I was reading along in Salon's expose of Carlos Castaneda, the author in the 1970s of a series of wildly popular pseudo-anthropological books on American Indian sorcery and spirituality and, apparently, later the leader of a small cult, when I came to this paragraph:
No one contributed more to Castaneda's debunking than Richard de Mille. De Mille, who held a Ph.D. in psychology from USC, was something of a freelance intellectual. In a recent interview, he remarked that because he wasn't associated with a university, he could tell the story straight. "People in the academy wouldn't do it," he remarked. "They'd be embarrassing the establishment." Specifically the UCLA professors who, according to de Mille, knew it was a hoax from the start. But a hoax that, he said, supported their theories, which de Mille summed up succinctly: "Reality doesn't exist. It's all what people say to each other."
Hmmm. A hoax that supported theories held by academics, such that it fell to people outside the academic establishment to debunk the hoax. Sounds to me a lot like the whole "Islam is a religion of peace" enterprise.
O.T., but maybe this would have some bearing on the "global warming" craze bent on disabling our economy?
All "Don Juan" tempted gullible readers with was eating mescaline-laden cactus "buttons" and seeing magical worlds.
Islam, on the other hand, tempts potential fanatics to kill anybody who gets in their path to tyrannical global domination.
Academia's failure to address the bogus shaman was silly and embarassing, but relatively benign.
It's world-historical derelection of duty- when it comes to a critical analysis of Islam's texts, and Mohammad's homicidal dogmas, misogyny, intolerance, irrationalism, imperialism and endless-war-theory- is suicidal.
Not only to the meaning of the Academy but to the survival of the West.
The Treason of the Intellectuals- Redux.
Profitsbeard - agreed.
I liked reading the Castaneda books, but never thought they were 'real' in any physical sense of reality.
The trouble is that readers of Qur'an think it's all literal and act on their beliefs physically.
You don't become a Professor of Islamic studies (in the US) by studing Muhammads murders and abuses. Most of the seam to be art or lit teachers.
After 9/11 I have read and sean as many documentaries as I could on Islam. PBS showd a 3 hour documentry on Islam. It seamed to be produced by art historian types. None of this exlained the long list of horrors Muslims have comitted since the late 70's.
Only when I saw Robert Spencer on TV did I find someone who attempted to explain the hard truth. Robert takes on the toughf questions acidemics don't want to face.
So why do Muslims act like Psychopaths? Sure thay have nice architecture, but that is not the question most Americans want to know post 9/11.
The academic Islam departments need to find answers for the fallowing.
1) Why do Muslims act like Psychophaths?
In Spencers books the answer is Muhammad is a Psycopath and is held up as an Ideal to fallow. Anyone have a better answer? I am waiting.
The more I hear about college professors the more I am convinced our youth are not getting a worthwhile education....Professors such as Ward Churchill are destroying the very fabric of our society....
I tried to read those Castaneda books back in the day. With those wise Yaqui shamans to properly guide him through peyote trips. Never could get through more than ten pages. The Gurdjieff/Ouspensky books were much more interesting even though G suckered a lot of Western "softies". These days the softies are in awe of Islam.
Hurray for Freedom and the few independants who are not whores of the beltway or academia.
(great post Robert).
It is obvious that a remarkable and revolutionary change in every area of our culture--our perceptions, our standards, our morality and beliefs and what we see as acceptable and true--has taken place since the end of WWII. The U.S. public’s world view has been transformed through a Culture War in which such Post-modern concepts as Political Correctness, Multiculturalism, Moral Equivalence and Diversity have slowly infiltrated and transformed our culture and as a result of the success of this attack, we are left with fewer and fewer tools we can now use to name, evaluate, debate and fight Islam.
The academy's cloak of silence which was extended over Castaneda’s ideas—which were one small weapon in the Culture War--was extended to cover many other ideas and people as well. Margaret Mead and Alfred Kinsey--two extraordinarily influential figures--big guns in the Culture War--had ideas and work that are just as flawed or as fraudulent as Castaneda’s. The silence about those deficiencies and the almost universal acceptance of their ideas, which form the foundation for much work since in the areas of human sexuality, culture, the issue of nature vs. nurture as determining behavior, may well hamper attempts by us to correctly perceive, understand and then attack a major fault line in Islam--sexuality and the treatment of women.
Well that explains why Daniel Pipes couldn't get tenured, and why Mr. Spencer will never ever get a job teaching at a university. Their heads are screwed on straight. Now that's a no-no in academia.
I guess all of you here were smart & either avoided college or majored in accounting, engineering, or some other fact-based degree.
As a "trifecta of Academia Liberalist" majors (English Lit, "History", & Languages), I was not so fortunate. And I attended a conservative school!
I did, however, create an excellent quote for dealing with professors who hated my factual interference:
"'D' is for Dignity."
Mr. Spencer, the American Indian did not utilize sorcery, but shamanism. I will not go into the details of their arts not because it is sacred, but people who know the art as Geronimo stated said it could be used for good or evil.
They would never use magic spells to harness dark forces, but would bribe the "bad god" so it would leave them alone. Their's was a practice which utilized signs to live by.
The peaceful Islam though is a purchased and bribe paid for dogma produced by oil money and Republicans who want to look PC in hiring a D'Souza in proving they have color too to Democrats whoring for votes in getting an Ellison elected. All from Jimmy Carter to the other talking heads all have a financial stake in "peaceful Islam" as oil nations produce wonderful contracts to hire former government employees which fund political parties via corporations.
It is all about money laundering and the Islamic movement has become very adept at it in purchasing power.
Castaneda in his personal life sounds a lot like Muhammad. Narcissistic, controlling, arbitrary, grandiose, and apparently at least partly convinced by his own b.s.
Both also regarded with utter contempt those who did not believe in their tales (i.e., most of humankind), while elevating the believers to a higher status.
Both plagiarized from previous sources.
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"Hmmm. A hoax that supported theories held by academics, such that it fell to people outside the academic establishment to debunk the hoax. Sounds to me a lot like the whole "Islam is a religion of peace" enterprise." --Robert
Exactly.
Lame Cherry said
Agree 100%. That money flow and that fiscal influence on domestic politics in Dar al-Harb must be ended. That's the #1 priority, not building another desalination plant in Baghdad, or another bridge in Afghanistan.
BTW, Castenada is debunked, right? His influence is gone. True, he didn't have billions of petrodollars backing him up, but it still gives one hope that in the end, truth trumps all. Even in academia.
CAIR and other pro-Islamic groups inflate their numbers by counting all Americans of Middle Eastern origin as Muslims. This is patently false.
65 - 70% of all Palestinians in the US are Christians, mostly Melkites and Orthodox.
60 - 65% of all Lebanese in the US are Christians of the Maronite, Melkite, Roman Catholic or Orthodox Churches.
35 - 40% of Syrians in the US are Christians, of the Melkite or Orthodox Churches.
30 - 35% of Egyptians in the US are Coptic Christians.
30% of Jordanians in the US are Melkite or Orthodox Christians.
25 - 30% of Iraqis in the US are Assyrian or Chaldean Christians.
Nearly half of Iranians in the US describe themselves as Christian or otherwise non-Muslim.
Many Pakistanis in the US are Christians or Ismailis.
Many Moroccans and Yemenis in the US are Jewish.
Virtually all Armenians, even those whose ancestors came from Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey, are Christians.
Nevertheless, CAIR counts all these people as coming from Islamic countries and therefore assumes them to be Muslims. It is a lie.
OOPS! The above post was meant for the previous thread. My apologies.
I read those books also. Entertaining. Educationally, what I came across of value, was this line, 'The true black magicians are your fellow man, if you dont believe that, just try and break away from the path they have set for you'. The hippies tried that and look what we did to them.
This post was meant for this thread...
"the American Indian did not utilize sorcery, but shamanism. I will not go into the details of their arts not because it is sacred, but people who know the art as Geronimo stated said it could be used for good or evil.
They would never use magic spells to harness dark forces, but would bribe the "bad god" so it would leave them alone. Their's was a practice which utilized signs to live by."
posted by Lame Cherry above...
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Well said. Anyone who is of indigenous heritage or who has spent time on a Rez knows how many charlatans prey of American-Indian culture. Unfortunately Castaneda was not the only one.
Back in my younger and wilder days I read the Castanada books (particularily enjoyable after a hit or two of windowpane) but I (nor anyone else I knew) never considered them anything else but the musings of a very high person perceiving a personal "enlightenment" common to drug induced uforia.........perhaps I've missed something but I did not think Carlos has(had) quite the same influence as islam