|
|
|
I'm actually rather depressed at the prospects for wishful thinking to distort human observation. A cult is a cult, whether it's EV or Cambodian Marxism or Arab Salafism, and whether it's close to or far from the "reigns of power.) Whether or not the cult undergoes the transformation to aggressive paranoia is a function of the specific beliefs and the willingness of the Leader, Caliph or Fuhrer to take it that far. But was Kampuchea all that unique in the 20th Century? The phenomenon is unit: the proverbial elephant touched by a horde of blind men.I just heard a Catholic priest, advisor to the Schindler family, loftily claim with a straight face that Terry Schiavo "turned her head toward her parents when they entered the room and greeted them with her guttoral version of 'hello.'" The odds that this actually happened after 15 years of court-ordered tests and guardians and objective examinations, is about as great as the odds that her bed got up on two legs and started dancing the hornpipe. But the ability of the parants to project their wishes onto the mere body of their daughter, and through them the rest of the world to project their wishes and hopes onto the situation as a whole (including a retinue of media-addicted hangers-on from priests to US Senators to an infamous Nobel poseur) is close to infinite. Really, just about infinite. For her next trick she's going to recite the Gettysburg Address, backwards. I hate to say it, but people like M will have followers until the last light blinks out in the heavens, provided there are still humans huddled around that last cold star. And a certain percentage of them will be willing to blow that last refuge to smithereens in order to protect their wishful longings from challenge.
Modified by Juan Carlo Finesseti at Mon, Mar 28, 2005, 10:13:59
|
