In Reply to: Re: money and power posted by Alan on September 30, 2003 at 08:36:32:
The way i see it is that the Japanese were a very totalitarian state at that time. It was very cultish and Hirohito was "God" to them. They had their Kamakazi's. Taliban et al have their suicide bombers. Berg had hookers for jesus who were supposed to spread and even die from STDs in order to "save" a soul. (And make lots of money on the way.) From any side of the coin there is something to criticize. And there are some evils in politics and war from every single side. But i can say that I am glad I was not a Jew in Hitler's Germany or occupied nations. I am glad I was not a Chinese person during Japan's invasion of China at that time. I am glad I am not Iraqi or Iranian having to wear burkhas or be subservient to males. The best description I ever heard of America came from a cult guru who was a total flim-flam man/charlatan, and this is probably the only thing he ever said that made sense to me, that i heard:
'America contains the BEST of everything and the WORST of everything.' The person that said this (or quoted it?) was Baghwan Rajneesh. A guy that I met knew him on a personal level and did not follow him at all. He was aware of the way baghwan used people and drained their resources while reveling in all the money, power and sex that came with his position. He was countering my opinion about how horrible "America" was as we were so well taught in the family, after being "persecuted" ... Anyway, this was something said to me while I was still in the family, by an outsider and it made me think and realize that there is no place on earth that is perfect. ALL places have spies, conspiracies, abuses of money, power and motive, and then followers who only see the idealism, those who oppose and those who just try and stay out of the way...
Hey.