Martyrdom Series

Discussion of the mythology and morality of martyrdom.

May 03, 2004
Martyrdom 8: The Buddha

You don't promote enlightenment by inciting pain. You merely increase the level of suffering in another person's life until she gives in.

Posted by Joel at 06:32 PM | Read More
March 28, 2004
Martyrdom 7: Christ and the Cross

In the original myth, Christ didn't die so that we might emulate his suffering: he suffered because we suffered.

Posted by Joel at 10:21 PM | Read More
March 09, 2004
Martyrdom 6: Catholic Martyrs, Attis, Pious Frauds, and BDSM

It was not for beauty that the early church fathers banned the damaged from celebrating the Mass; the prelates were more concerned about the barbarous lengths to which some interpreted scripture and pagan rites in which initiates altered themselves.

Posted by Joel at 10:27 PM | Read More
March 05, 2004
Martydom 5: Vukovar, Guernica, and Hiroshima

I refused to take the side of any government, any army in a war.

Posted by Joel at 10:48 PM | Read More
March 02, 2004
Martyrdom 4: The Soot in the Fields

To thwart them, we must tell the whole truth. Sixteen million people died in the Holocaust: Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, and "defectives".

Posted by Joel at 11:20 PM | Read More
March 01, 2004
Martyrdom 3: Esprit de Corps

Generals such as Patton like to think that they are the high priests of vast congregations called "armies", but from what I have heard and read from grunts the spiritual community is more akin to that of Quakers than to the Vatican or Shinto.

Posted by Joel at 09:15 PM | Read More
February 29, 2004
Martyrdom 2: Pyramids, Tophets, and a Ram in a Thicket

The man or woman who lies down upon the altar is called a victim, from the Latin victima meaning an animal used for sacrifice. The word comes from an Indo-European root "weik" signifying that which is magic and holy.

Posted by Joel at 07:35 PM | Read More
February 28, 2004
Martyrdom 1: The Martyrs of York and Edith Stein

Which were the martyrs of York? The ones who killed themselves or the ones who were massacred by the crowd?

Posted by Joel at 02:46 PM | Read More