Reply #11: "...since the first millenium," huh? It's interesting how the Roman Catholic Church [View All]

[Peace Patriot]

always refers back to the Dark Ages for its legitimacy--as if origins in book-burning (the Alexandria Library), witch-burning (skinning alive of the last Pagan philosopher of the Alexandria Library, a woman named Hypatia, in 415 AD, by a mob of Christian monks, on orders of Bishop Cyril, the first bishop to use the word "patriarch" to describe himself), and all the "baptisms by the sword," witch-burnings, book-burnings, burnings of the real gospels, inquisitions, crusades, and pogroms against women, Pagans, the learned, the rebellious, the Jews and others, since then, legitimizes the current Roman Catholic Church, and gives it "authority" to speak for God. On the contrary, this history DE-legitimizes this egocentric, male-run abomination, and any claim they make to being representatives of Jesus, or the descendants of the disciples of Jesus. Would Jesus have approved of all this carnage and brutal repression? Give me a break. It is the signature of the Devil himself. The history of the Catholic Church "since the first millennium" disqualifies these fascist jerks from any "authority" they claim and any "right" they think they have to lord it over other Christians. One gags at even using the word "Christian" to describe them. They are "Christians" the way Bush is a "Christian." They are utter hypocrites.

I was roaming Google for some witch-burning dates, and stumbled upon this book review--of a book that sounds quite interesting.

Reviewing Caliban and the Witch:
Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation
Silvia Federici
Review: http://www.kersplebedeb.com/mystuff/books/reviews/caliban_colatrella.html

It's about the history of witch-burnings and the creation of capitalism, and their relationship to each other. Did you know that there were huge rebellions of the village peasantry against the "closures" of the Commons (commonly held land)--closures that began occurring all over Europe at the end of the Middle Ages--and that the rebellions were often led by women? Fascinating. I intend to get the book and read it. It connects that struggle with the current global justice struggle.

A quote from the conclusion of the review:

"An extremely readable work, free of academic jargon, but meticulously researched (reading the footnotes is like reading a second, equally rewarding book), this book, at about $16, should be on every antiglobalization activist and feminist bookshelf in years to come. Federici has provided us with an understanding of the rise of capitalism appropriate for and useful to our struggles today: to stop the privatization of everything, to defend abortion rights and stop the use of biotechnology to take human generation out of the hands of women and put it into the hands of capital, to defend nature itself and its animals and seeds from corporate control and from a capitalist paradigm that threatens the continuation of life itself. Enough to recall the great chant of Italian women at marches in the 1970s: 'tremate, tremate, le streghe sono tornate': 'tremble, tremble, the witches have returned!'"