Opinion
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Murderous Holidays
Today, in the United States it is Veterans’ Day (titled Armistice Day in Europe), which was founded to mark the end of the obscene, utterly baseless bloodbath that was the first World War. According to the Overculture, today is a day to feel grateful to those who Gave The Greatest Sacrifice For Our Freedom. Never mind, of course, that the US hasn’t been in a war for purposes of actually defending itself since 1945. Nor that the vast majority of those Sacrificed were conscripts who were FORCED into the slaughter machine known as modern warfare in places far, far away from the Americas: places like the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia,…
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On Pagan Misanthropy
These are times when those of us who love the Earth can easily fall into resenting or even hating humanity. It’s not much of a leap: not only are we watching climate change in action and the crashing decline of biodiversity, but social and political movements right now are showing humans at their very worst. This misanthropy can be a terrible burden. It is virtually impossible to be a happy person when weighted down with the enormity of thinking your own kind was a devastating mistake of evolution. I see this kind of thinking sometimes in the Pagan community. It saddens me and I think it undermines the mental health…
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Joy Hunt
It’s been a long time. I mean, a really long time. For many of us, since long before even the pandemic. Since we strode, or ran, or wheeled, or paddled into the wild, lungs gulping precious air, consumed with The Moment of Aliveness. Or, being unable to do any of those things, simply witnessed one of the many miracles of life on this exquisite Earth—a sunset or rise, a rainbow, a bolt of lightning, a crashing wave, a moonrise, snow falling, an aurora—and had our breath taken away. It’s more than a year now since our socialization, our group activities were taken from us. And I’m writing now to suggest…
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Why Paganism Hasn’t Failed…Yet.
John Halstead has written an article around a table lifted from the anthology Deep Green Resistance*. It’s a great piece: go ahead and read it. I’d say that’s about 2/3 of a perfect assessment of modern Paganism and the current Pagan community…at least in the US, where I am familiar with it. He’s not wrong, and his critiques are apt…painful and embarrassing as they may be for many American Pagans. John orients his piece around this table: Now, I think one of the most incisive and true critiques in this chart are that much of modern Paganism has “adolescent values of a youth movement”: black-and-white thinking, knee-jerk resistance to authorities…
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The Unthinkable
Because it has never happened before, we think it cannot be. And this is ironic, because we believe that in our aspirations and efforts, we can make what has never been. We know that with heart and work, we can make a better, kinder world. Unfortunately, those with awful values and hatred in their hearts also aspire and try. And with enough effort–and enough indulgence and blindness on the part of those who surround them–they, too, can make manifest. As happened on Wednesday in the murderous, seditious attack on the United States Capitol. There is much to say about this and it has been said elsewhere. I don’t need to…
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A Sad Reckoning
I had hoped that the American Presidential election would be a repudiation of Donald Trump and the divisive, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, fascistic nightmare of Trumpism. That hope was not realized. While Joe Biden–a decent man who I think will be a good though not transformative President–will eke out a victory, nearly 50% of the country voted for Trump even after watching four years of his antics and destructive policies. I could not be more disappointed…unless Trump had actually won. I don’t link to him very often, but John Beckett has a very fine piece on this. You can find it here. He has said the things I want to say.…
