#anti-superstition society

[fitsofgloom]

Superstition Ain't The Way!: The 13th Anniversary Jinx-Jabbing Jamboree & Dinner of The Anti-Superstition Society of Chicago, held on Friday The 13th, 1941.

[turbulentscrawl]

HELLOOO could we get ithaqua with a modern Reader too? :33

MWehehe

-Honestly, not the brightest idea for a modern S/O to try and get with his one. Modern social culture is very deep in the anti-toxicity (to the point that we circle back into it without realizing sometimes) and Ithaqua exhibits a lot of red-flag buzzwords. He’s the kind of person reddit would constantly tell you to divorce haha.

-He would be a bit torn over you, though. On one hand, you clearly lived emersed in “society” as a whole, which is what he was generally the most at odds with in life. (In a modern setting, Ithaqua would be an off-grid homesteader. He’s probably against having wifi at his home, even.) On the other hand…you’re a bit of an outcast in the survivor manor. He’s a little crazy, but not BLIND. He can see how people are nervous about you in the beginning, shun you and your magic box.

-He’s got no fucking clue what the magic box is either, but Ithaqua does not believe in magic, religion, or the paranormal. The people who dictate those things called his mother a witch, and himself a demon, and he knows in his heart that they were just two people living life in a way others didn’t like. Superstition is what got him dumped in the snow as a babe, so even if he’s confused as hell by your technology, he’s smart and reasonable enough to know it’s due to a lack of education on his part and not you being some otherworldly, incomprehensible thing.

-He’s likely drawn to you a bit from the above treatment you suffer. Maybe the others are more than willing to use you as bait, hesitant to rescue you, or fail to even explain to you how decoding works. Ithaqua will notice these things even in the middle of a hunt. He thinks you’re pitiful—until you’re not, and that makes you interesting. Ithaqua finds the remnants of whatever your modern-ness makes up your skills. Your phone tucked into a grassy corner, playing a recording of someone shuffling through a chest, maybe, and he picks it up curiously. And then, well, he has to return it to you. Unfortunately for you, he’s one of the faster hunters and this only delays him for a few seconds.

-Ithaqua starts to, frankly, bully you in matches. He’s less vicious with the damage done, and instead of chairing you off the bat, he takes a liking to carrying you around while he hunts your teammates. It doesn’t matter that you struggle free or self-heal sometimes, he can catch you again easily enough. He talks to you while he zips around after everyone, his usual giggles and sighs replaced with questions and commentary for you. You reach a point one day where you self-heal, but don’t bother running…and Ithaqua just grins like a shark and pats you on the head.

-Eventually he notices the others warming up to you better…and it makes him bitter. “They’re all hypocrites,” he tells you in a dark corner of the basement. “I treated you like everyone else from the start, didn’t I?” That’s his argument to endear himself to you. To coil you further around his (admittedly gentle, all things considered) finger. Yes, he hit you, hunted you, but that’s his job. The POINT, he says, is that he likes you and it’s not FAKE because he’s always seen you as an equal to the others. (To the survivors, not to himself, because the manor roles say you’re clearly not.)

-The POINT is that you shouldn’t fully trust the rest of them—they’ll turn on you again if they get spooked—but him? Ithaqua doesn’t get spooked. He gets…possessive. He likes you. He’ll be here, if you need him. And even if you don’t. He’ll take care of your troubles for you, sweet pet.

[communist-manifesto-daily]

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific - Part 15

[ First | Prev | Table of Contents | Next ]

I - The Development of Utopian Socialism

Modern Socialism is, in its essence, the direct product of the recognition, on the one hand, of the class antagonisms existing in the society of today between proprietors and non-proprietors, between capitalists and wage-workers; on the other hand, of the anarchy existing in production. But, in its theoretical form, modern Socialism originally appears ostensibly as a more logical extension of the principles laid down by the great French philosophers of the 18th century. Like every new theory, modern Socialism had, at first, to connect itself with the intellectual stock-in-trade ready to its hand, however deeply its roots lay in material economic facts.

The great men, who in France prepared men’s minds for the coming revolution, were themselves extreme revolutionists. They recognized no external authority of any kind whatever. Religion, natural science, society, political institutions – everything was subjected to the most unsparing criticism: everything must justify its existence before the judgment-seat of reason or give up existence. Reason became the sole measure of everything. It was the time when, as Hegel says, the world stood upon its head [1]; first in the sense that the human head, and the principles arrived at by its thought, claimed to be the basis of all human action and association; but by and by, also, in the wider sense that the reality which was in contradiction to these principles had, in fact, to be turned upside down. Every form of society and government then existing, every old traditional notion, was flung into the lumber-room as irrational; the world had hitherto allowed itself to be led solely by prejudices; everything in the past deserved only pity and contempt. Now, for the first time, appeared the light of day, the kingdom of reason; henceforth superstition, injustice, privilege, oppression, were to be superseded by eternal truth, eternal Right, equality based on Nature and the inalienable rights of man.

We know today that this kingdom of reason was nothing more than the idealized kingdom of the bourgeoisie; that this eternal Right found its realization in bourgeois justice; that this equality reduced itself to bourgeois equality before the law; that bourgeois property was proclaimed as one of the essential rights of man; and that the government of reason, the Contrat Social of Rousseau, came into being, and only could come into being, as a democratic bourgeois republic. The great thinkers of the 18th century could, no more than their predecessors, go beyond the limits imposed upon them by their epoch.

[1] This is the passage on the French Revolution:

“Thought, the concept of law, all at once made itself felt, and against this the old scaffolding of wrong could make no stand. In this conception of law, therefore, a constitution has now been established, and henceforth everything must be based upon this. Since the Sun had been in the firmament, and the planets circled around him, the sight had never been seen of man standing upon his head – i.e., on the Idea – and building reality after this image. Anaxagoras first said that the Nous, Reason, rules the world; but now, for the first time, had men come to recognize that the Idea must rule the mental reality. And this was a magnificent sunrise. All thinking Beings have participated in celebrating this holy day. A sublime emotion swayed men at that time, an enthusiasm of reason pervaded the world, as if now had come the reconciliation of the Divine Principle with the world.”

[Hegel: “The Philosophy of history”, 1840, p.535]

Is it not high time to set the anti-Socialist law in action against such teachings, subversive and to the common danger, by the late Professor Hegel?

[ First | Prev | Table of Contents | Next ]

[dailyanarchistposts]

A.2.16 Does anarchism require “perfect” people to work?

No. Anarchy is not a utopia, a “perfect” society. It will be a human society, with all the problems, hopes, and fears associated with human beings. Anarchists do not think that human beings need to be “perfect” for anarchy to work. They only need to be free. Thus Christie and Meltzer:

”[A] common fallacy [is] that revolutionary socialism [i.e. anarchism] is an ‘idealisation’ of the workers and [so] the mere recital of their present faults is a refutation of the class struggle … it seems morally unreasonable that a free society … could exist without moral or ethical perfection. But so far as the overthrow of [existing] society is concerned, we may ignore the fact of people’s shortcomings and prejudices, so long as they do not become institutionalised. One may view without concern the fact … that the workers might achieve control of their places of work long before they had acquired the social graces of the ‘intellectual’ or shed all the prejudices of the present society from family discipline to xenophobia. What does it matter, so long as they can run industry without masters? Prejudices wither in freedom and only flourish while the social climate is favourable to them … What we say is … that once life can continue without imposed authority from above, and imposed authority cannot survive the withdrawal of labour from its service, the prejudices of authoritarianism will disappear. There is no cure for them other than the free process of education.” [The Floodgates of Anarchy, pp. 36–7]

Obviously, though, we think that a free society will produce people who are more in tune with both their own and others individuality and needs, thus reducing individual conflict. Remaining disputes would be solved by reasonable methods, for example, the use of juries, mutual third parties, or community and workplace assemblies (see section I.5.8 for a discussion of how could be done for anti-social activities as well as disputes).

Like the “anarchism-is-against-human-nature” argument (see section A.2.15), opponents of anarchism usually assume “perfect” people — people who are not corrupted by power when placed in positions of authority, people who are strangely unaffected by the distorting effects of hierarchy, privilege, and so forth. However, anarchists make no such claims about human perfection. We simply recognise that vesting power in the hands of one person or an elite is never a good idea, as people are not perfect.

It should be noted that the idea that anarchism requires a “new” (perfect) man or woman is often raised by the opponents of anarchism to discredit it (and, usually, to justify the retention of hierarchical authority, particularly capitalist relations of production). After all, people are not perfect and are unlikely ever to be. As such, they pounce on every example of a government falling and the resulting chaos to dismiss anarchism as unrealistic. The media loves to proclaim a country to be falling into “anarchy” whenever there is a disruption in “law and order” and looting takes place.

Anarchists are not impressed by this argument. A moment’s reflection shows why, for the detractors make the basic mistake of assuming an anarchist society without anarchists! (A variation of such claims is raised by the right-wing “anarcho”-capitalists to discredit real anarchism. However, their “objection” discredits their own claim to be anarchists for they implicitly assume an anarchist society without anarchists!). Needless to say, an “anarchy” made up of people who still saw the need for authority, property and statism would soon become authoritarian (i.e. non-anarchist) again. This is because even if the government disappeared tomorrow, the same system would soon grow up again, because “the strength of the government rests not with itself, but with the people. A great tyrant may be a fool, and not a superman. His strength lies not in himself, but in the superstition of the people who think that it is right to obey him. So long as that superstition exists it is useless for some liberator to cut off the head of tyranny; the people will create another, for they have grown accustomed to rely on something outside themselves.” [George Barrett, Objections to Anarchism, p. 355]

Hence Alexander Berkman:

“Our social institutions are founded on certain ideas; as long as the latter are generally believed, the institutions built on them are safe. Government remains strong because people think political authority and legal compulsion necessary. Capitalism will continue as long as such an economic system is considered adequate and just. The weakening of the ideas which support the evil and oppressive present day conditions means the ultimate breakdown of government and capitalism.” [What is Anarchism?, p. xii]

In other words, anarchy needs anarchists in order to be created and survive. But these anarchists need not be perfect, just people who have freed themselves, by their own efforts, of the superstition that command-and-obedience relations and capitalist property rights are necessary. The implicit assumption in the idea that anarchy needs “perfect” people is that freedom will be given, not taken; hence the obvious conclusion follows that an anarchy requiring “perfect” people will fail. But this argument ignores the need for self-activity and self-liberation in order to create a free society. For anarchists, “history is nothing but a struggle between the rulers and the ruled, the oppressors and the oppressed.” [Peter Kropotkin, Act for Yourselves, p. 85] Ideas change through struggle and, consequently, in the struggle against oppression and exploitation, we not only change the world, we change ourselves at the same time. So it is the struggle for freedom which creates people capable of taking the responsibility for their own lives, communities and planet. People capable of living as equals in a free society, so making anarchy possible.

As such, the chaos which often results when a government disappears is not anarchy nor, in fact, a case against anarchism. It simple means that the necessary preconditions for creating an anarchist society do not exist. Anarchy would be the product of collective struggle at the heart of society, not the product of external shocks. Nor, we should note, do anarchists think that such a society will appear “overnight.” Rather, we see the creation of an anarchist system as a process, not an event. The ins-and-outs of how it would function will evolve over time in the light of experience and objective circumstances, not appear in a perfect form immediately (see section H.2.5 for a discussion of Marxist claims otherwise).

Therefore, anarchists do not conclude that “perfect” people are necessary anarchism to work because the anarchist is “no liberator with a divine mission to free humanity, but he is a part of that humanity struggling onwards towards liberty.” As such, ”[i]f, then, by some external means an Anarchist Revolution could be, so to speak, supplied ready-made and thrust upon the people, it is true that they would reject it and rebuild the old society. If, on the other hand, the people develop their ideas of freedom, and they themselves get rid of the last stronghold of tyranny — the government — then indeed the revolution will be permanently accomplished.” [George Barrett, Op. Cit., p. 355]

This is not to suggest that an anarchist society must wait until everyone is an anarchist. Far from it. It is highly unlikely, for example, that the rich and powerful will suddenly see the errors of their ways and voluntarily renounce their privileges. Faced with a large and growing anarchist movement, the ruling elite has always used repression to defend its position in society. The use of fascism in Spain (see section A.5.6) and Italy (see section A.5.5) show the depths the capitalist class can sink to. Anarchism will be created in the face of opposition by the ruling minorities and, consequently, will need to defend itself against attempts to recreate authority (see section H.2.1 for a refutation of Marxist claims anarchists reject the need to defend an anarchist society against counter-revolution).

Instead anarchists argue that we should focus our activity on convincing those subject to oppression and exploitation that they have the power to resist both and, ultimately, can end both by destroying the social institutions that cause them. As Malatesta argued, “we need the support of the masses to build a force of sufficient strength to achieve our specific task of radical change in the social organism by the direct action of the masses, we must get closer to them, accept them as they are, and from within their ranks seek to ‘push’ them forward as much as possible.” [Errico Malatesta: His Life and Ideas, pp. 155–6] This would create the conditions that make possible a rapid evolution towards anarchism as what was initially accepted by a minority “but increasingly finding popular expression, will make its way among the mass of the people” and “the minority will become the People, the great mass, and that mass rising up against property and the State, will march forward towards anarchist communism.” [Kropotkin, Words of a Rebel, p. 75] Hence the importance anarchists attach to spreading our ideas and arguing the case for anarchism. This creates conscious anarchists from those questioning the injustices of capitalism and the state.

This process is helped by the nature of hierarchical society and the resistance it naturally developed in those subject to it. Anarchist ideas develop spontaneously through struggle. As we discuss in section I.2.3, anarchistic organisations are often created as part of the resistance against oppression and exploitation which marks every hierarchical system and can., potentially, be the framework of a few society. As such, the creation of libertarian institutions is, therefore, always a possibility in any situation. A peoples’ experiences may push them towards anarchist conclusions, namely the awareness that the state exists to protect the wealthy and powerful few and to disempower the many. That while it is needed to maintain class and hierarchical society, it is not needed to organise society nor can it do so in a just and fair way for all. This is possible. However, without a conscious anarchist presence any libertarian tendencies are likely to be used, abused and finally destroyed by parties or religious groups seeking political power over the masses (the Russian Revolution is the most famous example of this process). It is for that reason anarchists organise to influence the struggle and spread our ideas (see section J.3 for details). For it is the case that only when anarchist ideas “acquire a predominating influence” and are “accepted by a sufficiently large section of the population” will we “have achieved anarchy, or taken a step towards anarchy.” For anarchy “cannot be imposed against the wishes of the people.” [Malatesta, Op. Cit., p. 159 and p. 163]

So, to conclude, the creation of an anarchist society is not dependent on people being perfect but it is dependent on a large majority being anarchists and wanting to reorganise society in a libertarian manner. This will not eliminate conflict between individuals nor create a fully formed anarchist humanity overnight but it will lay the ground for the gradual elimination of whatever prejudices and anti-social behaviour that remain after the struggle to change society has revolutionised those doing it.

[metamatar]

India spends a tiny fraction of its budget on public healthcare. Even in spending that minuscule fraction, expenditure on mental health comes last. In fact, the government encourages people to reach out to faith healers for “spiritual” treatments. The ministry of health and family welfare mentions on its website that “recent research has shown that religious practices can be helpful in curing and preventing physical and mental illnesses.” It adds, “When medical care becomes unaffordable, futile, and of no use, spiritual care is absolutely feasible, and a logical solution.”

[...] many superstitious beliefs, because long and deeply held, are also considered integral parts of religious faith and granted the protections attached to it. This is true not just within Hinduism, but also in Christian, Islamic and tribal belief systems. Superstitions begin to seem less banal particularly when they fuel prejudices prevalent within communities. Superstitious beliefs often provide legitimacy to oppression and injustice, acting as a way to maintain the status quo in a society, villainise minorities and women, or to keep people in their places. On the darker end of this spectrum are superstition-based crimes, which can involve human sacrifice and allegations of witchcraft. [...]

Where there is superstition, there is also a battle against it. But, while India has a lineage of rationalists and sceptics, the murders of its leading icons demonstrate how imperilled these figures are. Narendra Dabholkar, a rationalist who was among those demanding a stringent anti-superstition law, was assassinated in the run-up to the 2014 general elections, in which the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi was elected prime minister. Within a year of Modi taking office, the rationalist Govind Pansare was also assassinated in Maharashtra, and another rationalist, MM Kalburgi, was assassinated in Karnataka. A police investigation found that Kalburgi’s statements made during a discussion on an anti-superstition bill were perceived as “anti-Hindu,” and had been the trigger for the attack on him.

cw: rape, graphic violence, ritual murder in the link below

[ruscha]

been down a fallout dunwich mystery rabbit hole lately and while i don't take much stock in bethesda's lovecraft references (they're very silly), i actually can't stop thinking about how horrifying the lead-up to october 2077 could have been for the psyches of humanity. because— if a lot of the terminal entries scattered throughout the games are to be believed— although the bombs were a shock, they weren't completely unexpected.

imagine the false alarms. the missile attack drills. the countless flare-ups of mass paranoia, rampant conspiracism (not all unwarranted) and religious fanaticism (every religion is on the table, even impossibly old and occult ones, any one that has a chance of saving us) that must have swept the world in the months before it finally happened. the wasteland we know is filled with this type of thing, but imagine the fever pitch it would have reached during a time where every rumor around every corner spelled "the end is coming soon and no one can stop it."

reported sightings of gods, aliens, ghosts, demons, mothman-style harbingers. strange animal activities. a rumored increase in black site kidnappings, secret government laboratory testing of civilians, hidden societies of elites congregating in the newly constructed vaults. constant talk of the rapture, the antichrist, the four horsemen, armageddon, ragnarok.

anti-communism in its most rabid and senseless form. your neighbor could be communing with satan to bring about the apocalypse, giving the other side information that would lead to our doom, have you checked? can you trust your friends? your coworkers? your children? do you want them in the same bunker as you when push comes to shove?

the world unraveling and no one discussing it. the american exceptionalism attitude doesn't allow for showing fear, and it's all fear inside. back to the old rituals, the old superstitions. walking down the street in the middle of the day mumbling inaudible prayers and wondering why everyone else isn't screaming. back to work. we're all in this together. everyone playing a months-long game of russian roulette, just waiting for the bullet to have its final spin.

[shorthaltsjester]

begging twitter to stop showing me tweets of people with no reading comprehension misrepresenting things I said but since i was going to make this more in-depth post Anyway .

when i say imogen is better read as a metaphor for generational trauma than she is a metaphor for queerness or chronic pain, i’m not talking about legitimate traits she has as a character. obviously she is queer. obviously she experiences some form of chronic pain (though i would argue her magic better suits chronic illness not pain because she states that it’s Not always painful, but it does always influence how she lives her life).

when i talk about how well she’s understood as a metaphor, i’m talking about when i’m looking at her as a part of a story, as an arc that i am witnessing rather than in the more typical fandom way of this is a fictional person who interacts with exandria as real people do. and that is a fun way to interact with characters, i enjoy it a lot! but when i say imogen (to me, as i for some reason have to clarify on my own blog which implies that these are my own opinions and not absolute fact that needs to be accepted by people on the internet with different experience and opinions than me) is best read as a metaphor for generational trauma, it isn’t a dismissal of her queerness or her illness, it’s just me thinking looking at her from that angle is more compelling.

imogen has been one of my favourite characters and least favourite characters in campaign 3 because i tend to analyse her through a lens of generational trauma and she ends up looking extremely familiar to me as someone with a family that carries their’s heavily which is as comforting as it is frustrating.

for me the main thing that looking at imogen through a queer lens of literary analysis fails to account for is harm. on the one hand - the harm that imogen experiences, not because of how people treat her for who she is, but that exists simply as a factor of her being ruidusborn. on the other hand a the harm that imogen causes. not to say that she is some malicious villain waiting for her chance to harm others, but that there are things about being ruidusborn that very much do incline her towards violence in a way that she might not otherwise be - i think about the conversation after she went nuclear and chet brought up people being scared of her connecting that to her father keeping distance. the only harm that queerness provides comes from society, and that isn’t the case in exandria. even metaphorically, the thing that society fears in ruidusborn people (while it has certainly been exacerbated by centuries of superstition and practices like we saw in zephrah) is a tangible threat. imogen’s magic when not controlled can wipe out a city block, but queerness poses no threat.

that’s why i’m not compelled by imogen’s backstory as a queer metaphor. not because i’m some imodna anti (i very emphatically am not but this fandom kinda makes me wish i was sometimes) or because i think exandria’s lack of homophobia/transphobia means that characters can’t be viewed through a queer lens or that critical role doesn’t contain some of the most compelling queer metaphor i’ve encountered. imogen just isn’t one of those characters, not because she isn’t queer, or because i think her story shouldn’t resonate with queer people, just because i find the generational trauma angle more consistent.

it’s similar with the chronic illness angle, which i will refer to as illness but you’re welcome to emphasise pain, we all have different vocabularies for the experiences we face. but just to give context i’m running off laura’s comparison of imogen’s powers to her own sensory issues and anxiety which while often Lead to pain, fall more into chronic illness in imogen’s context to me. and i do think there’s substantial comparison for imogen’s story as a metaphor for chronic illness, but i think that was much more true earlier in the campaign than it is looking at her from the current context. her beginning motivation being her search for knowledge about her powers really resonated with me as similar to someone experiencing symptoms of chronic illness but who could neither figure out how to treat them or what they were caused by.

but then imogen got more information, specifically about her mother, and her priority became not understanding her powers but understanding her current state as a person - how had she become the person she is, inclusive of her powers but very much emphasising her lack of a mother who became more and more present in the unweaving web of ruidusborn lore. that’s when i was less compelled by the chronic illness reading and more compelled by viewing her as a metaphor for generational trauma. had that not been enough on its own, imogen’s visit to relvin and her recent thoughts on her mother would be enough to convince me.

the part that makes me hesitant about this post is that generational trauma is so intensely linked to the contexts under which it is created and perpetuated. so i can’t really point to specific scenes as evidence of specific things that prove generational trauma is the most compelling and i don’t really want to unload that much of my own experience to clarify my thoughts on a character. but vaguely, i will say that imogen’s relationship with her parents is obviously the clearest source for my reading her as a metaphor for generational trauma. the fact that relvin, the only person in her family without the thing that draws society’s ire, is also the person that she has the most willing anger at is also indicative of this to me. in general, imogen’s rage that so easily transitions into sadness and vice versa comes out a lot in conversations about parents. most recently, i think about ashton’s lovely speech about found family and his distrust about parents and how as they were speaking, laura seemed to be playing imogen as sadly in thought versus months ago when fearnes parents showed up with striking similarities to liliana and imogen’s words of wisdom were let’s hurt them all.

and like. to me that angersadnessvengeancegrief is particularly evocative of the feelings that arise when you are in a family with generational trauma, especially when you are aware of it. because imogen can and has followed the logical steps that have led her and her family to where they are. early on when recounting her relationship with her dad she seemed wistful but understanding of the distance between them. in nearly every encountered with a parental figure imogen seems to be some level of distrusting for the most part, but she’s still holding out hope that her mother will see the good side. and further, there’s the complication of how dire her losing her powers seems to be, and how inextricable her powers are from every aspect of her life. she’s also southern and from a blue collar family. this means nothing except it also means a whole lot.

this is messy and not well organised but if you want a good essay you’re gonna have to pay me money for it but tldr: i say things i believe on my This Is My Opinion Blog and i don’t think i need to explain my thoughts to strangers on the internet but this was already half written in my drafts and if people are gonna shit on my opinions please at least do it in good faith and shit on my actual opinions not the ones you’ve decided i have.

[kemetic-dreams]

Are you scared yet???

When we hear of blood sacrifices what comes to mind?

Devil worshipping, doing something evil

And why and how did our preception of this become so?

Most of our perceptions of blood sacrifices comes from horror movies that are meant to cause over dramatic visuals.

When was the last time you saw a blood sacrifice?

People fear the unknown.

As European colonized the diaspora and Africa.

All aspects of African cultures especially the religion so to speak.

Random taunts of everything Africans did was devil worship and also Native Americans.

European's fear of the unknown, shifted the culture.

The same fault or superstition that was caste on Native Americans and Africans. Europeans are guilty of.

Leviticus 22:17-33 ERV

It might be because of a promise that person made, or it might just be a special sacrifice that person wanted to give to the LORD as a burnt offering.

If the gift is a bull, or a sheep, or a goat, the animal must be a male. And it must not have anything wrong with it. You must not accept any offering that has anything wrong with it. I will not accept that gift. “You might bring a fellowship offering to the LORD. That fellowship offering might be payment for a special promise that you made. Or maybe it is a special gift that you wanted to give to the Lord. It can be a bull or a sheep, but it must be healthy. There must be nothing wrong with that animal. You must not offer to the LORD any animal that is blind, that has broken bones or is crippled, or that has a discharge or a serious skin disease. You must not offer sick animals as a gift to the any animal that is blind, that has broken bones or is crippled, or that has a discharge or a serious skin disease. You must not offer sick animals as a gift to the LORD. You must not put anything like that on his altar. “Sometimes a bull or lamb will have a leg that is too long, or a foot that did not grow right. If you want to give that animal as a special gift to the Lord, it will be accepted. But it will not be accepted as payment for a special promise that you made.

Qurbani means sacrifice. Every year during the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, Muslims around the world slaughter an animal – a goat, sheep, cow or camel – to reflect the Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, for the sake of God

Human sacrifice???

A foundational doctrine of the Christian faith is that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ paid the penalty for the sins of mankind—that without this act of love by the Son of God, humanity would have no hope of life after death.

In the traditional Yoruba religion and culture, sacrifice is referred to as (Ebo). It connotes offering something to a particular deity or cult in other to be in communion with them or to seek favours.

What is an EBO sacrifice?

Ebo, or sacrifice, is a broad concept including all types of sacrifices and offerings to the Orisha. These can include candles, fruit, candy, and various items or actions that may be appreciated by the Orisha. Ritual sacrifice is an important part of the beliefs and practices of Orisha worshipers.

Various scholars describe Vodou as one of the world's most maligned and misunderstood religions. Its reputation is notorious; in broader Anglophone and Francophone society, it has been widely associated with sorcery, witchcraft, and black magic. In U.S. popular culture, for instance, Haitian Vodou is usually portrayed as destructive and malevolent, attitudes often linked with anti-African racism. Non-practitioners have often depicted Vodou in literature, theater, and film; in many cases, such as the films White Zombie (1932) and London Voodoo (2004), these promote sensationalist views of the religion. The lack of any central Vodou authority has hindered efforts to combat these negative representations.

Since the 1990s, evangelical Protestantism has grown in Haiti, generating tensions with Vodouists; these Protestants regard Vodou as Satanic, and unlike the Roman Catholic authorities have generally refused to compromise with Vodouists

Leviticus 17:11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. God, speaking to Moses, declares: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”

A “sacrifice” is defined as the offering up of something precious for a cause or a reason. Making atonement is satisfying someone or something for an offense committed. The Leviticus verse can be read more clearly now: God said, “I have given it to you (the creature’s life, which is in its blood) to make atonement for yourselves (covering the offense you have committed against Me).” In other words, those who are covered by the blood sacrifice are set free from the consequences of sin.

Ancient Egypt was at the forefront of domestication, and some of the earliest archeological evidence suggesting animal sacrifice comes from Egypt. However, animal sacrifice was not a central practice of Egyptian religion, but was rather a peripherical occurrence that happened away from worshippers. The oldest Egyptian burial sites containing animal remains originate from the Badari culture of Upper Egypt, which flourished between 4400 and 4000 BCE. Sheep and goats were found buried in their own graves at one site, while at another site gazelles were found at the feet of several human burials. At a cemetery uncovered at Hierakonpolis and dated to 3000 BCE, the remains of a much wider variety of animals were found, including non-domestic species such as baboons and hippopotami, which may have been sacrificed in honor of powerful former citizens or buried near their former owners. According to Herodotus, later Dynastic Egyptian animal sacrifice became restricted to livestock – sheep, cattle, swine and geese – with sets of rituals and rules to describe each type of sacrifice

Worship in ancient Greek religion typically consisted of sacrificing domestic animals at the altar with hymn and prayer. The altar was outside any temple building, and might not be associated with a temple at all. The animal, which should be perfect of its kind, is decorated with garlands and the like, and led in procession to the altar, a girl with a basket on her head containing the concealed knife leading the way. After various rituals the animal is slaughtered over the altar, as it falls all the women present "must cry out in high, shrill tones". Its blood is collected and poured over the altar. It is butchered on the spot and various internal organs, bones and other inedible parts burnt as the deity's portion of the offering, while the meat is removed to be prepared for the participants to eat; the leading figures tasting it on the spot. The temple usually kept the skin, to sell to tanners. The fact that the humans got more use from the sacrifice than the deity had not escaped the Greeks, and is often the subject of humour in Greek comedy

Practices of Hindu animal sacrifice are mostly associated with Shaktism, Shaiva Agamas and in currents of folk Hinduism called Kulamarga strongly rooted in local tribal traditions. Animal sacrifices were carried out in ancient times in India. Some later minor Puranas forbid animal sacrifice though the upapurana, Kalika Purana, describes it in detail.

Shaktism traditions

A male buffalo calf about to be sacrificed by a priest in the Durga Puja festival. The buffalo sacrifice practice, however, is rare in contemporary India.

Animal sacrifices are performed mainly at temples following the Shakti school of Hinduism where the female nature of Brahman is worshipped in the form of Kali and Durga. These traditions are followed in parts of eastern states of India at Hindu temples in Assam and West Bengal India and Nepal where goats, chickens and sometimes water buffalos are sacrificed.

Sacrifice of Animals has less to do with worshipping of Satan or being evil.

Sacrifices are not all blood some are symbolic, fruits, money, clothes, aspects of life.

Kobe Byrant had to sacrifice friends and family to become who he is.

We all make some type of symbolic sacrifice that can be time or if you are a Celebrity, you sacrifice your privacy.

Abrahamic Cultures and Europeans superstition towards non-European cultures tend to cause our consciousness of Sacrifices.

[eelhound]

"At the basis of the contemporary obsessions with so-called ‘Big Data’ lies the double ontological assumption that: (1) the language of information technology is capable of grasping the whole of the existent; (2) more extremely, the whole of the existent coincides with the reach of the language of information technology. The record-shattering investments in Big-Data systems and technology rest on the belief that there can’t possibly be anything ontologically relevant that couldn’t, at least potentially, be reduced (and reduced truthfully) to the serial units of the language of data.

Similarly, through substituting the terms ‘information technology’ with ‘finance’, we  can understand the contemporary role played by financial capitalism, not merely as a translator of the world into its own linguistic structure, but as the creator of a world that coincides exactly with such structure. Financial capital does not apply value to preexisting things, let alone merely translating them into its own linguistic system of evaluation; conversely, it is the world (or whatever is left of it, tolerated only in its most larval state) that is expected to mobilize itself according to the grid of finance, if it wishes to be allowed within the gates of presence that finance so closely guards.

And again, we find the same process at work if we observe a number of hegemonic strands of contemporary science, particularly in its ‘practical’ articulations such as those belonging to the field of neuroscience. Neuroscientific language presents itself as valid and trustworthy, because: (1) it can at least potentially grasp in an exhaustive fashion the whole of the object of its research; (2) more extremely, there is no emotion, feeling, thought-process and so on, apart from those that are already contained, however potentially, within the linguistic system of neuroscience itself.

Functioning as a form of scientific sentimentalism, neuroscientific metaphysics claims that mental processes that can’t even potentially fit within its language are nothing but mere fantasies or superstitions. Equally, this same process applies to the ontological discourse of citizenship: in the current post/anti-humanist age, citizenship isn’t predicated of a person, but rather personhood becomes an implicit benefit of citizenship status. Following Technic’s rejection of the very notions of life and death, as discussed above, the already abysmal ‘bare life’ that used to apply to stateless people, now resolves into a vanishing of presence towards absolute ontological nothingness.

As the recent debate on migration and asylum amply demonstrates, whatever falls out of citizenship’s linguistic series falls entirely out of the world. And again, the same is true of identity more generally, as suggested by the recent, obsessive proliferation of categories of identity, most noticeably in the fields of gender and sexuality. Whatever aspect of a living person refuses or is unable to be totally reduced to a set of serial units of language (a case of ontological refusal), or into the specific linguistic series that are at work in a particular society (a case of historical refusal), is instantly stripped of any legitimate claim to presence in the world.

While absolute existence lies beyond the grasp of any form of societal control, presence in the world in the age of Technic becomes the prime object of production and of policing."

- Federico Campagna, from Technic and Magic: The Reconstruction of Reality, 2018.

[k00318429]

𝕬𝖗𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝕽𝖊𝖘𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖍·:¨༺ ♱✮♱ ༻¨:·

Paul Ranson (1861-1909)  The French artist Paul Ranson was openly anti-clerical, being radically opposed to any religious authority, while at the same time studying religious texts and keeping a library that consisted of esoteric literature. Although it is unlikely that he was ever truly a believer, at various stages of his life he took inspiration from various spiritual and occult sources. He was interested in witchcraft, Christianity, Theosophy, and Satanism. Ranson’s paintings were full of ancient Egyptian symbols, characters from Indian mythology, and nude witches. They were often decorative. Ranson used occult visuals as brightly covered theater backdrops for exciting stories. I've been really inspired since I came across Ranson's occult artwork - I love his use of vivid colour to portray his ominous stories. It's almost like a juxtaposition of bright, happy colours and a (supposed) sinister scene. I'd like to try something like this, perhaps a print or small painting making use of colour in this way.

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)  While Goya himself did not believe in the existence of witches, the public did. Therefore, Goya used images of witches in his work to reflect the evil he saw plaguing society. The perception of witches and witchcraft at this time stood in direct opposition to the values of the church. However, it was often clergy members that were depicted in these horrific scenes as Goya saw the church as a source of corruption and evil in society. He portrayed the perils of ignorance and superstition by casting individuals in the roles of witches or demons performing evil acts. Flying was seen as a symbol of lechery and sin. Similarly, cats, who have often been depicted as companions to witches, are a symbol of female seduction.    

In ‘The Witches Sabbath’, they are all watching and listening attentively as the goat, the Devil himself blessing them with its left hoove. According to widespread belief, witches’ sabbaths were mocking the Christian rituals by mimicking their attributes and distorting their meanings. Instead of communion and prayers, witches were having feasts and orgies as if to offend God with their actions and profess their loyalty to Satan. Next to the circle of witches, there is a post with dolls hanging. This detail illustrates the belief that witches made dolls and bewitched them to harm the people that they represented. One of the witches is seen holding an infant child, abducted from their mother, who would later be sacrificed and eaten. 

‘The Witches Flight’ → In a dark sky, three witches are hovering beyond the ground. Unlike with The Witches’ Sabbath, their genders are unclear. The witches wear a specific type of clothing: long coroza hats, usually worn by alleged witches and heretics during the Inquisition trials. They are holding their victim without effort, tearing his flesh with their teeth. Down, on the ground, another horrifying scene is taking place. Two peasants, involuntary witnesses of the morbid act, are trying to save themselves or at least spare themselves from looking at the frightening sight. One has given up, lying on the ground facedown, while the other tries to run in an unknown direction, covering his head with a scarf.  Obviously Goya's paintings are much more dark, threatening and frightening than Ranson's but I like them just as much. It's definitely a malevolent take on witches and the occult, while Ranson's paintings offer an unoffending image of witchcraft and the occult world.

[brigittemarlt]

Cadfael, the hero of my youth. The medieval Sherlock Holmes in search of truth was a huge influence to me in my law career. His humanity and his wisdom have helped me to grow up. In addition, his anti-conformist personality and his scientific knowledge make him a pioneer In a society frozen by the beliefs and superstition. He is a man beyond his time as a forensic scientist and investigator. Derek has a great gift to play masterfully ordinary men who have extraordinary destinies. He gives to his character a bright melancoly that touches us to heart. His performance has left me indelible memories. What he does In this part is just brilliant.

[transitranger327]

The Eddy Squad File #1: Body Mods

Decided to join Trans Clone Week 2024, with this fic following the prompts “Cadets” and “Gender Affirming Technology”

Eddy Squad is an all-trans squad of Clone Commandos attached to the 187th: Spice, Convor, Terra, and Jack. This file is a disciplinary incident. Interspersed with the official report is a narrative from Jack, explaining how she realized she was trans, and how she developed a body mod for medically transitioning.

CW: Institutional Transphobia, gore-free Medical Procedures.

The fic and additional notes can be found below the cut. All dates are given in Coruscant Reckoning, they translate to roughly 26-25 BBY

Commando Group 187-C3 “Eddy Squad”—Incident Report #597

Dates involved: 7952.98.1–7952.725.4

Description: RC-3119 stole proprietary Kaminoan medical technology, modified it, and implanted it in himself herself and RC-3120 without physician supervision. Despite this, the self-inflicted “procedure” had no lasting side-effects, and subsequent evaluations have deemed them suitable to continue Commando training. 

—

It was the only option I had left. Well, it wasn’t the only option, but I was 7 and my anti-authoritarian streak was in full swing. Kinda funny for someone bred to be a soldier to have a problem with authority, but hey, I’m a Clone Commando. It’s kinda my job to be outside the norm.

Let me introduce myself. I’m Jack (the Kaminoans call me RC-3119), the Technology and Medical specialist of Eddy Squad. My sisters in the squad have been effective since the first battle of Geonosis, and we get better every mission. If you don’t know much about the GAR besides the headlines, you may be surprised by my use of “sisters”, but we clones are more than just a string of identical men. General Windu (my boss) once told me that every individual, even a clone, has their own signature in the Force. I’m not sure I believe him, but it’s certainly a hell of a lot more compelling than whatever “scientific” explanations the Kaminoans tried coming up with to explain us. For a while they just completely denied we exist, so I’m hesitant to believe their “expertise” about our own personal lives. 

Let me tell you the story about how I broke some regulations and wrote the new ones.

We first-gen clones had a slightly different upbringing than the shinies you see fighting today. No older clones to give us advice. No hands-on training with the Jedi, none of the spiritual guidance the new kids get today. And we were pretty isolated from the galaxy at large, given we were a secret project nobody knew about. So our only social contact was the Kaminoans (who kept us at arms length so we never got close to them), the mercenaries they brought in to train us (who only stayed for a year or two at most), and each other. Obviously, we were exceptionally close with our squad, but we also had plenty of contact across divisions and battalions. Beyond the loyalty to our brothers and the Republic, we basically had to develop our own society. Weird rituals were developed partially out of superstition, partly out of boredom. Our idea of family is, I suspect, very different from most beings in the Galaxy. And gender…

Most of us first-gens didn’t conceptualize our own gender until we were about 6. That might sound normal for most humans and near-humans, but remember, we age twice as fast. When we started learning about galactic cultures in the programs, we started imagining ourselves as part of a larger society. At about the same time, Eddy Squad and several other commando groups were being trained by the mercenary Sugi. And she was…everything I wanted to be. Incredibly skilled, irreverent of power structures, but believed in honor and justice. She would always say, “Never break an oath. Your skills are one thing, but if you don’t use them with honor, you’re no better than a common thug.” And she was just so effortlessly her. So I started emulating her, first skills, then philosophy. But I realized something was missing. Something…a bit more ephemeral.

—

I first met Sister in the mess hall. The 187th and the 302nd were doing basic tactics training together. I usually ate with Eddy Squad, but I’d stayed late, staring at an encyclopedia page about Zabrak society. Having grabbed my food, I noticed an open seat across from a clone with her short hair in a few braids. I ask if I can sit there. 

“Of course you can, we’re family. I’m Sister, and these are my brothers in Charger squad. Do you have a name like Colt and Bronco here? Or do you still go by your Number, like Six-Oh-Three and Two-Nine?” 

I’d never really thought about having a name back then. It hadn’t felt important. We were all numbers, cogs in the GAR machine. “Uh I’m RC-3119. But my squad are all RC-31s, so I’m usually called Nineteen”

“Ooooh boys did you hear that? We’re sitting with a future Commando. Colt, do you want anything signed?” He grumbled something about wanting to be an ARC trooper not a Commando, before Sister continued “So what brings a Commando over to a table full of regs? I thought you always stayed as a squad.”

“I stayed late at class, just kinda staring at my notes and thinking. I told the rest of Eddy Squad they could eat without me.” It was enough of the truth without saying something embarrassing.

Most of Charger squad went back to chatting amongst themselves, but Sister kept talking to me. “Staring off into the distance and thinking? Maybe about your mercenary mentors? Done that plenty of times, Nineteen. Self-reflection is a pretty good teacher.” Her implications were pretty obvious, and suddenly “Nineteen” felt incredibly, viscerally wrong. My demeanor change must’ve been obvious, because she asked, “Was that…too relatable?”

I felt the urge to whisper. “How did—how did you know?” I had never felt so seen, so exposed, not even when I kriffed up a training exercise. 

She just smiled and said, “call it a hunch. How you approached me sitting down. It was different from a curious brother.”

I don’t remember much of the rest of the conversation, but she clearly enjoyed talking with me because we remain friends to this day. After that night, I told the other Eddies I was a girl, and they were just as supportive as Charger squad was. Slowly, one by one, the rest of them came out too, until none of us were going to be the men the Jedi had ordered. But we’re still clones, so we gave each other our names.

—

7952.98.1, 1526 hours: RC-3119 submits Form 306.768 requesting Estradiol (“Request 1”) 7952.98.1, 1527 hours: Request 1 immediately rejected, as Estradiol is not on the approved medication list 7952.98.1, 1539 hours: RC-3119 again submits Form 306.768 requesting Estradiol, with slight differences (“Request 2”) 7952.98.1, 2034 hours: Junior Researcher Elo Panil reviews Request 2. He rejects Request 2 and attaches the standardized uses of Testosterone in human male development. 7952.98.2, 0921 hours: RC-3119 again submits Form 306.768 requesting Estradiol (“Request 3”), this time attached with Tag #34 (“appeal tag”) and six research papers (see Appendices Jenth–Nern) 7952.98.2, 0943 hours: Junior Researcher Elo Panil refers Request 3 to Disciplinary Committee and Genetic Council 7952.98.2, 1313 hours: Disciplinary Committee begins deliberation 7952.98.2, 1656 hours: Disciplinary Committee submits recommendation “to threaten decommission” to Genetic Council  7952.98.2, 1738 hours: Genetic Council tables discussion of Request 3 7952.98.3, 1000 hours: Genetic Council continues discussion of Request 3 7952.98.3, 1855 hours: Genetic Council tables discussion of Request 3 7952.98.4, 1030 hours: Genetic Council continues discussion of Request 3 7952.98.4, 1223 hours: Genetic Council votes 5-4 against Request 3 7952.98.4, 1911 hours: Chief Scientist Nala Se formally rejects Request 3

—

Puberty is hell for most humans and those adjacent, but when you have to go thru it twice as fast, it really sucks. Even worse when you go thru the wrong one. By the time testosterone had really started kicking in, I was done. I knew from the anatomy programs that humans could easily change their sex by simply changing what hormones were coursing thru their veins, so I set my heart on that.

Little did I know how much trouble I would get into. But even knowing, I still wouldn’t change a thing.

One of the most common forms I have to fill out on a daily basis is Form 306.768: Requisition for Medical Supplies. While the glamor of the field medic comes from patching up people and keeping everyone alive in the fight, that’s the easy part. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug for both treated and treater. No, most of my actual mental load as a medic is spent filling out forms. It’s still just as boring as when I started my med training (but not boring enough that I can do it on autopilot). But you can always fill it out for personal requests, and for most clones it’s actually sleeping pills to deal with insomnia. 

So 7-year-old me, Med trainee dealing with hellish puberty, thinks “why not fill out 306.768 to request estrogen?” Honestly, it’s kind of hilarious I thought it would be that easy back then. So I diligently filled out the form, and pressed submit. 

The initial rejection was so fast, I thought it was an error. 

So I went over my formatting, changed a few words to make sure it didn’t get flagged as a duplicate, and resubmitted it. 

It took a few hours to get the rejection notice this time. At least this time, it had some reasons attached. “Testosterone improves muscle mass and other athletic abilities. Eliminating it would decrease the effectiveness of a soldier in the Grand Army of the Republic.” 

I was fuming. You know what else decreases the effectiveness of a soldier? Hating yourself and your body so much you don’t want to do anything besides run away and cry. 

But by the next day, I was able to pull myself together enough to send in the form again, this time with a detailed explanation of why I needed estrogen, along with multiple research papers from across the galaxy showing why estrogen does not decrease athletic effectiveness. 

This rejection notice took several days to arrive, and was apparently written by Nala Se herself. I had been holding out one last hope that someone on the research team would finally understand, but apparently none of them saw the value of soldiers outside their own ideals. There was even a veiled threat about being 99’d.

That’s when I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. Embrace the Slicer lifestyle. I had gotten the name “Jack” from being able to plug into any computer jack (and I mean any, not just the standard droid ports) and extract the information I needed. I had already sliced into the Holonet at large and began importing culture beyond the carefully curated media the Kaminoans liked to show us. I’m honestly not sure why they tried keeping so much from us, that kind of exposure made me fall in love with every part of the Republic, not just the Core. The Taris undercity, in particular, put out some of the best techno music and some of the greatest Slicer philosophers. Those that embraced the freedom and self-expression of doing it yourself, rather than just seeing slicing as a technical skill. 

And now it was my turn.

The Kaminoans had some old research on creating organic computers from human tissue. I’m honestly not sure why they didn’t progress further on it, it seemed light-years ahead of the the rest of the galaxy’s biotech research. The process for growing a chip seemed simple enough, and the programming of “create xesh amount of estradiol each day” wouldn’t be much harder. Only problem was, the tech needed to grow one would not be easily requisitioned. 

So I did the only logical thing: steal it.

Okay, it was more like borrowing, because I was never planning on keeping it forever, but the higher-ups would almost certainly see it as stealing. I was going to copy the specs too, and see if I could build one myself (and improve on it). Ironic that we call all of it slicing, when this would be the first slice I did that involved literally slicing into something using a scalpel. 

—

7952.306.5, 2357 hours: during routine inventory of Genetics Lab 45-23, a B37D cell programmer was reported as missing 7952.307.1, 0630 hours: inspections looking for the B37D cell programmer find it at 187-C3’s computer terminal. All 4 members brought in for questioning separately.  7952.307.1, 0645 hours: blood tests reveal both RC-3119 and RC-3120 have Estradiol and Testosterone levels consistent with human girls at their biological age. RC-3121 and RC-3122 have hormone levels consistent with other clones. A Disciplinary Committee meeting is called into session. 7952.307.1, 1230 hours: despite refusing to offer information about the stolen B37D, RC-3121 and RC-3122 are released to their programs 7952.307.1, 1300 hours: RC-3119 and RC-3120 are placed in the same room in an attempt to elicit answers from both

—

For more context in the rest of this story, I need to introduce you to the leader of Eddy Squad, and my partner in crime for this escapade, Spice (aka RC-3120). She’s been basically been our leader since we first learned how to walk and talk. She can talk her way out of pretty much any situation, and can fight out of the rest of them. Her hand-to-hand skills were top of every chart on Kamino, and it translated onto the battlefield: her preferred weapon these days is an electrostaff she took from a MagnaGuard she destroyed (that little stunt got her promoted to Lieutenant). But above all, she doesn’t break anyone’s trust; she never shares a secret. This is both highly valued by Republic Intelligence and loathed by GAR Police. 

She’s also the second member of Eddy Squad to come out. While I’m pretty masculine despite being a woman, she’s deep into her femininity. So when I told her that I was planning on modding myself, she wanted in too. 

Stealing the cell programmer was easy enough. There was a genetics lab storage closet that had a spare programmer, and as a Med trainee, I had access to the science levels. I went after one of my programs on the level. I stayed a bit late to “finish up” my report, then when nobody was looking, I went to the genetics lab. The outer lock was easy enough to slice into, and the storage space still had its door left open. And security recordings wouldn’t’ve caught me either, I had set up a basic recording loop as I walked to the lab. After grabbing it, I simply dropped it off at our squad’s terminal (it was small enough I could put it in an empty drawer). 

To build a bio-computer for humans, you first need human stem cells. They’re easy enough to acquire, as bone marrow is full of them. After a simple extraction, I placed the cells into the programmer’s gel matrix (thankfully, it used a standard bacta gel so I wouldn’t have to requisition anything suspicious). I had already written the necessary code, so the programmer got to work growing the bio-implant. It would function as an artificial organ, responding to other hormone levels to produce healthy amounts of E. And after about a week, it was fully grown and ready for implantation.

Spice and I were the only ones awake for it. We didn’t want to implicate anyone else, have anyone else suffer consequences. I made a small incision with a plasma scalpel into the skin on the side my rib cage, where two parts of Katarn-class armor would overlap. Wouldn’t want a lucky shot from a clanker to damage it. As Spice held the gel matrix, I used a pincer to extract my hard work from it. She asked, “You ready? There’s no going back.” 

“There never was.”

I gently tucked the mod underneath the skin flap, and closed it up with microsutures. The thin film of bacta on the implant caused it to instantly integrate with my body. I felt an immediate thrill. Brand-new blood vessels branched off of my existing ones, and fused with the pre-grown capillaries of the mod. A rush of new cells growing around the chip making it a part of me. I swear I could feel it come to life. That’s when I knew, I was finally becoming myself. 

Spice clearly saw I was enjoying myself. “Girl, when you come down off that high, I’m gonna need you to start growing one for me.” She disposed of the used gel matrix, and started preparing a new one as I slowly came back to my senses. She had planned to wait for a week and see how I felt first, but it seemed like that had gone out the viewport.

As I got up, I grabbed the autosyringe. “You sure you don’t want to wait and see how this goes for me?” I ask her. “I might’ve messed up something in the process.” 

She turns to me, “Jack, I’ve seen your slicing and medic skills. There’s no one I trust more to do this than you.” I see the warmth in her eyes. The same brown eyes as me, but somehow even more like my own than anyone else. “We’re sister, we’re in this together. I don’t want to be an accomplice if I can’t have all the benefits.” As she smiles, I stab the autosryinge into her hip and pull out a bone marrow sample. “Hey! That hurt!”

I turn to the programmer and offer, “it hurts less if you don’t expect it.” I place the sample into the tray and start the mod program once again, and feel a new era for clones beginning.

—

It was a couple months before anyone discovered what was amiss. A few other clones (Sister and few others she had befriended) expressed interest, but none were ready to commit to the implant. A few tried (and failed) to use Form 306.768, but most were content to just be socially accepted as they were. Not from the aiwha-bait (they still called us men), but from our brothers. 

It was early one morning when an unannounced inspection took place. These were annoying, but not usually a problem. Most clones seem to have an unshakeable need to be tidy. This time, they were looking for something specific—the cell programmer. As soon as they found it in our terminal drawer, they hauled all four of us off for questioning. Separately. I’d worried about this for some time now, but not that much. The only way they could punish us is what they would probably do anyway if I hadn’t done this and instead fell apart as a soldier.

I’m not sure how long they tried the separate questioning, but it was probably hours. They alternated between questioning me about my sex, and weird unrelated questions about brain research. I refused to give them any straight answers. Then Spice was brought into the room with me. “Don’t worry Jack, I didn’t tell them anything,” she said with a smile. I doubt even the most advanced interrogator droids could’ve gotten anything out of her. 

Then someone new entered. One of our mercenary instructors, Mirta Rau, a Mandalorian Protector, apparently an old friend of our distant father. As she sat down, she took off her helmet and we got an up-close look at her piercing blue eyes. “Don’t worry, you’re not in any serious trouble. Most of this is pure bluster on your creators’ part.” She somehow reclined in the extremely rigid chair. “Just tell us the truth, and the worst you’ll get is extra programs for punishment.” She winked, “maybe even more training with me.”

It was a tempting proposition. The slicer ethic was, after all, that all information should be free. Why was I trying to even hide my slices from them? Then I remembered they consider us property that can be disposed of at any time. I turn to Spice and whisper, “do you think she’s telling the truth?”

She thought for a second then whispered back, “she’s never lied to us before. I’m pretty sure deception like this is against the Mandalorian creed or something.”

Mirta, apparently hearing us, leaned in. “I’ve seen your scores and your skills. If they do kick you out or try to dispose of you, I’ll make sure you two have a place on Concord Dawn. Being punished for living as yourself is downright heresy in our culture.”

It was enough assurance that I laid it out for her. The 306.768 rejections, how I was never planning on selling the programmer and only wanted to use it to help my sisters, and how Spice and I have been using the mod for months and our scores have only gone up. I just hoped it was enough.

“Wow.” Mirta Rau was stunned. “I can’t believe that’s what they’ve been mistreating you for.” She paused for a moment. “Thank you for your honesty, Jack. I’ll make sure you two are treated well.” She got up, donned her helmet, and left. 

The two of us had to wait another hour or two before we learned of our fates.

—

7952.307.1, 1313 hours: Instructor Mirta Rau questions the cadets. RC-3119 explainshisher actions. 7952.307.1, 1342 hours: Instructor Mirta Rau advocates for RC-3119 and RC-3120 at the Disciplinary Committee meeting.  7952.307.1, 1604 hours: Disciplinary Committee submits recommendation to “temporarily restrict privileges, confiscate stolen equipment, and increase program load” to Director of Clone Training Ko Sai. 7952.307.1, 1705 hours: Director Ko Sai officially releases RC-3119 and RC-3120 7952.307.1, 1730 hours: Junior Researcher Elo Panil submits a recommendation for “frequent blood tests” to Director Ko Sai 7952.433.4, 0931 hours: Blood tests of RC-3119 and RC-3120 continue to be within normal range for human girls at their biological age. 7952.725.4, 0829 hours: Blood tests of RC-3119 and RC-3120 continue to be within normal range for human girls at their biological age. This incident is considered officially closed.

Next Steps: Continue to Monitor RC-3119 and RC-3120 for future medical issues and further conduct unbecoming of a soldier. Occasional questioning about research is permitted.

Addendum #597-01: Further questioning may lead to RC-3119 to discover the true nature of the Clone Inhibitor Chip, and should be discontinued. He She does not seem to be aware of our classified research (Added 7953.22.3)

Addendum #597-02: In accordance with Clone Gender Directive 1, RC-3119’s pronouns have been corrected. The medical implant she created should be used as template for other, similar clones. Contact Nala Se for further information. (Added 7954.12.3)

—

Notes: I have detailed character profiles and armor designs for all 4 members of Eddy Squad. I’ll post them here at some point. The squad name comes from eddies in water currents/fluid dynamics. Also, while I have read Queen’s Hope (which introduced Sister), I’ve not yet read Brotherhood, so I don’t know her exact division. I’m just assuming the 302nd Battalion (which she is part of) and Rancor Battalion (which is led by Colt) are other battalions of the 7th Sky Corps (along with the famous 212th), which is why Obi-Wan is Sister’s General. Mirta Rau is an OC, she’s Fenn Rau’s sister and a fellow Protector.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-66981924.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16963221914273&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com

If I saw this on another site I would have thought it was satirical, but I don't think BBC News does Satire!

By: BBC News

Published: Oct 3, 2023

A degree in magic being offered in 2024 will be one of the first in the UK, the University of Exeter has said.

The "innovative" MA in Magic and Occult Science has been created following a "recent surge in interest in magic", the course leader said.

It would offering an opportunity to study the history and impact of witchcraft and magic around the world on society and science, bosses said.

The one-year programme starts in September 2024.

Academics with expertise in history, literature, philosophy, archaeology, sociology, psychology, drama, and religion will show the role of magic on the West and the East.

The university said it was one of the only postgraduate courses of its kind in the UK to combine the study of the history of magic with such a wide range of other subjects.

'Place of magic'

Prof Emily Selove, course leader, said: "A recent surge in interest in magic and the occult inside and outside of academia lies at the heart of the most urgent questions of our society.

"Decolonisation, the exploration of alternative epistemologies, feminism and anti-racism are at the core of this programme."

The course will be offered in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.

Prof Selove said: "This MA will allow people to re-examine the assumption that the West is the place of rationalism and science, while the rest of the world is a place of magic and superstition."

The university said the course could prepare students for careers in teaching, counselling, mentoring, heritage and museum work, work in libraries, tourism, arts organisations or the publishing industry, among other areas of work.

A choice of modules includes dragons in western literature and art, the legend of King Arthur, palaeography, Islamic thought, archaeological theory and practice and the depiction of women in the Middle Ages.

==

I mean, it could have been quite good, the history of magic; the effect on human imagination and storytelling; magic in literature and art; magic as metaphor for what we don't know, a stand-in for science; the evolution of societal perceptions of magic through the growth of the scientific method; the role of magic and revelation in early epistemological (truth claims) processes... this could have been a fascinating course.

Then they had to ruin it by stuffing it full of intersectional Gender Studies horseshit and making it ideologically corrupt and completely academically worthless. Except to piss off daddy, who's paying the bill.

This is the exact kind of luxury course that only bored, privileged, upper-middle class people with no real problems or ambition would take. If you take it, you have nothing better to do, and no ambition to better your future prospects. It's low-effort, academically shallow, fosters undeserved moral elitism, but still takes in tuition fees, so it's unsurprising that it exists.

You'd be getting loan forgiveness for it over my dead body, though.

[lunefrog]

i dont knowww im having so much trouble articulating how i feel about this but like anti-religion atheists make me feel so conflicted because it's like... you still think that humans are special. like idk i think that religiosity & superstition as a response to the chaotic unpredictable nature of the universe isn't a bad thing or even a human thing like we've demonatrated this behavior in pigeons and i dont think that makes it primitive or backwards or whatever. i dont know it just makes me feel so frustrated because the problem with religious institutions isn't the religion part but the power structures which allow people to abuse others, which isn't special to religion. a high control group (or cult) can form wherever there's a structure like that. like everybody believes some shit that's stupid or not real that's literally society that's the world we live in!! money/the economy, states and borders, gender and sex, language, fucking FISH for god's sake. i dont KNOWW it just feels so much like racism ive experienced to act like religion is primitive and less like...intelligent.

[mask131]

Fantasy read-list: B - 2.5

And to conclude this season’s fantasy read-list section, I will list down there some additional works and references (taken from various articles of the same vein as those I previously quoted).

# When talking about the Pentamerone, one of the articles wrote about Rabelais’ work, and I have to introduce him here. Rabelais is one of the 16th century most famous French author, still famous to this day for his series of four books detailing the adventures of the giants Pantagruel and Gargantua. These books (Pantagruel, Gargantua, Tiers Livre, Le Quart Livre) are parodies of knighthood novels, medieval adventures and various fantastical stories, depicting the extravagant, convoluted and hilarious lives of two giants, Pantagruel and later his son Gargantua, in medieval (and early Renaissance) France. Parodying knight adventures and Arthurian fiction by having as a hero extravagant and goofy giants excessive in everything they do, these books are prone to all sorts of vulgar behaviors (sex, food, piss and poop are everywhere in these very organic books, where sometimes entire civilizations grow inside the giant’s body) and to all sorts of cartoonish shenanigans opposing the giants (and various trickster friends, such as Panurge) against caricatural, grotesque or dreadfully ineffective enemies. But these books also served as actual satire and scientifico-social criticism: Rabelais being a physician, a man of letters, an humanist and an anti-cleric, he used these books to expose the most ridiculous medicine theories, to denounce and caricature the various cultural institutions of his time, and bring forward all sorts of humanist ideals through allegories and metaphors, mixing high-minded preoccupations about civilizations, educations and humanity, among all sorts of medieval grotesque farces. Just as an example – the very fact of choosing giants allows for the farcical content (they stop wildfires by pissing on it, they gorge themselves on an impossible long list of foods and drinks in “gargantuan” meals, their mothers are described giving birth to entire zoos of animals and entire caravans alongside their baby…), but also reflects what the humanists wanted men to become, “giants” of culture and arts, who knew everything about all domains, be it politics, medicine, sports, war, literature, and were able to do anything and prepared for any situation, towering over things such as superstitions, ignorance and vices.

# When talking about Rabelais, another name must be brought up alongside him – another great parodist of knight-and-adventure novels, another great satirist author of the 16th century, but Spanish this time, not French: Cervantes, who by himself destroyed the whole knight-novel genre with his now classic El ingenioso hildago don Quixote de la Mancha, while also deconstructing and denouncing an obsessively strict and essentially absurd Spanish society.

# One article talking about the 1001 Nights evoked the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, and since I am not sure if I included it in previous lists, I will place it here.

# The same article detailed and highlighted the differences between the four great “historical” translations of The One Thousand and One Nights. The first translation, in French by Antoine-Galland, is noted to belong to the fashion of “fairy tales” of the time, a la Perrault and madame d’Aulnoy. As a result this translation focuses on the wonders, magics and supernatural forces of the tale, while removing all the more gruesome, shocking or vulgar elements to fit an upper-class, aristocratic, elegant audience. Then came the first English translation, by sir Richard Burton, which rather focused on the sexual elements of The One Thousand and One Nights, insisting on these oriental tales as erotic ones. This was a focus taken back by the second historical French translation of the text, by Joseph-Charles Mardrus, who him went even further and on top of putting back all the sex Galland had removed, also highlighted and insisted on homoerotic tonalities, especially on all the “saphic” elements. The last historical translation, presented as an in-between between the “marvel” and the “vulgar” traditions, is the French one of René R. Khawam, which forms a just balance between the “poetry of wonders” and the “bacchanals”.

# In an article about Perrault, two very important texts of French literature are mentioned. On one side, Les Fables de La Fontaine. La Fontaine was one of the great authors of the 17th century France, admired notably by Perrault himself, and today all French kids know him by his fables. If English-speakers know Aesop’s Fables, French-speakers know La Fontaine Fables – the latter often rewrites or remakes of the former, all depicting talking animals having short adventures with a moral at the end, but with the meaning of fables usually updated to a more modern context and the monarchic society of Renaissance France. They are still considered today one of the great classics of French literature. The other work, which was greatly renowned during the 17th century, but is quite forgotten today, is L’Enéide Burlesque, the Burlesque Aeneid, by “the brothers Perrault”. This is one of the many famous “burlesque” parodies of the time – another one, more remembered today, is “Le Virgile travesti”, “The transvestite Virgil” of Scarron, one of the great humorist writers of the 17th century. The whole idea of the “burlesque” humor was to take a work of a given genre, and write it in a language that didn’t fit this genre by the standards of the time. In the case of these parodies, they both took the Aeneid, a classical Roman epic, and retold it in the language most opposed to this noble and admired genre – they are basically vulgar retellings of the Aeneid filled with insults, colloquial terms, humoristic nicknames, and other “common” expressions and “lowly” terms usually found in the mouth of peasants and the like.

# Among the various stage works, music and movies adapted out of Perrault’s fairytales, I found explicit mentions of Rossini’s Cinderella opera, Prokofiev’s Cinderella, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, Maurice Ravel’s Ma Mère L’Oye, Disney’s Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, Méliès’ Little Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard, Tex Avery’s parody of Little Red Riding Hood, and Jacques Demy’s Peau d’Âne (Donkey Skin). With a special mention for Tahar Ben Jelloun’s work, Mes contes de Perrault (My Perrault fairytales), where the Franco-Moroccan author rewrites the stories of the Perrault in the Arabian fashion of The One Hundred and One Nights (Riquet with the tuft becomes Hakim with the tuft, Little Red Riding Hood becomes Little Red Burqa, etc…).  

# While I will probably talk more of nursery rhymes in the next section of this read-list, a brief mention should be made here of Mother Goose as a character, and her association with nursery rhymes – all things invented by the British! I talked about it previously, but the “Mother Goose” in the title of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales, Contes de ma Mère l’Oye, is not an actual character of literature or folklore. “Tales of Mother Goose” was just a common folk expression for fairy tales and folktales in France (similarly people talked of “old woman’s tales”, of “wolf’s tale”, of “sleeping-while-standing tales”, of “donkey-skin tales”…). But when these stories were translated into English, “Mother Goose” because a character in its own right, brought to life by some specific English editors for a series of books that on top of covering fairytales, also started collecting and spreading nursery rhymes. The oldest nursery rhyme book involving Mother Goose would be 1764’s Mother Goose’s Melody, or Sonnets for the Cradle, which was the work that would associate forever Mother Goose with nursery rhymes. Mother Goose’s popularity was also helped by several stage shows in the early 19th century that made the literature figure a famous pantomime character: one of these shows being the notable Harlequin and Mother Goose, or the Golden Egg.

# In an article covering women who wrote fairytales (such as those I detailed in my fairytale post previously), a particular insistence was made on one of the “first generation” female authors, alongside d’Aulnoy and such: Catherine Durand, who wrote several fairytales throughout her works. For the “second wave” generation, the 18th century authors, the focus was more on the Comtesse de Ségur, which I already mentioned as the author of in French “Nouveaux Conte de Fées”, (New Fairytales) ironically translated in English as “Old French Fairytales” – though the article notes that from this first generation that built and invented a true “faerie” (it notably invoked Durand’s story The Origin of Fairies, where she gives a mythological explanation to the existence of the fairies of fairytales, and her “Le Prodige de l’Amour” where she highlights the supreme magical power of love), the comtesse de Ségur denotes herself by depicting in her fairytales all sorts of gratuitous horrors and hopeless fights against a crushing world filled with hatred and treachery. In the article’s words, her fairytales are less about marvels than about “modern terrors”. Finally, to mention a more modern wave of fairytale authors, the article concludes with the 19th century’s Delphine de Girardin, who wrote “Fairytales of an old maid, written for her nephews” – noted to be very cynic and bitter fairytales, despite their apparently fantastic and childish titles (for example one is about a boy having his wish granted of owning a flying dog… only for said dog to ends up dissected by scientists trying to understand how it could fly at all). By comparing these three authors work, the article wanted to highlight a certain “evolution” of the female fairytale throughout the centuries.

[grishaverse-chaos]

I also don't consider the anti-grisha sentiments to be something that would just go away. It in natural for humans to fear (and envy and resent) this more powerful species. Grisha are a group of people and just like humans, some of them will do bad things- on impulse, by accident, due to malicious intentions etc and their bad things are capable of being entire tragedies for humans with tremendous loss to life and property. A few Grisha would not will away this very natural, very human fear. Another very human thing is curiousity, expansion of science and animal experimentation. Of course they are doing the same to Grisha, to get to the root of their power, understand it, to control them, maybe even get a way yo manufacture that power for themselves. Not to mention entire religions are built on grisha hate and as someone who lives in a community with religions at war every other day despite the numeroussss changes being brought and people of 2 different religions aren't even different the way grisha are from humans. This will never just completely go away let away so soon. Even with grisha unrelated tragedies, they will be blamed. Fire burned down the village? Must be an inferni etc. I don't think any amount of change will be ever to remove human nature from humans. So fear works. But i do think it works Alongside other things. Ensure your safety with fear but well continue helping them and proving how useful grisha are. But to completely rely on their gratitude and not use fear at all is stupid and I don't think would work.

yeah, there's a lot of different facets to anti-grisha sentiment, which I think we can split into about four parts

the fear of grisha

the resentment of their apparent special treatment

religious prejudice

scientific curiosity

call me an optimist, but I actually think that it would be possible to change these attitudes

idk if you've read the kos duology anon (spoilers ahead if you haven't!!) but I find the solutions presented there to be really compelling and realistic

the way nina and the rest of the hringsa deal with fjerdan prejudice is soooo clever imo - by spreading the belief that grisha are blessed by djel, they allow people to consider that their religious beliefs don't necessarily exclude grisha (I've previously compared this to the belief held by progressive xtians that god created gay people and therefore queerness is acceptable from an xtian perspective, which I think is a reasonably accurate analogy)

the treaty made between ravka and shu han is also very clever, bc as far as I can tell, shu han isn't actually particularly anti-grisha - they don't hold the same fear or resentment that we see in ravka, it's just the government's wish to experiment. it's definitely an exploitative way of treating grisha, but I believe that in the industrial period the grishaverse seems to be entering, more ethical ways of experimenting with grisha power would become available. due to the nature of industrialization they'd also be more effective and efficient, so even from a purely utilitarian perspective, I can see the harm done to grisha being reduced considerably in the few decades following canon

as for the fear and resentment, I think integration is the only way to tackle this issue. by integrating grisha into ravkan society as a whole (instead of using the little palace and second army to keep them separate) otkazat'sya would see that grisha are human like them

ofc this would need to be a gradual process (we see this in the kos duology - the second army still exists as a separate entity, but there are also integrated military units which have both grisha and otkazat'sya soldiers) but it's necessary nonetheless imo

and lastly, yes human nature is to look for something to blame when things go wrong, BUT the grishaverse is entering a more industrial age, and I believe that the dawn of scientific thought would reduce the superstition surrounding grisha!