Ghost Dancer Cult
I owe David Boxenhorn a hattip. :-)
I always read Rishon-Rishon so I must have seen his oringinal entry in May. It was a dormant meme seedling until John mentioned it at Winds. All props to you, David!
When we were talking about Islam the other day at Winds, John said to me "A far better model for you to be using is the "Ghost Dance". A culture that is under stress from new, generally outside influences, takes certain steps to resolve that stress. The first step, usually, is to blame the outsider. Then to revert to a "purer" form of religion. When those don't work, violence follows, usually with magical claims of either immunity to death or rapturous immortality in the hereafter." His analogy raised a lot of resonance with me-- Are the Wahhabists Millenialists? I think so, like the Salafists, they seek a return to the Golden Age of Islam. But I am interested in a more specific question-- are homicide bombers and terrorists modern versions of Ghost Dancers?
From the UCDavis Anthropology lecture series : “Systemic replacement” movements have been quite regular occurrences among those indigenous peoples whose economic fortunes declined as the result of articulation with capitalism—people who developed a sense of deprivation. In North America, for instance, the Ghost Dance religion appeared among the Western tribes in two iterations—1869 and 1889. In those cases, it was believed that if certain communal rituals were practiced correctly (especially the dance after which the movement was named), the bison herds would return to invigorate the native economy. Further, the ghosts of dead ancestors would return to life and bring with them locomotives loaded with weapons and other commodities that would be necessary to drive off the Whites and restore land to the tribes. Unfortunately for the Ghost Dancers, they also believed that shirts blessed by spirits were bullet proof, and that belief turned out to be erroneous." Ah, but suitcase nukes and weaponized anthrax may have more power than pipevests and warpaint.
Juan says later at Winds -- "... telling you something about the Riyadh al-Saliheen myth; it’s very interesting and it doen’t surprise me that it has come up in Thetchnia. It has become central to much of the folk narrative behind the suicide “martyr” would they say terrorist attacks, but it is older. The expression means indeed “the garden of the virtuous”, but it has a larger meaning. On the one hand it has been used as a title for haddits (Islamic traditions attributed to prophet Mohammad) collections; the one by Imam Nawawi is a best-seller not only among jihadist sympathizers but generally appreciated by revivalists. In fact, among lots of moral and sometimes esoteric tales, it is said to include the theological justification for the suicide bombers –Islam traditionally forbad suicide- and is apparently used in the mind conditioning previous to the suicide.
The candidate to "martyr" is isolated and told that he or she not only will go automatically to the Garden of the Virtuous but will also be entitled to designate 72 friends or parents that will win acceptance into Paradise thanks to his deed. Iran’s mullahs used also this folklore to motivate their revolutionary guardians during the Iran-Iraq conflict: the shock troops were issued a plastic key to the garden of the virtuous prior to being sent into WWI style attacks against the iraqui lines."
The mind conditioning of the Dancers involved the Ghost Dance itself, and the ceremonial donning of "blessed" shirts that were believed to be bullet proof. The "plastic key", like the Ghost shirts, is a symbol for attaining the goal-- for the Ghost Dancers, immunity from bullets, for the terrorists, automatic entry to paradise. But both cults basically desire the termination of the invading strategy of Western culture. The Ghost Dancers fervently wanted to acquire the weapons of the invading strategy-- the "locomotives loaded with weapons", and I think this maps to the "magical "power the arab states attribute to nuclear weapons. Sadly, it is more than probable that Iran will soon have that locomotive.
So, can the terrorists, these modern Ghost Dancers, be successful? John says: "These [ghost dance cults] either succeed or they fail catastrophically." I have not seen any instance where they succeeded. Yet. But what if the Ghost Dancers had had the equivalent of a suitcase nuke, say, many locomotives full of weapons? Would they have been able to stop the encroachment of the Whites on their lands? What if the Piute had been fluent in 4th generation tactics and asymetrical warfare?
I hope we're not going to get a chance to find out.
I always read Rishon-Rishon so I must have seen his oringinal entry in May. It was a dormant meme seedling until John mentioned it at Winds. All props to you, David!
When we were talking about Islam the other day at Winds, John said to me "A far better model for you to be using is the "Ghost Dance". A culture that is under stress from new, generally outside influences, takes certain steps to resolve that stress. The first step, usually, is to blame the outsider. Then to revert to a "purer" form of religion. When those don't work, violence follows, usually with magical claims of either immunity to death or rapturous immortality in the hereafter." His analogy raised a lot of resonance with me-- Are the Wahhabists Millenialists? I think so, like the Salafists, they seek a return to the Golden Age of Islam. But I am interested in a more specific question-- are homicide bombers and terrorists modern versions of Ghost Dancers?
From the UCDavis Anthropology lecture series : “Systemic replacement” movements have been quite regular occurrences among those indigenous peoples whose economic fortunes declined as the result of articulation with capitalism—people who developed a sense of deprivation. In North America, for instance, the Ghost Dance religion appeared among the Western tribes in two iterations—1869 and 1889. In those cases, it was believed that if certain communal rituals were practiced correctly (especially the dance after which the movement was named), the bison herds would return to invigorate the native economy. Further, the ghosts of dead ancestors would return to life and bring with them locomotives loaded with weapons and other commodities that would be necessary to drive off the Whites and restore land to the tribes. Unfortunately for the Ghost Dancers, they also believed that shirts blessed by spirits were bullet proof, and that belief turned out to be erroneous." Ah, but suitcase nukes and weaponized anthrax may have more power than pipevests and warpaint.
Juan says later at Winds -- "... telling you something about the Riyadh al-Saliheen myth; it’s very interesting and it doen’t surprise me that it has come up in Thetchnia. It has become central to much of the folk narrative behind the suicide “martyr” would they say terrorist attacks, but it is older. The expression means indeed “the garden of the virtuous”, but it has a larger meaning. On the one hand it has been used as a title for haddits (Islamic traditions attributed to prophet Mohammad) collections; the one by Imam Nawawi is a best-seller not only among jihadist sympathizers but generally appreciated by revivalists. In fact, among lots of moral and sometimes esoteric tales, it is said to include the theological justification for the suicide bombers –Islam traditionally forbad suicide- and is apparently used in the mind conditioning previous to the suicide.
The candidate to "martyr" is isolated and told that he or she not only will go automatically to the Garden of the Virtuous but will also be entitled to designate 72 friends or parents that will win acceptance into Paradise thanks to his deed. Iran’s mullahs used also this folklore to motivate their revolutionary guardians during the Iran-Iraq conflict: the shock troops were issued a plastic key to the garden of the virtuous prior to being sent into WWI style attacks against the iraqui lines."
The mind conditioning of the Dancers involved the Ghost Dance itself, and the ceremonial donning of "blessed" shirts that were believed to be bullet proof. The "plastic key", like the Ghost shirts, is a symbol for attaining the goal-- for the Ghost Dancers, immunity from bullets, for the terrorists, automatic entry to paradise. But both cults basically desire the termination of the invading strategy of Western culture. The Ghost Dancers fervently wanted to acquire the weapons of the invading strategy-- the "locomotives loaded with weapons", and I think this maps to the "magical "power the arab states attribute to nuclear weapons. Sadly, it is more than probable that Iran will soon have that locomotive.
So, can the terrorists, these modern Ghost Dancers, be successful? John says: "These [ghost dance cults] either succeed or they fail catastrophically." I have not seen any instance where they succeeded. Yet. But what if the Ghost Dancers had had the equivalent of a suitcase nuke, say, many locomotives full of weapons? Would they have been able to stop the encroachment of the Whites on their lands? What if the Piute had been fluent in 4th generation tactics and asymetrical warfare?
I hope we're not going to get a chance to find out.
posted by jinnderella at 10:16 PM
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