One of my favorite movies of all time is "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." I enjoy this movie for many reasons, but most of all for it's satire on society. One of my favorite scenes, and I should warn you that I know them all, is when King Arthur walks up to peasants in the field and tries to explain that he is King of the Britons. The peasant mentions that they did not know they had a king and thought they were a 'autonomous collective' and proceeds to argue. In the end, he argues to the point that he feels he proves his point when he is attacked by Arthur and yells 'now we see the violence inherent in the system' and feels that his point is made. So why do I find this so funny?
Well for one thing, have you ever told someone you did not want to fight or that you wanted to be peaceful, only to have them push and push. They push so hard that they end up bringing out something you do not want to deal with, and you say something you regret. Then they turn and say, "look you are phony, none of what you say matters!" They feel like they brought something out in you, without seeing the responsibility they held in that regard. Almost like they "predicted the outcome" and then did everything in their power to make sure they were right. Does this happen on a larger scale.
Well recently I got a call from a relative still in the Jehovah's Witnesses, telling me about how recently the society has been teaching something. What is it? Well they are saying that all this new aggression against them by outside forces is a fulfillment of prophesy. So basically, they are taking something that is happening, and seeing only the results of their own actions and not the actions they did themselves. How odd is this?
When I was a Witness, I remember this one family that was so strict that they never hardly even let their children see the light of day. The father always said that they were protecting them from harm and saw even the Witness children as bad association. So one day I went and talked to the man and tried to convince him of letting his children go to a 'get together', to which he was very angry. In the end though, he let them go. The children went and because they had never been with other children, they were very active and ran around having a blast. One of them tripped and feel and got a bloody nose. One of the 'sisters' fixed him up, but when the father came and picked up his children. Well he blew up at them and said, "this is why you never do this, you are doing nothing more then getting into more trouble." Basically, he did what the two other paragraphs mentioned above. He pushed something, then helped to make it happen through aggression, and then blamed everyone but himself. Nice little package, isn't it.
So when I got this call from my relatives, telling me that the prophesy was having a fulfillment. I was amazed at the lack of responsibility shown by the religion. To think they can break laws, cause hardships on people, and do wrong on to others. Then to come back and say "I'm being repressed" is the height of all arrogance. Have you thought about it this way, when people call from the religion with their warnings? If not, give it some thought and you will get a very odd picture of people pushing you and pushing you, only to be shocked when you finally struck back. It makes no sense, that a persons or organizations wrong doing would fulfill a prophesy by justice being soot from the victims.
I think the Grail said it best, when thinking about such a odd event. 'What an eccentric performance'
My thought
Dragon
Edited by - kenpodragon on 9 October 2002 14:9:4