From: Eirikur Hallgrimsson (eh@mad.scientist.com)
Date: Fri Jun 02 2000 - 01:10:03 MDT
In my opinion, the clearest place where Mother Theresa was always in
the wrong was that she focused exclusively on the symptoms (which
appear on the powerless) and always ignored the causes (which stemmed
from the powerful). She never advocated change. She didn't
nurse people back to health and send them forth, revitalized and
inspired to change things. I find this very, very, hard to
understand. Perhaps she had the karmic wheel too close to her heart,
that and the post-Roman Christianity of 'turn the other cheek.'
Neitzche spoke of Christianity as a slave religion, and the history
certainly supports him.
Patching-up the wounded doesn't do much good, and in fact always
lets problems become worse, unless the causes are addressed. I
think she was not a brave person at all, and also very blind to her
function as an enabler of stasis. She doesn't compare well to
Ghandi, who actually did change the world, despite his human lacks.
That said, she's a powerful icon of simple human empathy, and I don't
mean to detract from that. Wisdom and bravery I would not attribute
to her. She was always trying to cure the symptoms, which is
something that isn't just a lost cause, it logically cannot be done,
and someone who doesn't at least begin to suspect that after a
lifetime of work is someone I don't understand at all.
Eirikur
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