Loose Change
On my way back from the grocery store on Saturday there was a hippie bus parked on the street outside my building. This was unexceptional. Outside the bus were a man and a woman, he was tall and thin with a short beard and long black hair tied back, she wore a long printed dress like you’d see in Amish country; he was playing guitar and they were both singing what I assumed were religious songs, judging solely based on their blank, earnest stares. This was also unexceptional. What struck me as unusual, however, was that they didn’t sound terrible. On the folding table next to them was a stack of pamphlets. A pale, skinny young kid got right in my face with a huge smile, handed me one and said “Here! It’s really good reading material!”
“Ok! Thanks!” I said, and left it on my kitchen table for two days. It’s titled We Need A Radical CHANGE, and on the cover is a black-and-white illustrated collage featuring: a race riot; the word HATE; pills; a man grimacing with his eyes tightly clenched and fingers grasping at his temples; an angry black preacher. Turns out they were from the Twelve Tribes community out in Nelson, which, from the sounds of it, is a group on the model of the (mythological) early Christian church, who live according to primitive biblical commandments, particularly those that relate to the position of women.
The first essay, entitled “When the foundations are DESTROYED,” discusses the breakdown of social norms and the foundations of family life. The first instance of rampant moral decay brought to the reader’s attention begins: “Not long ago it would not have been allowed to show a woman with nothing on but her underwear. The town would have boycotted such a store or perhaps the police would have even put a stop to it.” Ah yes, the glorious Godly days of the morality police. “A woman with nothing on but her underwear,” the author huffs, “right there in front of everyone.” Other societal ills include women working outside the home and women taking pain-killers during labour. (The pain bonds them to the child, you see, and the husband is bonded to the wife by empathizing with her suffering. The intelligent designer sure did think of everything!) In fact, the only instances of moral turpitude in which women (as such) are not specifically implicated are high divorce rates (which should really maybe count for half) and our lack of a death penalty for murder.
Needless to say, I was disappointed. I thought I’d finally found the agrarian end-times cult for me, but guess I’ll just have to start my own. In my cult, women will not only be allowed but encouraged to take drugs while only wearing underwear, and even also to have sex with other women, to whom they may or may not be married. My cult will rule! It’ll be just like the sixties, but without the hope.
February 26th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
the corpse was kind of dead.
the corpse was kind of dead!!!!!!
February 27th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Okay, I am not what you would classify as a ‘radical’ feminist. In truth, I despise them. I want to get married and have babies. I would love to be a stay at home mom. And I firmly believe that this does not make me a bad person, nor a disgrace to the ‘womyn’ race. I believe that children are better raised by their parents than by substitute caregivers, but understand that the world doesn’t always conspire to have that happen, contrary to what Dr. Laura may think.
Yet, there is something about women like the one you described (washed out dress, washed out complexion, washed out hopes and dreams, overall, a beige person) that inspire in me thoughts of bra burning and other forms of public protest. It makes me want to grab her, shake her, pound some sense in to her. I want to scream that Susan B. Anthony is rolling over in her grave! I want to educate her about matriarchical societies, where women are revered and respected. I want to inspire some reaction, any reaction, other than a limp look in her deadened eyes.
How do societies like this still exist? How can they bury their heads in their Bibles and not realize that they have completely missed the 20th century? Did they also miss the memo, or the heritage commercial, that tells them women are in fact persons? It would seem so.
Maybe what they see as a breakdown is actually an evolution of societal norms. I mean, at one point it was considered normal to believe non-whiites were inferior. Times and beliefs change like the seasons. It is God’s way.
*
Scott, sorry for the essay in response. Obviously I am missing taking classes more than I thought I would. Arg! These pavement preachers drive me crazy! Especially when they have their brainwashed younglings involved. But I digress. Your cult sound promising. I like that you don’t expect the eviction of testicles or purchase of Nikes to be a member. Good luck with recruitment! May I suggest reading ‘Helter Skelter’ for some tips?
February 28th, 2007 at 3:24 am
I wish to join your cult.
February 28th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
The thing is, they really think they do revere and respect women. It’s just a very narrow range of behaviours that women (and men) have for being considered worthy of respect and reverence.
What boggles me is the emphasis that they place of women’s issues as being so basic to what’s wrong with society. I think that’s one of the few clear-cut ways in which society has actually progressed significantly. The idea that we were better off when social roles were more authoritarian, more paternalistic, more severe, and that all the bad stuff we have like crime, addiction, aids, ennui, Internet porn and all that are just the rotten fruit of the shitty, feminist tree, I really can’t get my head around.
They sound almost exactly like a non-violent Taliban (although the TT do share their belief in, if not their enthusiasm for, corporal and capital punishment). But I suspect their non-violence has a great deal to do with their impotence (so to speak).
February 28th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Paul, welcome aboard. Please note that you do need to give up (unto me) all your worldly possessions though. Sorry, that’s just the way it goes.
I hope this doesn’t turn into a total sausage cult. :(
March 1st, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Sometimes it seems like there’s some sort of competition out there to find the stupidest variation of Christianity. Good effort here, but I think Islam’s still winning.
March 1st, 2007 at 5:20 pm
The process of social breakdown starts in the family. Like in the Republic. Every step of the degeneration of the polis has its root in family troubles. Nowadays, all those family troubles have something to do with feminism, which has (and this is beyond doubt) greatly affected the nature of the family.
It has a sort of explanatory elegance to it - assuming there’s some genuine data to explain, which doesn’t seem to be the case if you actually look at trends in violent crime stats and whatnot in recent history.
That labour-pain-killers thing is probably from Genesis 3:16, where God promises that labour will be painful. It’s not explained in terms of “bonding” or anything, but, you know, God made it that way, so don’t interfere.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:09 am
I saw that bus while I was moving into my new house. It kept moving from the left-hand side of the straight to the right-hand and back. Not sure about the people inside the bus and their beliefs but sweet bus.