Nice post over at In the Agora from Michael Mattair entitled “The Secret Sinners Society.” I’m going to ruin the surprise a bit here, but the gist of the story is that a couple of kids at a religious college figure they’ll start a little club for folks like them who aren’t (or at least haven’t been in the past) as morally perfect as they see the other people around them. Much to their surprise, everyone joins — everyone apparently views themselves as morally challenged and figures they’re the only ones with a dark side.
It reminded me of a segment in The Global Brain by Howard Bloom. He described a town dominated by a holier-than-thou matriarch that everybody secretly hated. Because of their individual fear of her, they were outwardly pleasant to her and echoed her proclamations about morality. Behind closed doors most of the townspeople had little cliques where they engaged in all of the sinful behavior they outwardly condemned — cards, alcohol, that kind of stuff.
Because they felt isolated in their “sinfulness” they were ashamed and kept their activities secret. Had everyone known what everybody else truly thought, folks could’ve been a lot more relaxed about their card playing and whatnot. And, they could’ve been out from under the thumb of the tyrannical old biddy since they would’ve known that everyone else hated her too.
To me, this means that it’s useful to speak candidly about our supposed vices and speak out against repression. Otherwise, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the self-anointed morality police are often distinct minorities who ought not be making decisions for the group.
But don’t you see, sometimes part of the fun and thrill of “sinning” is that it’s verboten???
relision is the means by which the authorities keep control over us. by fear of not only the consequences of this life, but those of beyond.
that is why sex, and atheism is the most feared by the “church”and authoroties. if there is no threat of eternal damnation, they have lost control of you. If you have sex, especially anal sex, it is not only the means by which we are all “animals” in this natural world of nature, but also common to man and woman, and all other creatures.
one needs only to look t iran, saudi arabia, the inquisition, the salem witch trials, and now- modern radial fundamentalist extremism, to see how little by little, they are turning the screws to our freedoms to think, frolic, and fornicate.
google “sayyid qutb”, and greely colorado- islamic republicanism- made in america!