Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 22: But it Does Rhyme – Part 1 of 2
Posted By Randy on October 22, 2015
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~ Mark Twain
Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is a terribly rendered documentary that apparently, though not surprisingly, only aired once in 1971. I ask you though, Goode Reader, to suffer through it, if only for its startling resemblance at times to out-takes from an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Beyond that, I will tell you that for me, some of the opinions recorded in The Power of the Witch echo back to those sage words of Mark Twain quoted above.
If you prick your ears, and stop laughing long enough, you may recognize something familiar in the horrified descriptions of youth being lured into witchcraft covens. Hint: Today we have a new name for what they’re describing – radicalization. Before that, we had the twin spectres of drugs and rock & roll. I could go on, for the examples are legion, but I will limit myself to just those because they should be within the ken of anyone old enough to be reading this.
Examples from the film –
“Ever since the dawn of time, there have always been people who want things. They want somebody else’s wife, they want health, they want youth, they want this, that, and the other. And the witch, as the word “witchcraft” says, they are in trade. It’s a business. You pays your money and you gets a result for it. And so, with the witchcraft business, and all, the witches, they’ve always referred to their customers as “wanters”. Because that is exactly what it is.
“If you can’t get it in the shop down the street, if the law doesn’t preside for you, then you go to the witch.”
And
Well, a lot of young people don’t believe there is a power when they get involved in Satanic or black magic practices.They go for the drugs, they go for the fun of it, they go for the adventure. But many young people, although they don’t believe it at first, by involving themselves in occult practices and Satanic worship, they open themselves to spirit possession.
Wanters and seekers of adventure. The not so secret ingredients of all that troubles the watchers of television sets all over the world tonight while you are busy watching this. Before you do though, a word of advice – pour something stronger than last night before you soak this up. We’ll reconvene tomorrow.
I watched about twenty minutes of this but had to let it go due to poor video and audio. I did jump around and picked up bits here and there. I may have missed some salient points, however, aside from the then (1971) faddishness of the witch cult, and of course, Salem, way back when, etal. there have always been those who would like to connect to ‘powers’ that enhance alleged authority into the unknown that will always grab the attention and somewhat devotion of the masses and give ‘true’ devotees, special super-duper powers. People forget, ‘they are what they eat’ If you want to talk about cultism, it is important to remember important cults such as voodoo, scientology, catholocism, paganism, judaism, atheism, elvisism, zen… whatever. All based on someone or something in ancient times having dropped off pamphlets that for some reason just happened to disappear over time
What astounds me more and more as man supposedly continues to evolve is the running of the very same masses to each and every ‘cool’ movement that promises salvation in any form you can imagine, including of course, Jedi knightism.
It is always the same old bogus battle of good versus evil, which is something that you know my feelings toward … there is no such thing as yin and yang, which is not to suggest that yin and yang do not exist..
All of the sensationalism attributed to each cult as it gains prominence is generally (perish the thought), geared to the raising of money, oh, heaven forfend, I mean consciousness. You do remember Carlin when he did the bit about god being such a wonderful and omnipotent ‘thing’ and he loves you but he needs money.
Just thought to ramble a tad here.