>What's with this ongoing lefty kick about religion and/or spirituality being
>an opiate (with some cul-cha jazz mixed in)?
I have no idea what "cul-cha jazz" is, an obscure branch of American music perhaps, but what does it have to do with anything?
> I've known plenty of lefties
>who've been fried to the gills with theory and ideology, and in many cases
>they were less free than the religious folk they dismiss or condescend to.
>Is this a perpetual rad posture, part of the Correct & Advanced Behavior
>expected of the pwog tribe? Or is it simply another form of delusion?
Therein lies the problem. Learning to think for yourself is apparently hard to do if you've been brought up in an environment of authoritarianism. So yes, thinking for yourself is likely to be an ongoing requirement for radicals.
(What the hell is a "pwog tribe" BTW, I do wish you would speak English?)
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/pages/104/104button.html
Cautionary tales
John Button reviews Santamaria: The Politics of Fear and Frank Hardy and the Making of Power Without Glory.
'Santamaria and Hardy were both charismatic personalities. With Santamaria this came from apparent strength of conviction, intellect, courage and his ability as a communicator. With Hardy it was an Australian larrikin charm, his passion about particular causes, and again, enthusiasm which engaged an audience. Frank Hardy, speaking at the Centenary Celebrations of St Bernard's School, Bacchus Marsh, 5-6 May 1990.
In the Protestant milieu in which I spent my childhood and teenage years the fact that Frank Hardy, a Catholic, became a Communist would have caused no surprise. Rather, if it had at the time been newsworthy, it would have been advanced as evidence of the fact that Catholicism and Communism were opposite sides of the same coin, a coin easily flipped.
The church and the Communist Party were both, it used to be argued, dogmatic and authoritarian institutions, demanding obedience and total commitment. The fact that one promised eternal life for its faithful adherents and the other an earthly Utopia was only a matter of degree. Perhaps the Catholic Church had more going for it. But how easy to make the transition from one to the other.
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