From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Sun Oct 31 1999 - 11:57:38 MST
In a message dated 10/31/99 5:57:15 AM Pacific Daylight Time, GBurch1@aol.com
writes:
> This magazine turned out to be a local ju-ju rag, a vehicle for
> advertisements and "articles" written by the more prominent advertisers.
In
> it were items about angels, feng shui, homeopathy, a tribute to the
> Theosophical Society, an ad for computerized aura analysis, two different
> astrology columns and more of the like.
Welcome to the 90's! Such magazines have been ubiquitous
in Southern California at least since I moved here in 87.
>Now turn the clock back even 50 years. The appearance of such a magazine in
>a public place in the United States would be an unheard of thing. Why?
>Because there were just two competing world-views on offer: Mainstream
>christianity (in two main flavors, which seem almost indistinguishable in
>contrast to the gumbo of superstition found in the Indigo Sun) and
scientific
>humanism.
On the whole, I think the variety is good. Religions, as Voltaire pointed
out,
become tyrannical when alone, participate in gruesome civil war in pairs, but
become well-behaved when facing a slew of competitors. This variety means
that even if the superstitious types win the day, we won't face a theocracy,
just a lot of airheads.
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