“Guest” essay by Philip Pullman

Posted on February 27, 2009 by Isaac Bonewits

This was written by the children’s author for the Times Online, then yanked from their website and scrubbed from Google Cache. I think it’s important enough that it should be widely distributed. If Mr. Pullman objects, I’ll be happy to delete it.:

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Malevolent Voices that Despise Our Freedoms
by Philip Pullman

Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness – the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

We are so fast asleep that we don’t know who we are any more. Are we English? Scottish? Welsh? British? More than one of them? One but not another? Are we a Christian nation – after all we have an Established Church – or are we something post-Christian? Are we a secular state? Are we a multifaith state? Are we anything we can all agree on and feel proud of?

Background:

* £34bn cost of state-run surveillance databases
* Former spy chief says UK is now a police state
* First ID cards are to be issued within weeks
* COMMENT: that’s a bit rich, Dame Stella

The new laws whisper:

You don’t know who you are

You’re mistaken about yourself

We know better than you do what you consist of, what labels apply to you, which facts about you are important and which are worthless

We do not believe you can be trusted to know these things, so we shall know them for you

And if we take against you, we shall remove from your possession the only proof we shall allow to be recognised

The sleeping nation dreams it has the freedom to speak its mind. It fantasises about making tyrants cringe with the bluff bold vigour of its ancient right to express its opinions in the street. This is what the new laws say about that:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don’t want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

The nation dreams it is a democratic state where the laws were made by freely elected representatives who were answerable to the people. It used to be such a nation once, it dreams, so it must be that nation still. It is a sweet dream.

You are not to be trusted with laws

So we shall put ourselves out of your reach

We shall put ourselves beyond your amendment or abolition

You do not need to argue about any changes we make, or to debate them, or to send your representatives to vote against them

You do not need to hold us to account

You think you will get what you want from an inquiry?

Who do you think you are?

What sort of fools do you think we are?

The nation’s dreams are troubled, sometimes; dim rumours reach our sleeping ears, rumours that all is not well in the administration of justice; but an ancient spell murmurs through our somnolence, and we remember that the courts are bound to seek the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and we turn over and sleep soundly again.

And the new laws whisper:

We do not want to hear you talking about truth

Truth is a friend of yours, not a friend of ours

We have a better friend called hearsay, who is a witness we can always rely on

We do not want to hear you talking about innocence

Innocent means guilty of things not yet done

We do not want to hear you talking about the right to silence

You need to be told what silence means: it means guilt

We do not want to hear you talking about justice

Justice is whatever we want to do to you

And nothing else

Are we conscious of being watched, as we sleep? Are we aware of an ever-open eye at the corner of every street, of a watching presence in the very keyboards we type our messages on? The new laws don’t mind if we are. They don’t think we care about it.

We want to watch you day and night

We think you are abject enough to feel safe when we watch you

We can see you have lost all sense of what is proper to a free people

We can see you have abandoned modesty

Some of our friends have seen to that

They have arranged for you to find modesty contemptible

In a thousand ways they have led you to think that whoever does not want to be watched must have something shameful to hide

We want you to feel that solitude is frightening and unnatural

We want you to feel that being watched is the natural state of things

One of the pleasant fantasies that consoles us in our sleep is that we are a sovereign nation, and safe within our borders. This is what the new laws say about that:

We know who our friends are

And when our friends want to have words with one of you

We shall make it easy for them to take you away to a country where you will learn that you have more fingernails than you need

It will be no use bleating that you know of no offence you have committed under British law

It is for us to know what your offence is

Angering our friends is an offence

It is inconceivable to me that a waking nation in the full consciousness of its freedom would have allowed its government to pass such laws as the Protection from Harassment Act (1997), the Crime and Disorder Act (1998), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000), the Terrorism Act (2000), the Criminal Justice and Police Act (2001), the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (2001), the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Extension Act (2002), the Criminal Justice Act (2003), the Extradition Act (2003), the Anti-Social Behaviour Act (2003), the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004), the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005), the Inquiries Act (2005), the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (2005), not to mention a host of pending legislation such as the Identity Cards Bill, the Coroners and Justice Bill, and the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Inconceivable.

And those laws say:

Sleep, you stinking cowards

Sweating as you dream of rights and freedoms

Freedom is too hard for you

We shall decide what freedom is

Sleep, you vermin

Sleep, you scum.

Philip Pullman will deliver a keynote speech at the Convention on Modern Liberty at the Institute of Education in London tomorrow (Feb. 28, 2009).

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The words he is attributing to the Power Elite sound frighteningly familiar to this American. Pass them on.

Posted in Current Events, Political/Cultural | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

I get fascinating email

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Isaac Bonewits

Here’s a couple of emails I received recently, both from the same eddress:

i find your attempt to christianize paganism laughable. the first time i heard your name i knew you were one of these blasphemous hippie idiots trying to destroy paganism and turn it into some pacifist sterile PC bullshit. and i saw a video of you wearing the star of david. thats why i serve morrigan. there is no way you can soften her, and turn her into the joke that you have turned the rest of the old gods into. i also think it’s funny how you promote letting n***ers and f***ots in and then call people like me, who’s ancestors worshipped these gods “fake”. i always like to listen to people like you when i need a laugh. and you jews are really arrogant nowdays. you dont even try to hide what you are doing.

i find it interesting how you take up for your filthy jew ancestors, claiming to be a pagan. ANY pagan who knows history should hate jews. it was the jews who bribed constantine to enforce christianity, and thats why rome got it’s ass kicked. and here you are trying to do the same thing. like i said, it’s obvious wether you try to deny it or not. you’re just another filthy judeo-pig and nobody with half a brain would give you a second thought.

This is just so wrong, on so many levels.

1) The family name is German-Wendish. A lot of Jews came to the USA from parts of Europe with Wendish names, but so did a lot of Lutherans, such as my great-great-etc.-grandfather, Adam Bonnawitz in 1749. My direct father was Presbyterian, my mother Roman Catholic. (I could post a scan of my baptismal and confirmation certificates, but the writer, like the crazed Obama-phobes, would probably insist that they were forged.)

2) As for ethnicity, I have about a dozen different ancestries, mostly Celtic and Germanic, plus some Native American. To the best of our geneological research, I don’t have a single Jewish ancestor — not that I would care much if I did. I probably have more “aryan” ancestry than the writer has, and I don’t care about that either.

3) I’ve never worn a Star of David in my life. I frequently wear a pentacle, which ignorant fools who can’t count often mistake for one.

4) Since I’m not Jewish by either tribal ancestry or religious ancestry, the anti-Semitic raving against me is entirely off-target, not to mention nonsensical and historically ignorant. The early Christians made a concerted effort to infiltrate and subvert the Roman Empire. They started killing Jews, along with the Paleopagans, as soon as they had the power to do so.

5) Creating Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship as a public Pagan “church” does not “Christianize” Paganism, except to those who equate all organized religions with Christianity. It just makes Paganism more accessible to those who need it.

6) As for the Morrigan, I’ve been a worshiper of Her for forty years and even wrote a popular hymn to Her that I use in ritual. I think She would find idiots like the writer far more objectionable than myself.

7) Of course, I “let” African-Americans join ADF. Most of them have more Irish ancestry than I have. Most Irish-Americans whose families have been here for more than a few generations have some black ancestry (and vice versa), because freed slaves and indentured Irish servants frequently married. I don’t have any AA ancestry that I know of. I might through the French Canadian side of the family, but it wouldn’t bother me if I did.

8) We have a lot of GLBTQIZ members in ADF because we’re not using the Wiccan yin-and-yang energies to generate power for our rituals. So gender and orientation are irrelevant to participation in ADF, as they should be in all religions.

9) No, we don’t hide what we’re doing, either in ADF or in my career as a whole. We’re creating Neopagan movements for people who want to live and pray in the 21st century, not the 17th. We actively discourage racists, homophobes, anti-Semites and other ignorant bigots from joining us. So I’m not at all upset that the writer doesn’t want any part of what we’re doing, and that makes me very happy.

I am an old hippie and my politics are extremely liberal. That doesn’t mean everyone in ADF or the Neopagan movement as a whole shares those characteristics, though I suspect the vast majority do. This is yet another area of life where Oberon’s Principle of Non-Choice prevails: “If you don’t like it, you can’t have any!”

I thought about posting this jerk’s eddress in this blog, but decided against it. Losers like him thrive on attention and wilt when properly ignored. Feel free to discuss him in your comments, however.

Posted in Feedback Loop, Personal Happenings | 9 Comments

Wicked Winter Chocolate Factory
Renaissance Faire

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Isaac Bonewits

I’m really looking forward to the Feb 20–22 Wicked Faire at the Marriott of Hanover hotel in Whippany, New Jersey (phone 973-538-8811 ). Think of it as a combination of an adults-only Renn Faire, a sci-fi convention, a goth gathering, a pirate ship, an LRP gamers’ event, steampunk revival, and a Pagan festival — all rolled up into one weird weekend!

Even more entertaining than the attendees are the people who’ll be performing: famed Pagan group The Gypsy Nomads; “Repo: The Genetic Opera,” with its author and star, Terrance Zdunich; goth heart-throb Voltaire; Ego Likeness; The White Elephant Burlesque Society; stage magician Daniel Greenwolf; and more, including yours truly. I’ll be signing books, giving tarot readings, reading some of my poetry, and answering questions from fans.

The theme this year is the “Wicked Winter Chocolate Factory Renaissance Faire,” and costumes and decor will be, well, sweet. If you’d like to talk with the folks organizing and attending it, and maybe arrange rides, or get advice on what to wear (and not wear), or find out in which rooms the many parties will be taking place, join the Ning group that’s been set up for this and other Wicked events at the Wicked Village.

I’ll see you there!

Posted in Calendar, Fun, Personal Happenings | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Wicked Winter Chocolate Factory
Renaissance Faire

Spells for Democracy: Inaugural Edition

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Isaac Bonewits

Dear President Obama,

You may be interested (or possibly amused) to know that you will be taking your oath of office with the prayers, good wishes, and magical spells of over a million Witches, Druids, and other nature Worshipers across America and around the world.

Fundamentalist Christians have been casting curses and exorcisms in your general direction. They and their fellow lunatics will be horrified to know that non-Christians admire you, and will take this as more “evidence” that you must be part of the Forces of Evil™. But the sane citizens of America and the world are delighted to see a kind, decent, and brilliantly smart person finally winning the Presidency after our long national nightmare.

While it’s probably not something you will publicize, we do want you to know that we will be doing all in our spiritual power to protect you from the haters and the killers who can, and will, threaten you, your beautiful family, and your vision of a kind and decent America.

Not that we will agree with everything you will do or say — we’re Democrats, Greens, Libertarians, and even Republicans, after all. But most of us know the stakes, both literally and figuratively. We know it’s going to take a lot of magic to fix the mess George W. Bush got us into at home and around the world, and to rescue us from the Republican Depression.

So if you feel a warm glow of safety around you, or if the Secret Service people are more intuitive and alert than ever before, or the lunatic haters find themselves making really stupid mistakes that reveal their intentions in time to thwart them, or you suddenly find yourself more eloquent and persuasive, that will (in part) be us. We say “in part” because we know you will also be receiving the prayers and good wishes of many people from many belief and non-belief systems. We Neopagans, however, know how to shape those vague feelings coming your way into actual magic that does something useful for you, America, and the world.

You will never be able to acknowledge us publicly, for that is the nature of American politics. We won’t mind. Just do the best you can to fulfill your ideals for America and the world, and we will be well rewarded. Of course paying attention to freedom of religion for all belief and non-belief systems, and taking bold action to protect Mother Nature would be nice too …

yours truly,
Isaac Bonewits

A PS to the other readers of this: Yes, I know there are right-wing and racist Pagans out there who don’t like President Obama much. That’s why I said, “we Neopagans.” Conservative Mesopagans are free to denounce our efforts and refuse to participate.

Posted in Magic, Political/Cultural | 2 Comments