Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj

Post to this Thread - Sort Descending - Printer Friendly - Home


BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!

Little Hawk 15 Nov 02 - 02:31 PM
Amos 15 Nov 02 - 03:03 PM
Bert 15 Nov 02 - 03:16 PM
Rapparee 15 Nov 02 - 04:25 PM
Little Hawk 15 Nov 02 - 04:29 PM
catspaw49 15 Nov 02 - 04:56 PM
Little Hawk 15 Nov 02 - 05:05 PM
Troll 15 Nov 02 - 06:25 PM
GUEST 15 Nov 02 - 06:56 PM
catspaw49 15 Nov 02 - 06:59 PM
Little Hawk 15 Nov 02 - 07:00 PM
Banjer 15 Nov 02 - 07:01 PM
NicoleC 15 Nov 02 - 07:45 PM
Little Hawk 15 Nov 02 - 07:57 PM
NicoleC 15 Nov 02 - 08:21 PM
CarolC 15 Nov 02 - 08:23 PM
toadfrog 15 Nov 02 - 08:24 PM
NicoleC 15 Nov 02 - 08:36 PM
mg 16 Nov 02 - 02:55 AM
Bluesmike 16 Nov 02 - 03:47 AM
Troll 16 Nov 02 - 11:13 AM
Little Hawk 16 Nov 02 - 11:19 AM
GUEST 16 Nov 02 - 11:19 AM
NicoleC 16 Nov 02 - 03:13 PM
Bobert 16 Nov 02 - 06:08 PM
Troll 16 Nov 02 - 06:21 PM
Little Hawk 16 Nov 02 - 06:36 PM
Bluesmike 17 Nov 02 - 04:16 AM
Little Hawk 17 Nov 02 - 12:03 PM
Bluesmike 17 Nov 02 - 07:36 PM
McGrath of Harlow 17 Nov 02 - 07:53 PM
NicoleC 17 Nov 02 - 08:49 PM
Bluesmike 17 Nov 02 - 09:53 PM
Bluesmike 17 Nov 02 - 10:02 PM
Little Hawk 17 Nov 02 - 10:32 PM
Bluesmike 17 Nov 02 - 11:20 PM
Bee-dubya-ell 18 Nov 02 - 12:01 AM
Wolfgang 18 Nov 02 - 08:32 AM
Little Hawk 18 Nov 02 - 01:09 PM
McGrath of Harlow 18 Nov 02 - 01:23 PM
Wolfgang 18 Nov 02 - 01:47 PM
McGrath of Harlow 18 Nov 02 - 02:18 PM
Little Hawk 18 Nov 02 - 04:32 PM
Amos 18 Nov 02 - 04:36 PM
Wolfgang 19 Nov 02 - 03:15 AM
Little Hawk 19 Nov 02 - 11:34 AM

Share Thread
more
Lyrics & Knowledge Search [Advanced]
DT  Forum Child
Sort (Forum) by:relevance date
DT Lyrics:













Subject: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 02:31 PM

Well, I was in the grocery again today, buying a pack of razor blades, and what should I see but the latest headline on "News of the World". A few days ago they were talking about Osama's goat, Naomi, who was purportedly being held hostage by the US Marines, under threat of execution if Osama does not turn himself in.

Obviously, it didn't work! Instead, he released a defiant audiotape. I coulda told 'em it wouldn't work...

Anyway, there's no further news on the goat...BUT...

There is a riveting article about a list of prophecies found written on the wall of an empty cave in Afghanistan, written there purportedly by Osama Bin Laden himself (probably in blood).

I didn't read the whole article, but the general theme of these prophecies is how God is going to punish the USA for their persecution of his People.

The two worst events:

1. Half the people in the USA are going to perish by the Black Plague (it doesn't say which half...so neither Democrats nor Republicans should necessarily derive comfort from this).

2. Britney Spears is going to CONVERT TO ISLAM!!!

Now THAT is guaranteed to chill the blood of every patriotic American, I should think.

I didn't read the rest. I was too shaken by the Britney revelation.

The End Times are near, folks...

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:03 PM

ROTFLMAO!! I think it would be good for America if she did!!


A


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bert
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 03:16 PM

You can tell he's still living in the dark ages. The bubonic plague hasn't been a serious threat for many years now. It's easily curable.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:25 PM

Y'all (as we say here in Kaintuk) obviously missed the earlier revelation that Saddam Hussein has a submarine prowling around in Lake Michigan. No, I don't know how it got there.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:29 PM

Yeah, Bert. Or the "News of the World" is living in the dark ages... :-)

I can just see it now. Britney's next video on MTV. She will be clad head to foot in a black burquah and be totally invisible and unidentifiable...but those same dulcet tones will still ring forth. I predict financial disaster for Britney in 2003.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 04:56 PM

Hey Rapaire......It's a real thing on that sub!!! Several of the lakes have now been infested with Iraqi subs. Lake Erie doesn't have one because the whole lake is too shallow, but I know for a fact there's one in Lake Cumberland which averages 200 foot in depth. It moors up White Oak Creek and makes recon runs to Jamestown and Burnside. Saddam has lost all control over the crew I guess since there was a reported sighting of them ashore trying to trade the sub in on a Somerset Houseboat.

Spaw


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 05:05 PM

That may be what has sparked rumours about a Lake Couchiching Monster in the Orillia area as well!

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Troll
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:25 PM

It isn't Osama. It is the Secret Masters from the planet Wanket.
No, they don't intend to contact us. They're only here for the pizza and the latest Britney Spears CD.

troll


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:56 PM

perhaps you people dont realise it but our friendly Commies developed a strain of smallpox that will kill 75% even with vaccination. think about it long and hard....


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 06:59 PM

Well guest, whatever keeps it long and hard sounds good to me.........

Spaw


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:00 PM

Why do you want me to think "long and hard" about something that I can do nothing useful about, and which will only cause me pointless worry?

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Banjer
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:01 PM

Q. Know why the Iraqi subs have glass bottoms in them?


A. So they can see their air force!


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: NicoleC
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:45 PM

Er, "Commies?" China or Cuba?

Actually, the method of modifying smallpox to be vaccine-resistant was accidentally created by some Australian scientists in 2001 while experimenting with mousepox -- a method which is also absurdly simple, although fortunately not simple enough yet (they think) for less than a professional lab.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 07:57 PM

It's still more fun blaming commies, Nicole...these things change slowly.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: NicoleC
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:21 PM

Not slow enough, I think. The Extreme Right seems to really want to replace the Cold War with the Terrorism War... and like the Cold War, we're not killing the folks we actually have a problem with.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: CarolC
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:23 PM

perhaps you people dont realise it but our friendly Commies developed a strain of smallpox that will kill 75% even with vaccination. think about it long and hard....

Ok. I did. So here's what I don't get. If it kills 75% even with vaccination, why the hell would the Commies want to use it? It'll kill 75% of them, too.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: toadfrog
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:24 PM

NicoleC That is usually thought to be Russia, where the outbreak of smallpox occurred which slew even the vaccinated. I don't recall exactly when that was, but think it is a post-soviet event. Hey GUEST, any idea which 75% it will kill?


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: NicoleC
Date: 15 Nov 02 - 08:36 PM

Hey, it's certainly possible that the Soviets did it another way, or discovered the same way separately. But I'm just going off what the smallpox experts said when they were discussion weaponized smallpox on NPR last week.

But as far as the CDC is concerned, the last case of smallpox was in 1978, and lab-aquired.

(Pause for quick Google search)

Aaaahhhh... it's hypothesized that a 1971 outbreak of smallpox was possibly due to the testing of a biological weapon, a virulent aerosolized version. But not necessarily GE, possibly a strain selected for it's virulence. (Aside -- the Russians have some nasty naturally occuring versions of these killer diseases. Their version of anthrax is much worse than the version found naturally in the US.)   Interesting article here:
Radio Free Europe


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: mg
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 02:55 AM

given all that can happen in the next few years, I have a serious question...would you bring children into this world? mg


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bluesmike
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 03:47 AM

Well as all we old Commies well know, Radio Free Europe is the CIA propaganda machine and they wouldn't know sh-t from shinola. That is not to say I am anti American or that I want to F<#k Osama Bin Ladens goat.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Troll
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 11:13 AM

If we start killing the people that we are having trouble with, NicoleC, will that make the "Terrorism War" all right? Because that's what you seem to be saying.
A war is OK if you kill the right people?
Who decides?

troll


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 11:19 AM

I think what she is saying is that war is not okay if you kill the wrong people.

Now what we have to do is decide what constitutes "right" and "wrong" people...ho! ho! That should take awhile to figure out.

But just ask R.Crumb...that fellow can sum it up for you in a mere 3 pages or so of extraordinary hatred and bile.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 11:19 AM

In answer to Mary Garvey--you bet I'd bring children into the world. The current upcoming generation is going to do much to fight the fascists, and it ain't gonna be by picking up M16s and gas masks on their way to the Middle East.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: NicoleC
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 03:13 PM

Not at all, Troll. It is often easy to tell who are the "wrong" people to kill, but much harder to decide who is "right" to kill in war. I personally am not in favor of killing anyone except in extreme self defense.

In the Cold War, we never faced what we perceived as our actual "enemy." Instead, we fought wars by proxy, and a lot of the "wrong" people got killed. Afghanistan is the easy example. Heaven forbid the Commies take over Afghanistan! So we armed and trained one side of ruthless bastards while the Soviets armed and trained another side of ruthless bastards, and a lot of regular folks got killed or starved or died of thirst -- the "wrong" folks.

With the Terrorism War, we have an enemy that we really can't face directly. There are no stockpiles of missiles, no intelligence agencies to spy upon, no government we can dance with. So what do we do? We pick a country to bomb the hell out of, lacking an easily identifiable target. Once again, we know that the "wrong" people are dying.

Ideally (IMO), we'd track the guilty bastards down, bring 'em in, try them in an international court, and then let them rot in prison. I'm not in favor of execution, because it makes us no better than the killers, but if, say, Osama got fatally wounded when his headquarters were being raided, that might be a real easy case of the "right" people dying in war.

But by encouraging a vague and subtle fear in the population without specifics, it's the same kind of "Red Scare" tactic used to justify anything the government wants in the name of a great nebulous evil. It would be much harder root out and destroy the sources of terrorism and the causes of the anger that leads to it. Whereas, bombing middle eastern countries one by one shows the public how "serious" we are about it. Nevermind that it will only encourage more terrorism. A faceless enemy is exactly what is needed to get the American public cowering and frightened.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 06:08 PM

So, LH, did the Marines kill the goat?

Bobert


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Troll
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 06:21 PM

NicoleC, before you can catch a rat, you have to plug up the rat-holes and cut off the supply of cheese.
It's a lot harder to catch a terrorist in real life than it is on "Mission Imposible". People sem to forget that.

troll


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Nov 02 - 06:36 PM

The only way to "cut off the supply of cheese", troll, is to eliminate world poverty, eliminate corrupt dictatorships funded and supported by the corporate West (as well as those very few NOT funded in that manner), stop arming irresponsible governments to the teeth, and establish genuine legal, financial, political, and economic equality all over the world.

That is a much more complicated task than the one you propose...but with a difference...it leads somewhere positive, and is in favour of the whole human race rather than just the controlling few wealthy at the top.

It can only be done through the cooperative efforts of all nations. It cannot be done unilaterally by the USA (though the USA could be its formost enactor, if so inclined).

It would result in no one nation dominating any other nation. This would result in the USA being much less powerful in the world than it presently is...and MUCH better liked by virtually everybody.

The chances of it happening are virtually nil, because the guys at the top would rather have ANYTHING else happen than giving up their outsized share of the pie (their 95%, I mean...). Boss Hog ain't about to move out of the mansion or free the slaves.

The "War on Terrorism" is a fraud. It is attacking mere symptoms of a terrible world illness, while actively promoting further spread of the disease.

Bobert - the "News of the World" has remained strangely silent regarding the goat. This indicates that they may feel their story has lost credibility in the light of Osama's latest audiotaped message to the World... :-)

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bluesmike
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 04:16 AM

Aw shucks Li'l Hawk- you talking like a good ole Marxist- welcome to the club comrade. For those who don't know true communism is about brotherhood and social equity and has nothing to do with politicians. Socialist or republican no matter who you vote for you always seem to end up with a fucking politician. It is the system thats wrong .
Michael


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 12:03 PM

Yeah, Bluesmike. My main argument with Communism (in its theory, that is...) is this: the theory seems to assume that man DOES live by bread alone. ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. This was due, I assume, to Marx's observation of the grip that primitive Christianity had on poor people in the late 1800's, but it was a misguided conclusion on his part that did no favours to modern socialism whatsoever!

The "opiate of the masses" today is not traditional religions (in the developed West) but commercial media and advertising...particularly TV. That is the opiate that has people stunned into a controlled stupor in this society. The churches have been dying ever since the end of the First World War, and are a mere shadow of the power they once were.

In any case, any social theory that completely denies the spiritual, nonmaterial side of human existence is one that leads to disaster, as far as I'm concerned.

Then I have an argument with the actual application of Communism in practice...which is...they betrayed the very principles of equality they espoused, in that they established a privileged class of Party bureaucrats, military brass, and secret police who lorded it over everybody else.

This was hypocritical and utterly contradictory to the original theory of Communism and socialism.

What I admire about socialism is this: the attempt to secure a basic measure of equality for all people. That is a noble ideal. I saw the results of a pretty honest attempt to do that within the borders of Cuba...and those results were, on the whole, far better than what preceded Castro, and far better for the general public than what may be found in much of the rest of Latin America...

but not perfect, by any means.

No one has yet instituted a socialist system which fully realizes the ideals of socialism.

Mind you, you could say that about some other idealistic systems as well, couldn't you?

And if the world was perfect...well, what would we have to debate about, dream about, and aspire toward? Revolutionary thinkers would be deprived of anything to think about. That could be quite discouraging... :-)

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bluesmike
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 07:36 PM

Beautifully put Little Hawk. I confess to succuming to the temptation to Stir the possum. For the very reasons you state I am and always have been repelled by ANY organised and rigid doctrine whether it be religious or political.
Rather, I find that real truth is as fluid and as transient as sunbeams on water. So much of what we are prepared to fight and die for today we will regard tomorrow with self conscious embarrassment.
I do like the buddhist principal of embracing whatever IS and to the best of our ability, reacting with wholistic integrity.
I find I am repelled by any kind of ism which purports to be superior to any other kind of ism and tries to assert its rightness with might.Any ideology which acts thusly , to me, fails the first test of 'rightness' and deserves to dissappear up its own fundamentalism.
Terrorism, capitalism, zionism, communism secularism and colonialism are all variations on a theme and in the eyes of whoever has to look over the fence at the perpetrators, just as terrifying as each other.
Love and light
Let it be
Michael


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 07:53 PM

They'd better make sure the goat is well looked after.

The USA appears to value having the backing of Tony Blair. If it turns out it's being cruel to animals, that'll be one goat too far. Blair can't risk getting too out of line with the general public. Killing wedding parties and so forth is bad enough, but there has to be a limit somewhere...


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: NicoleC
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 08:49 PM

Troll, I totally agree. As I said, ending the causes of terrorism is a lot harder than dropping a few bombs. In all fairness, while the US administration is grandstanding and beating a big ol' war drum, we also have folks in law enforcement quietly trying to trace leads and look for genuine bad guys. Blocking up a few money-laundering schemes doesn't make for good TV for the masses; it seems like we are "DOING SOMETHING" if we kill a few folks.

Ultimately, though, law enforcement and the military can't solve this issue because they can do nothing to prevent it. Like Hydra, every brutal act of slicing off a head encourages more to grow. As long as a handful of angry madmen can gain recruits by pointing at the US's naked aggression and brutality, there will always be a parade of young men and women who have no fear of dying because they have nothing left to lose and, rightfully or wrongly, blame it on the US.

Yeah. It's a really, really, REALLY hard job preventing terrorism. Shouldn't we get started? Or is it all about seeing how many trite marketing phrases the military planners can come up with following the word "Operation," and how long it takes CNN to get a new logo up for the news of the slaughter.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bluesmike
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 09:53 PM

When I was a child and learned about the killing of millions of jews i felt guilty that I wasn't jewish. Guilty because I was, as a non jew somehow associated with the guilty party. At age 9 I asked my mum for books on judaism and seriosly thought about trying to become a jew if I could- as if to try to atone for the sins of those who had committed the atrocities.
No I see that the Israelli Government have become the very thing that was anaethema those years ago.
The result is and will continue to be that while the youth of occupied Palestine are denied the ability to determine the course of their own lives they will determine the course of their own death. It is the one and only act of freedom still in their posession.
We call them terrorists but they are us. Any of you I am certain would rather die fighting for freedom and defending your families rather than live as a prisoner on your homeland.
Think about it


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bluesmike
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 10:02 PM

Walk a mile in the Moccassins of your enemy and that man will no longer be your enemy- I wish I had written that abut I was a couple of hundred years too late.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 10:32 PM

Very well said, Bluesmike. You have learned well from the trials and tribulations of life. If you desire peace and justice, then you must first be peaceful and just. If you wait for others to do it for you, you may wait a very long time, specially when your every action taken before them and against them belies the ideals of freedom, peace, and justice you claim to stand for.

There are no "chosen people" on this Earth, except in this sense...we are ALL the chosen people, and we either make it as ONE, with equality for all, or we don't make it at all.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bluesmike
Date: 17 Nov 02 - 11:20 PM

Many thanks Little Hawk I find that whenever I read your words they contain great power-
I am occasionally given to responding to absolutist phrases with a kind of kneejerk oppositism- hence the previos references to we communists. be forewarned my swinging foot occasionally misses the object of my reactivity and ends up in my mouth.
kind thoughts
Michael
"Seize opportunity- it may not pass your way again"


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 12:01 AM

Just a quick aside because somebody mentioned it....

Karl Marx's oft-quoted comment about religion being the "opiate of the masses" is one of the most misunderstood statements in philosophy. The connotation of the word "opiate" has done a total about face since Marx's time. The idea of an opiate as a mind-numbing sloth-inducing addictive drug is a fairly recent concept. In Marx's time the use of opiates in medicine was fairly new and was being hailed much as "miracle drugs" were hailed in the last century. So, in Marx's time, to say that religion was the opiate of the people was actually saying something positive about religion. It helped ease pain and made life more bearable. It was only after the negative addictive and destructive effects of opiates were realized that Marx's comment took on the negative anti-religion meaning that many people attribute to it.

Bruce


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 08:32 AM

The opiate for the people quotation in the context:

The struggle against religion is therefore indirectly a fight against the world of which religion is the spiritual aroma.

Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and also the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

To abolish religion as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness. The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions. The criticism of religion is therefore in embryo the criticism of the vale of tears, the halo of which is religion.

Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of religion disillusions man to make him think and act and shape his reality like a man who has been disillusioned and has come to reason, so that he will revolve round himself and therefore round his true sun. Religion is only the illusory sun which revolves round man as long as he does not revolve round himself.

from CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITIQUE OF HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF LAW

I fail to see that Marx was trying to say something positive about religion.

Wolfgang


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 01:09 PM

Ah! Interesting. Thanks, Wolfgang.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 01:23 PM

Depends what you mean by positive. In a sense what it's saying is that there are lots of good things about religion, but that it's possible to hold on to these, while gettinmg rid of what he sees as the bad things. I'd call that fairly positive.

I experimented by replacing "religion" with "communism" - it still seems to hang together as an argument. And it comes across as sympathetic to the core values underlying communism.

Communism is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

To abandon communism as the illusory happiness of the people is to demand their real happiness. The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions. The criticism of communism is therefore in embryo the criticism of the vale of tears, the halo of which is communism.

Criticism has torn up the imaginary flowers from the chain not so that man shall wear the unadorned, bleak chain but so that he will shake off the chain and pluck the living flower. The criticism of communism disillusions man to make him think and act and shape his reality like a man who has been disillusioned and has come to reason, so that he will revolve round himself and therefore round his true sun. Communism is only the illusory sun which revolves round man as long as he does not revolve round himself.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 01:47 PM

Interesting idea, McGrath, but I still fail to see...

As an addendum the 'opiate for the people' citation by another famous communist, Lenin:

Religion is one of the forms of the spiritual yoke which always and everywhere has been laid on the masses of the people crushed by poverty. The weakness of the exploited classes, in their struggles with their oppressors, inevitably produced a faith in a better life in the next world, just as the weakness of the savage in the struggle with nature led to faith in gods, devils and miracles. Religion teaches such men, who work and endure poverty all their lives, humility and patience by holding out the consolation of a heavenly reward. But the exploiters are urged by faith to do good on earth, because in this way they think to win justification for their existence and a sort of ticket of admission to heavenly bliss. Religion is an opiate for the people, a sort of spiritual vodka, meant to make the slaves of capitalism tread in the dust their human form and their aspirations to a semi- decent existence...

(from 'Socialism and Religion')

Wolfgang (I tried the replace trick with this citation and it sounds awful)


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 02:18 PM

Well, that's Lenin for you. The unmistakable tone that still drones on in the mouths of the guys that stand up at meetings and ramble on like that without pausing for breath.

They bore everyone into sneaking out for a drink, and then use the occasion to pass a motion they've got in their back pocket ready for such an opportunity.


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 04:32 PM

Right on, McGrath. The most mind-numbing thing about a lot of socialists is their utter denial of spirituality...which they equate with religion. They are generally just repeating something they heard somebody else say, who heard it from somebody else, who heard it from somebody else...right on back to Marx or Lenin.

And that's the same problem with institutionalized religion...people repeating something they heard somebody else say, who heard it from somebody else, who heard it from somebody else...right on back to the Bible, the Q'ran, Moses, or whoever else they let do all their thinking for them.

Robots could manage as well in dealing with an ever-changing human reality, methinks.

Find someone who is willing to think creatively and come up with a NEW thought about life, and you've really got something.

Anybody got an original thought out there?

By the way, Marxism and Leninism are themselves...religions. But religions built around much more recently created "gods" and holy scriptures, that's all.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Amos
Date: 18 Nov 02 - 04:36 PM

Oh HOOOOORAY for Little Hawk. He is the fringe of grace and clarity on this mad toupee we call the Mudcat!!~


A


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 03:15 AM

Glad to read you also dislike Lenin, though my reasons are a bit different.

Wolfgang


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate

Subject: RE: BS: News of the World - Osama Prophecy!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 11:34 AM

Indeed. There are any number of reasons to dislike Lenin.

- LH


Post - Top - Home - Printer Friendly - Translate


 


This Thread Is Closed.


Mudcat time: 16 June 11:19 AM EDT

[ Home ]

All original material is copyright © 2022 by the Mudcat Café Music Foundation. All photos, music, images, etc. are copyright © by their rightful owners. Every effort is taken to attribute appropriate copyright to images, content, music, etc. We are not a copyright resource.