--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Robin Carlsen" <maskedzebra@...> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "raunchydog" <raunchydog@> wrote: > >
ME: I already responded to Dr Dumb Ass's snipped comments. I will accept Raunchy's as a writing prompt. RD: > > > > I like what you say here, Doc. Just to guild your lily a little, I'd say > > that irreverence is a performance art of disaffected seekers. They indulge > > in tipping sacred cows hoping people will react in horror. ME: Let me stop you there. Can you name a single person who could be expected to react in horror from a satiric piece on Christianity here? Name one pearl-clutcher, to use you apt image. A single person whose identification with the ideas contained in the myths of Christianity, is so complete that anything I wrote could be expected to react in the way your are trying to project here. One. I argue that mine is exactly the opposite motivation than the one you propose here. I wrote it for people who share my sense of humor, I am an entertainer. I would never post it on a board of Christians because I do not have the motivation you ascribe to me. And at this point if anyone is offended by my perspective on Maharishi, after years of full disclosure of my POV, shame on them for reading it. They are going way out of their way for their offended buzz. An example of why I wrote it was Emily's response. That made me very happy and fulfilled my intentions for posting it. RD: It's rather juvenile but they do it just to show how hip, they are and how hip you're not because they think you haven't rejected the beliefs that they have. ME: Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins and that maintaining this believe will somehow alter your disposition in the afterlife? Can you name one person who has that belief here that I could impose my hipness on by making a satire about Christianity? Since we all dissected Judith's book in detail here I could not reasonably expect my mention of the reality of Maharishi's hidden life would do more than elicit a ho hum from this jaded crew. You are imagining something to shame me for that doesn't even make sense. Name one belief concerning the Jesus myth that I have rejected and you have not. The unique divinity of Christ? His role as your personal savior through the mechanism of belief? His role as the fulfillment of the prophesies of the Old Testament? That he was required by God to suffer for our sins? You have to dismiss all the details of Christian theology to get to something we might disagree on, perhaps your conjectures about his state of mind. Maybe you think he was an enlightened guy and I don't. But we agree on a hundred things about the story to find the one we do not agree on. RD: > > > > Even today, Barry thought it would be fun to post humorously irreverent > > road signs by MUM to see who smiled and see who didn't smile. I suspect > > he's more interested in pissing people off than in delighting them. I go > > for the latter. ME: I draw your attention to this post as counter evidence for that claim. RD: > > > > Funny thing is, after awhile all the TMO, TM and Maharishi bashing, pissing > > on baby Jesus and exhibitionistic waggling of dicks gets to be so ho-hum > > that one hardly notices cries for attention fading into the distance. > > Sadly, when irreverent performance artists, shock jocks, don't get the > > negative reaction they hoped, they're just as happy to get applause for > > taking a public dump from people who don't know the difference between art > > and schlock. ME: I saw a great Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David was being subjected to his wife's family Christmas traditions. Alone in the kitchen Larry passes the time eating a cookie he found in a manger scene. To his chagrin and the horror of his in-laws, it turned out that he had eaten the baby Jesus cookie in an all cookie manger scene. Opening his mouth only to switch feet, he tried to pacify them all as they flocked around to shame him by saying "I thought it was a monkey cookie." They were not pacified. I share my sense of irreverent humor with Larry, and I wonder if you would project all these negative qualities on his intentions as you have on mine. A more broad minded perspective might allow that when it comes to humor, it is a personal thing and not feel the need to demonize someone making different choices than you. RD > > > > Irreverent art is really old school. Back in the day of the Dadaists: > > > > "Marcel Duchamp penciled a mustache and goatee on a print of Leonardo da > > Vinci's Mona Lisa and inscribed the work "L.H.O.O.Q." Spelled out in French > > these letters form a risqué pun: Elle a chaud au cul, or "She has hot > > pants."... > > > > Francis Picabia, once tacked a stuffed monkey to a board and called it a > > portrait of Cézanne... > > > > Schoenberg's music was atonal, Mal-larmé's poems scrambled syntax and > > scattered words across the page and Picasso's Cubism made a hash of human > > anatomy... > > > > But, for all its zaniness, the Dada movement would prove to be one of the > > most influential in modern art, foreshadowing abstract and conceptual art, > > performance art, op, pop and installation art." > > http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dada.html ME: I appreciated your references and I think you are supporting a case more for its value. For me I believe it has tremendous philosophical value to examine myths in an original way. I am not only trying to entertain those who share my sense of humor, I am mapping out my perspective by sharing a unique approach to these myths. And finally I am sharing my actual throught process as I contemplate the images of my own nativity dredged up from my youth. For those who are friendly toward me here, it is sharing who I am my perspective. For those who feel the need to use this as proof of a personality or spiritual defect, they are welcome to that but I can't respect that POV. It seems unnecessarily uncharitable considering the fact that their own beliefs are not being called into question. RD: > > > > When all is said and done and irreverent spiritual performance artists have > > met the "Maker of Us All" that they poopoo, ME: So you are really that sure of yourself about this? I would like you to make a case to support such a belief, show us what you are basing it on as I have shared why I reject it. RD: generations of unschooled idiots will pay homage to them by scouring the archives of FFLife for instructions on how to be an asshole while tipping sacred cows. ME: When I try to conjure up the reasons and motivations for your writing this insult, I can't come up with a single on that I respect. Robin > > I loved this, raunchy. You have the right credentials--all the way down. > ME: That strikes me as a bit disappointing to hear you say that.
