Date: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:17:00 -0800
From: "Randy Ross" <gloreeeah-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] The down-side of storytellers


respect as always maglosia!

On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 3:50 PM, malgosia askanas <ma-AT-panix.com> wrote:

> Alan wrote:
>
> >What helped bring us to this lowpoint? Lee Atwater, Rush Limbaugh
> >and other story tellers of that ilk, the talented "spinners" of
> >swift boat stories and character assasinations made it all possible.
>
> According to the theories of the great anthropologist Pierre
> Clastres, the origin of the State can be traced, in large part, to
> the spinning of swift boat stories on the part of the
> shaman-become-leader-of-people.  The shaman would seduce part of the
> tribe with stories of a "land without evil", a "land of peace" and
> "of plenty", which only he knew how to reach and which could only be
> attained by following him.  In this land, everybody would have to
> work together, abandoning their tribal ways, under the despotic
> direction of a new "knowing" caste, a caste of priests, who had the
> monopoly of knowledge and the sole ability to organize  large-scale
> agriculture and trade.  It is by the agency (or with the help) of
> these idea, argues Clastres, that we transitioned from "savage
> culture" to the early State society.  And it seems that to this day,
> like good children the the State,  we still spin, and fall prey to,
> the same tales - the tiger will lie down with the lamb, all
> differences will be erased, "altruism" will prevail over
> "selfishness", milk and honey will flow in the rivers, evereything
> will be plentiful and free - if only we subject ourselves to one
> "leader" or another, one "re-education" or another,  one "for our own
> good" or another.  And if the promised land somehow doesn't come on
> this earth, then that must be because the earth is essentially evil,
> but we can certainly look forward to achieving the promised land in
> the (eternal, of course) life-after-life - if only we....
>
> -m
>
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-- 
with love and affection
edith gloria hole
carnival sized cinnamon hearts puppet shows
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