From: rtsumn01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
Subject: Re: The Great Martyrdom Cult
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 01:52:58 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville

In article <66835@cup.portal.com>, Tagi@cup.portal.com (Tagi Mordred Nagashiva) writes:
> Scott Locklin writes [my comments in brackets]:
> 
> Modern Day feminists [only the Wiccans who worship the Crone]
> Republicans on my (marxist) campus [no, there is no image involved]
> Hippies in the '60-70's [only the ones who began making LSD their god]
> Evan Marshall when he is on USENET [no]
> Wilhelm Reich [doubtful, but I don't know much about him]
> Copernicus [this was an idea, not an archetype etc.]
> Radical Homosexual Groups [only those who worship Androgyny]
> Timothy Leary [in some ways, yes]
> Modern-Day Nazis [especially those into black magick, yes]

So there has to be an "archetype" involved? Focus on an image rejected by a
moajority?
 
> Is this approximately correct? All these go against an orthodoxy, and are
> persecuted for their beliefs because of shoving the orthodoxy's face in
> the facts... (or their version anyway)
> 
> 
> Response:
> 
> They must BECOME an image which the orthodoxy abhors.  They must behave
> AND speak in ways which derive from the unconscious mind of the society in
> which they live - i.e. those energies which the society has repressed
> must be given expression in them).  It ain't about shoving the orthodoxy's
> fact in any 'facts'.  'Facts' have nothing to do with it.  It is a 
> visceral, archetypal IMAGE which is portrayed in behavior and words.

Are you using archetype in a universal sense, so that these images would be
shared by *everyone*? Or are they something shared only within the culture
involved, and commonly known because they are taught as part of one's
upbringing? (although this education may be unnoticed)
 
> Thyagi
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Strict opposition and persecution includes many many people.  The GMC is
> not that big.  Very few individuals are probably members.

I only have three problems with the phrase "Great Martyrdom Cult":

1. Great--why is it great? It appears not to be numerous, as you just said. You
seem to be saying that it's not a universal phenomenon, but specific to Western
Culture.

2. Martyrdom--I still don't like this term, and I think Scott expressed
eloquently how I feel. The general understanding that goes with "martyrdom" is
persecution in the form of physical torture and death, and I don't see any of
*that* happening. Sure, I suffer, but I suffered without being a Satanist, and
plenty of other people suffer for the same reasons without ever becoming any of
the things you've described. Everyone suffers. Is everyone a martyr?

I recall you said that "One escapes from the GMC only by dying" (paraphrased).
That doesn't qualify them as martyrs, because they would have to die *on
account of* their faith.

3. Cult--it's not a cult. There's no coherence, no continuation, and no contact
between members except indirectly:  through the medium of the whole society.

Obviously I, like Scott, am most concerned with "martyrdom" since I devoted the
most space, but "cult" is bothering me more as time passes.

--Semhaza, Child of the Night