replying to Sevag

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Sevag,

Greetings to yourself.  You are 21 then and live in Lebanon.  Live long and
prosper! I do hope the Ams44ams affair will not put you or any Arab comrade
off from the rational discussion of Middle East affairs. I think it is most
important that we try to maintain contact and that we act with as much
respect and sympathy for each other as is possible.  I posted on Ams44ams'
post but by the time I have sent it off events had moved beyond me.

Now for you it is raining non-stop and the sun will never rise.  However
think of this. In 1933 Hitler became the most powerful man in Germany.  He
marched to victory over the necks of the working class.  He destroyed their
parties and their unions, and all their organisations. Yet in a mere 12
years his petrol soaked corpse was being consumed by the flames. His empire
lay in ruins. It will be just so with the Israelis and their American masters.


Your point about the role of Islam is well taken.  But never forget it is
modernity that destroys religion.  I grew up an Irish Catholic.  The power
of the priests, the nuns and the Christian Brothers was absolute. They were
like gods in our town and indeed throughout the country.

At home in Ireland at Xmas I watched a video of the hundred year
celebration of the local Catholic Church.  It is an enormous edifice built
by money extracted ruthlessly from a very poor people.  On the video there
was a recording of the visit of the Bishop in the 50s.  He led a procession
of priests, brothers and nuns. All the enemy.

Along his route was an 'honour guard' of lay men.  They stood there
abjectly, craven in their best suits, head bowed as the bishop passed.  I
recall being present as a boy among the crowd that day.  I also remember
feeling angry at the way the men looked so down trodden and fearful and the
way in which the women clapped so enthusiastically as the bishop passed.

But all has changed. Modernity has at last come to Ireland. Nowadays the
local clergy slink about the town and are fearful of being thought to be
child molestors.  It is now a great disgrace in a family if a child says he
wants to be a Christian Brother.  The school they ran and where I and my
fellow students were brutalised is today run by lay men and women. The
remorseless dialectic has gathered them up in their arrogance and power and
has cast them down. The same fate will befall the fundamentalist dictators
of the Taliban and the Hejbollah.


regards

Gary
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