What's next?, next war Romanians could be part of

Hi Cnflyboy, and Happy New Year to you too!

Regarding that article and many similar ones I've seen in the international press today... the claim that the Orthodox Church tolerates witchcraft is absurd. The Church condemns witchcraft in accordance with the Old (and New?) Testament teachings, but what can it do about it? It can't burn the witches.

Romanian witches? Gipsy witches to be more exact.

As Imperialist said, the Orthodox Church condemns witchcraft, astrology etc. However, unlike the Catholic Church, it does not really have a history of aggressiveness against such practices.

It was the Protestant Church that took a very hard line when it came to witches, especially in America. The most significant event that links the church with witches is the "Salem Witchcraft Trials" and a few others that followed all the way until the eighteen-hundreds.

Every year, on Boboteaza the "witches" (or "spell-casters" to be more precise") come to the church to get Holy Water for their "magic". They are fighting each other and the parishioners to get as much as possible. The priests try to keep them away. The spell-casters curse the priests. It is the most bizarre circus.

Radu

There were also witch trials in Scandinavia, in the 17-th and 18-th centuries!

There were also witch trials in Scandinavia, in the 17-th and 18-th centuries!

Thnks...I was unsure of the chuch connection. Very interesting posts!

The BBC had a video interview with two of the "witches"! The amazing thing was one who was happy to be taxed if it made her now legitimate, professional!

You have to hand it to capitalism; even rather dicey practices can be commercialized! (and taxed of course).

Don't get me wrong; all we have here is phony/fake wannabe "wiccan" witches; most seem to be maladjusted college women or suburban housewifes.....at least you guys have the real deal! The one on BBC? .....I wouldn't cross her....she was truly scary!

BTW..ontopic...U.S. is anticipating BIG military budget cuts..at a time when Chinese are jacking theirs up a breakneck pace! AND..hello....the German military is back in action!! It's all about what governments can afford?

Any thoughts on what THAT portends for the topic at hand??

(sorry can't write more...gtg out to buy a potion to ward off evil eye...cheers, all.)

IMO, the age of ideologies was gone in 1991, with the colapse of USSR. There are few "ideological islands" like Cuba, North Korea, but the trend is clear. Even China made some steps, first economically, because politically the power remains in Commies hands, because they know, if come to political pluralism, the state will disolute, like USSR.

Personally I think that the age of ideologies is far from being "gone", though there are some liberalist thinkers baselessly claiming such a fact. It is true that for the present mature and serious ideologies to counteract the contemporary alleged "non-ideological" situation don't exist, but forces of the mind will soon wake-up from the "deadly slumber" to oppose in a coherent and successful way the actual process. Then all the theories regarding the "end of history" and the "death of ideologies" will have their nakedness shown in a concrete, not purely abstract, way.

Hi Cnflyboy, and Happy New Year to you too!

Regarding that article and many similar ones I've seen in the international press today... the claim that the Orthodox Church tolerates witchcraft is absurd. The Church condemns witchcraft in accordance with the Old (and New?) Testament teachings, but what can it do about it? It can't burn the witches.

Based on both the Old and the New Testament, the Orthodox Church condemns sorcery and witchcraft, but there are some tricky Gypsies who claim they are nuns or have connections with the Church in order to look as having greater authority when fooling simple-minded women and taking their money. As far as I know such "witchcraft" business has become legal in Romania, the same as other charlatanries, in order for the State to collect taxes from these businesses.

This post has been edited by Amicus_Plato on January 09, 2011 04:29 pm

Yes, that's the point. It's a process called "commodification" and, I believe, described by Marx as major part of the "logic of capitalism".

It's amazing to see the stuff that capitalism gobbles up and makes a (taxable) profit out of!!! Maybe it's human nature.

Re death of ideology; don't bury the casket just yet; if we can consider some forms of religious extremism to be ideology, it appears to be alive, well and growing daily! Hello Jihad, goodbye la revolution! It's (still) about ideas (or lack thereof) imo.

It is not clear for me what you understand by the term "ideology". It has somehow negative connotations? Any coherent approach to political (read "social") problems is pure ideology, disregarding the "colour". Re: Islam, the last Islamic State was the Ottoman Empire, neither the Salafist Saudi Arabia, nor the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran are stricto-sensu "Islamic" States, plus I think that the "Jihadist" ideology, as you call it, has no chance to become policy of any State. Personally I am not Marxist, though I greatly appreciate Marxist thinkers like Lukács György, what I detest the most now are leftist agitators who behave in a more brainless way than the "authoritarians" on the far-right , if you dare to doubt the tenets of these leftists, even in a rational and civilized way, you risk to be called "fascist", "reactionary", "homophobic", "idiot" etc.

I said the end af age of ideologies, not the end of history. Next wars will fought about wealth, resorces, nationalism, ethnicism, religion, not theories about the goodness of humankind. Motivations will be different.
About Islam ideology, I don't think you could name it like that. About fundamentalist Islam, who come from whahabbism, its only ideology is "kill the infidels".

That is a bit simplistic... it is true, they shout "death to...(insert object of hatred here)" just like the Russians used to shout "death to fascists" during World War 2, but it would be wroing to say that the only ideology of communism was "kill the fascists".
I suspect that the issue is more complex than that.
Radu

The key word is "think"; what makes you believe that it is necessary for a "rogue state" (funny term, coming from the US of A, the self-appointed guardian of democracy; however, it's a good term to describe some pseudo-states whose only purpose is trouble) to officially adopt such ideology? The diplomacy is a game of nuances, of things left unsaid, of innuendos and stuff like that (off-topic: very different from the breakouts of our Foreign Affairs ministers, such as Cioroianu or Baconschi), which doesn't have to be stated openly! It is enough that Jihad fighters aren't arrested at the very first sight in such states...

Wars have always been about that at their core.

I don't see this as the end of the age of ideologies since Liberalism is thriving and (some) great powers are still talking in terms of "spreading Liberal democracy".

Regarding Islamism, there are states that would adopt it as their driving ideology. Sharia states.

We know this is just another motivation, the main purpose is retaliate war against potential terrorist threats. Americans are afraid about another 11/9, and they hunted down every suspect.