Religious Fundamentalism in Orwell and Pynchon

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Joseph" <mjoseph at rci.rutgers.edu>
To: "Otto" <ottosell at yahoo.de>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 11:18 AM
Subject: Re: Religious Fundamentalism in Orwell and Pynchon
>
> On Tue, 20 May 2003, Otto wrote:
>
> > I think it's just a bad & unseemly (nice word) metaphor
> > that has been used and withdrawn when it became obvious
> > that there are connotations one hadn't thought of before.
> >
> It's not the connotation, it's the meaning of the word (ut infra)
>

But it's not the only meaning, the word "crusade" has other
connotations in common language too. People lead crusades
against the roaches in their kitchen.

> > Semantically "crusade" isn't that far from "jihad" so I think
> > there havebeen a lot of crocodile tears wept by those
> > complaining about it.
> >
>
> yes? crocodile tears?

I was thinking of complaining Muslims here who in their privacy
might appreciate suicide bombings.

> from folks who lack the courage to concede that
> America is a theocracy?
>
> Michael
>

I doubt that this is the case when I take the following literally.
Contrary to "crusade" the word "theocracy" has nearly no colloquial meaning:

theocracy
\The*oc"ra*cy\, n. [Gr. ?; ? God + ? to be strong, to rule, fr. ? strength:
cf. F. th['e]ocratie. See Theism, and cf. Democracy.] 1. Government of a
state by the immediate direction or administration of God; hence, the
exercise of political authority by priests as representing the Deity.

theocracy
a word first used by Josephus to denote that the Jews were under the
direct government of God himself. The nation was in all things subject
to the will of their invisible King. All the people were the servants of
Jehovah, who ruled over their public and private affairs, communicating
to them his will through the medium of the prophets. They were the
subjects of a heavenly, not of an earthly, king. They were Jehovah's
own subjects, ruled directly by him (comp. 1 Sam. 8:6-9).

By displaying his belief to the public I think George W. Bush more is
appealing to large groups of conservative voters from the Southern
Baptist Convention than to the world abroad, but I have no objections
to this:

"Our nation is founded on religious freedom -- the principle that people
ought to be able to practice religious freedom and speak their mind,
freely." (Pres. Bush)
http://www.bpnews.net/printerfriendly.asp?ID=6493

If America is a theocracy why do I get that much porn spam and
viagra-advertisement (not that I needed it) from there?

Otto