My partner and I run a lovely event here in Orlando called Pagans in the Park, which serves two main functions. First, it’s a place where the local pagan community can gather in a drama free zone to learn and have ritual communally to help heal some of the rifts that have developed from local infighting. Secondly, it serves as a place where local pagans who are new to the area, people interested in paganism or the general public can come a learn who and what we are. We don’t discriminate, but we do ask everyone to play nicely. And the beauty of it is that nobody is favored over another- we chose that neutral stance to help avoid the kind of stresses that promote ingroups and outgroups.
So far it works nicely.
I’m thinking about this on the night after I witnessed secondhand a blowup in the Irish polytheist community. Again, playing out in front of the Gods and everybody through the lens of social media. It seems one fellow got his knickers in a twist over a poem that he alleged is a death magic curse from a former female member of his religious group, whom he was trolling.
What is really interesting is how the fellow in question went around all the Irish pagan groups the former member was on, passing around this poem, and convincing administrators to remove her from something like 10 groups without ever actually reaching out to her and talk about it.
What is especially troubling is that so many admins accepted the fellow’s interpretation of the poem and themselves never reached out to the woman in question.
They simply ostracized her.
Since I have a love of history and philosophy, this immediately calls to mind an example from ancient Greece, and an object lesson on why democracy is a really bad thing.
---
So Athens, the glorious seat of democratic government, wasn’t really that awesome. Every so often, an assembly was called and by law, every adult male had to attend the assembly to vote on laws for the city. In fact, once called, men with horsetail whips dipped in red paint were sent around the city flicking paint everywhere, and if a man was found with red paint on him afterwards, he’d be fined heavily for failing to show up for the assembly.
The interesting thing was what happened at the end of the assembly. A vote was called and cast called the ostrakon. The word in Greek means “pottery shard”, and this is how it worked:
A pile of pottery shards was kept on a table along with an intact pot. Each person was called up to the table and could write the name of a single person on that shard and anonymously drop it in the pot. Once complete, the vote was tallied and if any single person got 50% or more of the votes cast, he was sent into exile for 10 years and his house and assets were seized and distributed among the community. If the ostracized person returned from exile early, they were executed.
In fact, this is where we get the word ostracize.
The stated purpose of the ostrakon was to prevent any single person from becoming too powerful. A potential tyrant could be dealt with by a vote.
The effect of the ostrakon was devastating according to Plato. It was the worst form of tyranny; a man could live under a tyrannical dictator with limited fear, as long as he obeyed the dictator. But the tyranny of the majority in the ostrakon meant that a man had to constantly police his thoughts and words lest he slip up and become unpopular. Anyone could arrange a smear campaign to make another look too ambitious, and potentially be ostracized. The simple fear of a potential for unpopularity was itself a constant threat, and led great men to choose not to become leaders for fear of the vote.
---
The parallel here is easy to see. In the fast moving and fractured world of echo chambers that is social media, the accusation of evil is the proof. The reply has to be proving one didn’t do the harm another claims, and you can’t prove you didn’t do something.
To her credit, the lady in question very clearly stated that it was based in a dream, and the fellow misinterpreted her intent.
But the damage is done. We’ve moved into the very tyranny that Plato tried to warn us of in The Republic, tyranny of the majority.
The consequences, I fear, from this culture of ostracism, is that differing and valuable voices are being shut out of the conversation about our faith, and no real growth is happening. That a certian kind of mania is taking hold where, ironically, witch hunts have become commonplace and real marketplaces of ideas and opinions are being shut down.
It happens often in the end of empire, and the idea of real tolerance and healthy disagreement ae long gone.
My advice is to fight the trend. Establish your own spaces where tryants are not in a position to rule, where the rights of individuals to disagree and to share their points of view are welcome. Cultivate tolerance and curiosity while expecting good manners.
And avoid echo chambers, lest we each find ourselves with an ostrakon in our hands.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Belly full of blood
In April 1865, General Robert E. Lee was in his tent outside Appomattox Court House the night before he was to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses Grant. He was meeting with his generals and one suggested a plan.
Instead of a formal surrender, Lee could disperse the army and the generals could take their men into the Cumberland valley and the mountains of western Virginia. From there, the armies could engage in a guerilla war, keeping the Union fighting a brush war for the next ten years. While they might not win independence, the general said, they could make the pacification of the South so costly for the Union that they would regret the process.
Lee paused and told his general he rejected the plan. In a war that had over 600,000 dead, it was time to end the bloodshed. The next day he offered his sword to Grant, and the bloodiest era of American history ended.
-----
I wrote this a few months ago, when tearing down Confederate statues was al the rage. Lee is a complex figure in southern lore, a decorated officer who was offered the command of union forces on the outbreak of the rebellion, he refused to turn against his native Virginia. Four years later, he refused a plan to lengthen the war, because he’d seen enough death and wasn’t willing to carry it a day longer.
For that reason, I felt that keeping Lee’s statues was an important lesson in history. That men of conscience fought on both sides to the Civil War, and that slavery wasn’t the defining issue of the war, but a part of the war. Lee freed his slaves in the middle of the war, and came to believe that the institution was itself wrong, but like most southern aristocrats, had a complex and not entirely blameless relationship to slavery.
But when it came to making a decision about war, the man came to the conclusion that ending it then and there was the right thing. You see, he’d had a belly full of blood, and only men who have fought real battles with real casualties know just how disgusting blood can become, and how much bleeding your enemy can cost yourself.
-----
We live during interesting times, as the Chinese curse goes. Some in the pagan community think the election of the current President is the sign of an apocalypse. Some have taken to cursing, with ham handed and laughable spells which have been ineffective. Some parade around in the streets, and some even have given aid an material support to domestic terror organizations.
In each case, they are howling for blood. Blood of the officials, blood of those who support the president, blood of the “Nazis” the claim to see everywhere. The upshot is that there’s a lot of litmus testing going on, a lot of loyalty testing around politics. One has to defend oneself against the hint of an allegation of being sympathetic to the Right. Conservatism is racism, because the vast collective says so. Make an argument against punching Nazis like Richard Spencer, and you are now a Nazi sympathizer. Say it’s a bad thing to suppress free speech, even if you hate the speech itself, and you’re a racist, a homophobe, or a transphobe.
We live in an age where, through the engine of social media, the accusation is the proof. Libertarian values of civil rights, due process and innocent until proven guilty have gone out the window in a wave of desperation.
And the Pagan community is right along with this hysteria.
Be a Trump supporter, believe in strong borders, want vetting for people from countries that actively support and export terrorists, and Pagan and you will be vilified and attacked for those beliefs.
Somewhere along the way, being on the leftward end of the political spectrum became a requirement for participation in paganism.
After a lot of looking and a bit of reflection, I believe the cause of this is two fold.
First, third wave feminism embraced Wicca in the 1970’s as an alternate religion that worshipped a Goddess. One of the criticisms levelled against the feminist movement, besides being influenced by Marxism in the form of Frankfurt School intellectuals, was that there was no feminist answer to the clearly patriarchal religion of Christianity. Wicca, and by extension the whole of Neo-Paganism fit the bill nicely for a counter to the Christian patriarchal religions.
Secondly, as it has evolved, most Pagan branches don’t even require the belief in Gods of any kind. I point to John Halstead’s Atheist Paganism (he’s now calling it Humanistic Paganism) as the most explicit example of this. In the vacuum of deity-centered faith, Halstead’s style of paganism has replaced deity with political cause. In other words, the lack of belief in the Gods has been replaced by belief in The Cause, and those causes are Leftist.
The confluence of these two forces, hard left feminism and atheist Marxists, the modern pagan movement has become a breeding ground for the failed socialists who wanted a more sympathetic crowd.
Then, enter Trump.
-----
Donald J. Trump is the greatest wrecking ball to occupy the White House since Andrew Jackson. He represents a threat to the established order, and let there be no mistake, the man is a thermonuclear bomb not only for the Democrats, but for the Republicans as well. In fact, he’s a greater threat to the GOP than anyone else, and I believe Red America put him in power to spite all the Washington establishment, regardless of affiliation.
But his ascension is not only a threat to the powerful, is has been marketed to the Left as the greatest threat ever known. America elected it’s first black president, the logical choice for the costal Liberal enclaves was to elect a woman *because* she was a woman. 30 states and 305 electors had something different to say about that.
But it’s not Trumpocalypse, it’s a slave revolt among the Red states, who felt so long that the left coast and the northeast dominated politics. It’s a swing of the pendulum, and Trump is a symptom, not the cause of the partisan politics in America today.
So the Pagan cause has become to oppose the sitting president. To curse him. To wear hats and march around, and in some cases become more violent and threatening violence.
And to howl for blood.
-----
And this is the part where I stop telling you how things are and were, and how they will become if we stay on the present course. I believe strongly in the power and efficacy of magic, and that we create through our actions and choices the future we will inhabit. This open ended, non deterministic future is the only one that makes sense to me, and explains why divination can be so vague and fraught with error. The future isn’t formed yet, and we do the forming.
The call for blood, for war, for an overthrow of the order, for resistance, all echo the past calls for blood. The polytheist community is rife with open communists, Marxists and Maoists who believe that a glorious revolution will lead us to the promised land free of racism and sexism and any kind of oppression. These armchair theorists couldn’t survive a day in real communism, and happily ignore the fact their own nonbinary, queer or nonconforming selves would be the first lined up against a wall and shot, as history teaches us. Those that wouldn’t are marched in the fields and forced to labor in the communal farms while starving themselves. They labor under the belief they will be a vanguard, and history teaches us they will be the first executed.
But before that point, the call for violence will be answered by violence. The resistance will meet resistance, and many will die. There is no glory in that. There is no valor, and only those who have really fought for anything know the cost will be high.
-----
I was a 14 year old boy when I visited the site of Lee’s surrender on a rainy June day in Virginia. I climbed the steps and smelled the wood in the parlor which had been preserved for that fateful meeting.
I thought then of the weight of history, what had that man seen, what he had to choose. I’m older, fought my own battles and buried the dead in my family and friends. I’ve watched loved one’s die. Held my father in law’s hand as he died and felt it go cold. I have a belly full of blood, and I will not howl or crave for it.
But if war comes, I will not hesitate to fight, but I will not give the world over to the hateful, the envious and the bloodthirsty even if they claim to be pagan like me.
Hail Morrigan.
Instead of a formal surrender, Lee could disperse the army and the generals could take their men into the Cumberland valley and the mountains of western Virginia. From there, the armies could engage in a guerilla war, keeping the Union fighting a brush war for the next ten years. While they might not win independence, the general said, they could make the pacification of the South so costly for the Union that they would regret the process.
Lee paused and told his general he rejected the plan. In a war that had over 600,000 dead, it was time to end the bloodshed. The next day he offered his sword to Grant, and the bloodiest era of American history ended.
-----
I wrote this a few months ago, when tearing down Confederate statues was al the rage. Lee is a complex figure in southern lore, a decorated officer who was offered the command of union forces on the outbreak of the rebellion, he refused to turn against his native Virginia. Four years later, he refused a plan to lengthen the war, because he’d seen enough death and wasn’t willing to carry it a day longer.
For that reason, I felt that keeping Lee’s statues was an important lesson in history. That men of conscience fought on both sides to the Civil War, and that slavery wasn’t the defining issue of the war, but a part of the war. Lee freed his slaves in the middle of the war, and came to believe that the institution was itself wrong, but like most southern aristocrats, had a complex and not entirely blameless relationship to slavery.
But when it came to making a decision about war, the man came to the conclusion that ending it then and there was the right thing. You see, he’d had a belly full of blood, and only men who have fought real battles with real casualties know just how disgusting blood can become, and how much bleeding your enemy can cost yourself.
-----
We live during interesting times, as the Chinese curse goes. Some in the pagan community think the election of the current President is the sign of an apocalypse. Some have taken to cursing, with ham handed and laughable spells which have been ineffective. Some parade around in the streets, and some even have given aid an material support to domestic terror organizations.
In each case, they are howling for blood. Blood of the officials, blood of those who support the president, blood of the “Nazis” the claim to see everywhere. The upshot is that there’s a lot of litmus testing going on, a lot of loyalty testing around politics. One has to defend oneself against the hint of an allegation of being sympathetic to the Right. Conservatism is racism, because the vast collective says so. Make an argument against punching Nazis like Richard Spencer, and you are now a Nazi sympathizer. Say it’s a bad thing to suppress free speech, even if you hate the speech itself, and you’re a racist, a homophobe, or a transphobe.
We live in an age where, through the engine of social media, the accusation is the proof. Libertarian values of civil rights, due process and innocent until proven guilty have gone out the window in a wave of desperation.
And the Pagan community is right along with this hysteria.
Be a Trump supporter, believe in strong borders, want vetting for people from countries that actively support and export terrorists, and Pagan and you will be vilified and attacked for those beliefs.
Somewhere along the way, being on the leftward end of the political spectrum became a requirement for participation in paganism.
After a lot of looking and a bit of reflection, I believe the cause of this is two fold.
First, third wave feminism embraced Wicca in the 1970’s as an alternate religion that worshipped a Goddess. One of the criticisms levelled against the feminist movement, besides being influenced by Marxism in the form of Frankfurt School intellectuals, was that there was no feminist answer to the clearly patriarchal religion of Christianity. Wicca, and by extension the whole of Neo-Paganism fit the bill nicely for a counter to the Christian patriarchal religions.
Secondly, as it has evolved, most Pagan branches don’t even require the belief in Gods of any kind. I point to John Halstead’s Atheist Paganism (he’s now calling it Humanistic Paganism) as the most explicit example of this. In the vacuum of deity-centered faith, Halstead’s style of paganism has replaced deity with political cause. In other words, the lack of belief in the Gods has been replaced by belief in The Cause, and those causes are Leftist.
The confluence of these two forces, hard left feminism and atheist Marxists, the modern pagan movement has become a breeding ground for the failed socialists who wanted a more sympathetic crowd.
Then, enter Trump.
-----
Donald J. Trump is the greatest wrecking ball to occupy the White House since Andrew Jackson. He represents a threat to the established order, and let there be no mistake, the man is a thermonuclear bomb not only for the Democrats, but for the Republicans as well. In fact, he’s a greater threat to the GOP than anyone else, and I believe Red America put him in power to spite all the Washington establishment, regardless of affiliation.
But his ascension is not only a threat to the powerful, is has been marketed to the Left as the greatest threat ever known. America elected it’s first black president, the logical choice for the costal Liberal enclaves was to elect a woman *because* she was a woman. 30 states and 305 electors had something different to say about that.
But it’s not Trumpocalypse, it’s a slave revolt among the Red states, who felt so long that the left coast and the northeast dominated politics. It’s a swing of the pendulum, and Trump is a symptom, not the cause of the partisan politics in America today.
So the Pagan cause has become to oppose the sitting president. To curse him. To wear hats and march around, and in some cases become more violent and threatening violence.
And to howl for blood.
-----
And this is the part where I stop telling you how things are and were, and how they will become if we stay on the present course. I believe strongly in the power and efficacy of magic, and that we create through our actions and choices the future we will inhabit. This open ended, non deterministic future is the only one that makes sense to me, and explains why divination can be so vague and fraught with error. The future isn’t formed yet, and we do the forming.
The call for blood, for war, for an overthrow of the order, for resistance, all echo the past calls for blood. The polytheist community is rife with open communists, Marxists and Maoists who believe that a glorious revolution will lead us to the promised land free of racism and sexism and any kind of oppression. These armchair theorists couldn’t survive a day in real communism, and happily ignore the fact their own nonbinary, queer or nonconforming selves would be the first lined up against a wall and shot, as history teaches us. Those that wouldn’t are marched in the fields and forced to labor in the communal farms while starving themselves. They labor under the belief they will be a vanguard, and history teaches us they will be the first executed.
But before that point, the call for violence will be answered by violence. The resistance will meet resistance, and many will die. There is no glory in that. There is no valor, and only those who have really fought for anything know the cost will be high.
-----
I was a 14 year old boy when I visited the site of Lee’s surrender on a rainy June day in Virginia. I climbed the steps and smelled the wood in the parlor which had been preserved for that fateful meeting.
I thought then of the weight of history, what had that man seen, what he had to choose. I’m older, fought my own battles and buried the dead in my family and friends. I’ve watched loved one’s die. Held my father in law’s hand as he died and felt it go cold. I have a belly full of blood, and I will not howl or crave for it.
But if war comes, I will not hesitate to fight, but I will not give the world over to the hateful, the envious and the bloodthirsty even if they claim to be pagan like me.
Hail Morrigan.
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