 4 Apr 2007 @ 21:29, by Unknown
Bait or Baiting is the act of worrying or tormenting a chained or confined animal by setting game dogs upon it for sport. In our Internet culture, and where humans activity online is concerned, people have referred to this practice as "button pushing."
According to Bill Maher, "one of the tenets of Scientology is that anyone who criticizes the religion is fair game for any and all kinds of retribution. You can harass them, you can spread lies about them, and it's OK because the critic is fundamentally evil."
Where Bill Maher went with that (11.09.2006) is outrageous, of course, as it is almost always the case which practically anything he touches, but not totally out of place either, all things considered:
"In fact, this attitude is only a matter of degrees away from the belief radical Muslims have that any wrong perpetrated against the "infidels" is justified.
This also ties into the so-called father of neo-conservatism, the philosopher Leo Strauss, who argued that the only way to stop liberalism from ruining society was for the elites (a.k.a his neocon followers) to exploit myths (religion) or create new myths (the Islamic Menace) that will unite the hoi polloi in an orgy of nationalistic fervor. Sounds like fascism? Yup. But an interesting feature of Straussism is that the elites don't care if the myths they are exploiting are actually true; that's irrelevant as long as they're effective."
I wonder what's the policy of the Church of Scientology with regard to "dissidents" or former scientologists who pursue activities that might be perceived by the Church as illegally borrowed from their teachings or a subversion of their religion. There is probably there some analogies with what went on when the Protestants broke off from the Catholic church, and all the splinted christian groups which split of afterward. Come to think of it, Christianity itself split of from what was in a way the "Church" of the time, which was itself pretty badly spliced. The same can be said of Islam and Hinduism...and also of the New Age.
More interesting, perhaps, is what become of the splinters. Having been themselves on the receiving end of intolerance and the repressive tactics of the mother church from which they split off, do they amend their way, and learn openness and tolerance of other, or are they bound to repeat towards those they perceive as their "infidels" the mistakes of the Church who persecuted them, like the abused who become abuser?
The question is particularly relevant on a site such as NCN, which prone diversity and people freely working, separately in subgroups, or together, and in any case, if not with (or in agreement with) each other, at least beyond their differences.
|
|
