From: Paul Bullock (paulbullock@EBMS-LTD.CO.UK)
Date: Thu Oct 28 2004 - 18:56:35 EDT
gerry, this no doubt puts Harry Potter etc in the camp of the progressives (at least of the lower middle class sort) ... which might explain why the series received so much criticism from the religious right in the States at the start. Paul ;-) ----- Original Message ----- From: Gerald A. Levy To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 3:31 PM Subject: [OPE-L] (OPE-L) Re: Capitalism and Satanism Alfredo, Good timing: Halloween is due later this week. The analogy of Satanism to capitalist ideology, despite some similarities, is probably misleading. In any event, let the capitalists have the Satanists. We can strive to build alliances with the progressive witch and warlock community. These groups have a long history of persecution for their beliefs and lifestyle and often identify with movements of the poor and for the protection of the Earth from corporate and state assaults. In the Lower East Side of Manhattan there is a progressive community of witches which has supported the homeless and squatters and opposed gentrification and police brutality. Good people, by and large. Politically, they often tend to have anarchist sympathies. Witches, at least in most Western cultures, are non-violent and do not seek harm towards others. This is one thing that separates them from some Satanists. One reason for this is the "law of three" widely believed in by the witch community: basically it states that if you wish harm on someone else (i.e. cast a 'curse' upon someone else) then it will come back on you three times over! In solidarity, Jerry PS: speaking of the LES, there is an excellent recent photo book by Margaret Morton called _Glass House_ (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004) which tells the story -- in their own words -- of the squatters who lived in an abandoned glass factory on Avenue D from 1992 to 1994. It's a bit of a nostalgia trip for me since most of the Glass House tenants are or were good friends and comrades of mine. Politically, many of the squatters were anarchists but there was also a Marxist presence.
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