thought he was on a snipe hunt, if everyone did, he was a true believer, he knew he was right. I'm both frightened and awed by the power of the righteous.
People seem to thrive on being marginalized. We need to see ourselves as fighting the good fight against some huge, uncaring, oppressive, badness. It's an archetype that wears so many masks you can't even count. Bush puts that mask on Arabs as they put it on him.
Most would admit that the conflict of "us" versus "them" is detrimental, but it also seems fundamental. We seem to need a them that's bigger than us. We define ourselves by the them we choose. Let us choose our adversaries wisely.
They found a nice little group that didn't mind their cameras capturing some neo-anton-gardner ritual silliness. They found a disturbed kid who killed his family, never mentioning the evil, satatic posters on his wall were all from D&D books (that's a different show). They also found some poor bastard who's made it his life chasing evil cults and sees their influence under every tree and shrub.
The cult chaser had all the books of Satan and pulled out something from Crowley and read aloud a passage on child sacrifice. "See. SEE! It's even in their literature!" Alistar would have loved this guy, would have bought him a drink or a shot of heroin. You see, Al liked to mess with people and was compulsively sardonic. If you don't get the joke, too bad for you.
I felt bad for their expert, but not too bad. He was happy. He had found his Adversary and, in doing so, his purpose. It didn't matter if I thought he was on a snipe hunt, if everyone did, he was a true believer, he knew he was right. I'm both frightened and awed by the power of the righteous.
People seem to thrive on being marginalized. We need to see ourselves as fighting the good fight against some huge, uncaring, oppressive, badness. It's an archetype that wears so many masks you can't even count. Bush puts that mask on Arabs as they put it on him.
Most would admit that the conflict of "us" versus "them" is detrimental, but it also seems fundamental. We seem to need a them that's bigger than us. We define ourselves by the them we choose. Let us choose our adversaries wisely.