A pair of DoubleQuotes and a whole bunch of the questions the two of them raise – also posted at Zenpundit
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DoubleQuote I: St Greta, Virgin and Guevara:
Questions:
Is either meme valid?
including its implications?
Are those implications obscure to you?
Can both sets of implications be valid at once?
Could both memes be irrelevant?
misleading?
Are they in conflict?
counterpoint?
harmony?
Do you have a preference for one meme over the other?
What’s your opinion of the other meme?
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DoubleQuote II: St Greta and St Malala:
Each of these young women is addressing the United Nations, Malala asking for universal education, Greta for immediate action on climate change.
Questions::
Is there urgent need for universal education?
Is there universal need for action on climate change?
is Malala Yousafzai a sort of saint?
Is Greta Thunberg a sort of saint?
Does either one set your teeth on edge?
Why do I even have to ask that question?
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All i see is western atheistic sorts still heavily steeped in abrahamic view of things seeking newer prophets and messiahs.
A —
Malala seems arguably pretty westernized to me, and Greta Thunberg is pretty focused — partly on account of her Asperger’s — not on a unitary Sky God, but on the preservation of the fecund earth beneath our feet — territory of goddesses, although she doesn’t invoke them. What seems unitary and atheistic in her vision is the emerging mass species extinction brought about by climate change and the general lack of policy valuation of our habitat, our context, our home.
As for the search for prophets and messiahs, that’s probably the area western religious thought where a profusion of excited ideas attempts to break out of the straight-jacket of orthodoxy and normalcy. It gives us sects, cults, new religions, apocalyptic terrors and apocalyptic aspirations, hopes, ideals. And in the hands of a true artist such as William Blake, it gives us some of the most profound art the west has produced.
I’ve been studying that area all my life, and particularly these last twenty-five or so years, because it seems to me to be the place where imagination has a blank canvas on which to express itself.
Anyway, an interesting comment, and one that provided fresh thought for me to chew on, and fresh thoughts to express, too.
I have great respect for Greta’s crusade on behalf of our earth, and what I hope is a healthy fear of crusades, too.