[Dialogue] Provocative thoughts about an unlikely book

[Wayne Nelson]

Interesting.  These movements ­ the ones running under the Christian flag as
well as the ones running under the Islamic green - are political movements ­
period, finish. They only have a couple things to do with religion.  They
have more to do with national and UN policies and economic relationships
than anything else. Think about it this way. If the US government altered
it¹s relationship to Israel, a good deal of tension would dissipate and some
of this conflict could be wound down relatively quickly.

One is that they are coming from what Ken Wilber would describe as a ³mythic
­ membership² level of consciousness. That is to say that they are Œtribal².
Religion = tribe = language = cultural pillars = identity. They are all tied
together. It is ³high context² culture and people are using religion as a
vehicle to build the contextual walls higher in order to exclude and label.

The other, to me, is that they utilize religious terminology and call upon
religious sentiment. Religion is a kind of smoke and mirrors show to hide
their fundamentally political nature.

I don¹t think this is late breaking news to anybody. If all this were
related to religion, things would be kind of different. I know it¹s more
complex than that, but, in a way, it¹s not.

If you want to read a truly ripping tale that reveals a little of what¹s
with the Taliban, find ³The Kite Runner² by Khalid Hossani. He¹s an Afghani
MD living in California, now. It¹s the only book that has ever kept me up
all night ­ literally. I started reading at about 10:00pm and went to sleep
at 6:30 am. It¹s about a great deal more than that, but it shows you
something interesting to do with the psychological profile of people in that
mindset. 

Wayne
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20060922/a6aac93f/attachment-0001.html