Hi kids. Well, with my Madisonette approach, I guess I shall invoke ISLAM tonight. This month we've been repairing and painting the ranch, which has forced us into the dungeon. I've felt like a "refugee"; and although the katushas aren't dropping as they are in Phoenicia and Galilee, I've been viewing the craftsmen as jihadists.
Which of course made me want to enlighten you about Arabs and Islam. Some, especially those who do the Holy Ghost Dance (poorly; only Shakers, Sioux, and Afro-Americans do it properly), opine that Arabs originated in the "mixed multitude", the non-Israelites who fled jail with the Israelites during the Exocus. In Hebrew they are called "'aerub-rab'". "Aerub" -- get it? Close enough for the Pentecostal Trippers. And of course after the god of this world posted its message at Sinai, the Aerub took the fork to the right (> Arabia), and the Chuzzen the fork that wended to the left [they seem to have a propensity for that direction].
Well, I don't exactly buy into this yet, and I'm not selling it. But it's interesting. Old Hijazi traditions indicate that the Arabian population is divided into the authocthonous groups (the Southerners), and those who filtered down later from the Fertile Crescent. The latter include Muhammad's tribe. It also included many Israelites, who were independent until Muslim times (Khaybar, Taymar; and in the south, Yemen).
Now to get to my revelation, my spark of heinous. I saw a tremendous correspondence between the Samaritans and the Muslims. The Samaritans were a group probably from northern Mesopotamia, who were settled in the Nablus area of the Wholly Land to replace the decimated Israelites (8th Century BC). By the time the Zionists of the time of Ezra (late 6th Century BC) established their city-state around Jerusalem, the Samaritans were proclaiming themselves the authentic Biblical faith and covenant, and disclaiming the Zionists as invasive usurpers. Tremendous animosity continued among them almost until the rise of Islam. By then, the Samaritans had shrunk and had more urgent things to ponder than propaganda. They were a pretty dull group. They couldn't evoke a new Bible, as did the brilliant Muhammad; or even form much of an intellectual cadre -- relying mostly on delegitimized priests from Jerusalem.
The important thing is that Samaritans and Muslims were -- in my humble, universal opinion -- totally sincere. And of course, sincerity and committment increase as the generations pass. As does hatred of the persevering older group they were anointed to displace. Spark of Arab genius, eh?
Had Hitler survived Milch, Baruch, and Morgenthau (damn! his name slipped), we'd be in the third generation of Nazi culture. It might already have become tradition, certainly in the Reich, if not in California. How would Nazi culture have been transformed, with the diabolical Jews and Gypsies and Buttboys out of the way?
For the sake of democracy and American fairness, I should add that the rise of what became orthodox Christianity, and its emasculation of its Judaic elements, is a very similar process -- probably half-way between Samaria and Mecca. Like the Samaritans, they couldn't drop the Demiurge's Dialogue (the OT). Like the Muslims, they were not racist and territorial (well, not in a limited way, at least).
This, Sisters, is the dynamic of all institutions. They need a rationale to exist and survive. It goes back to Eden, where there were only 2 in the club, and they nearly exterminated each other. The Snake is omnipresent, the idea that "I really know, I really am right." The Snake: the medulla and nipple and the peepee. Duh Hook.
It's a gift to be simple, folks. Simple isn't the lack of knowledge, it's the realization of the nature of knowledge. We love you, Mother.
