A LOVE LETTER TO PAS (revisited)

With reference to Malaysiakini's lead story on August 17, 2008:

PAS ABANDONS GAMBLING, ALCOHOL BAN PLANS

Conservative Islamic party PAS has shelved a proposal to ban gambling and restrict alcohol sales in the four states it rules with its political allies.

Dear brothers and sisters in PAS,

Thank you for being so reasonable, so wise, so patient, and so accommodating.

Like most Malaysians, I am determined that differences in beliefs and ethnic origins must not be allowed to cause the disintegration of our beloved nation. Far wiser to encourage open and sincere discussion amongst the various parties in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition - than for the destructive forces of racial and religious polarization to be used as an excuse for the perpetuation of BN-style authoritarian misrule.

A great many of my non-Muslim friends have long held a negative perception of PAS - since the party is founded on Islamic government as a core doctrine. That Anwar Ibrahim has been able to pull DAP and PAS together in a political alliance with PKR is nothing less than a miracle. Since the euphoric results of GE12 which broke BN's two-thirds majority stranglehold, the BN-controlled mass media have gone out of their way to magnify every little disagreement within the fledgling Pakatan Rakyat.

Right after the elections Umno attempted to forge an unholy power-sharing pact with PAS behind closed doors. When PAS rejected Umno's engagement ring, Khir Toyo used these clandestine meetings as a weapon to plant the seeds of doubt, mistrust and fear into the non-Muslim psyche.

Fortunately, Tok Guru Nik Aziz, spiritual leader of PAS and a wise old fox, was able to reassure his partners in Pakatan Rakyat that all was well and that there was no possibility of a PAS-Umno merger. The coalition remains strong, despite the inevitable jostling for power and influence amongst the various component parties. In any marriage, power play is part of the learning process of attaining true harmony and cooperation.

From a personal perspective, I have no fear of PAS and their Islamic agenda - at least they are completely open about it. Ironically, I am aligned with many of their "Islamic values." For example, I detest gambling and generally shun alcohol; to live in a community free of these vices would suit me fine. However, I'm also a hardcore libertarian democrat in that I would defend the right of those addicted to gambling and alcohol to indulge their chosen vices. To my mind what each of us chooses to do for pleasure is nobody's business - unless, of course, these activities come with deleterious side effects that negatively impact on others. And here we enter a fuzzy area where there are no simple formulas and pat answers.

The entire post-industrial model of economic development is largely founded on financial adventurism, speculation and risky investments - euphemisms for gambling. What is the stock market if not a 24/7 gambling den for white-collar punters playing with blue chips? Financial catastrophes are mostly the result of inveterate gambling - whether the game is called derivatives, commodity futures, sub-prime mortgages or treasury bonds. Gambling or gaming run almost as deep as our hunting and gathering instincts. The adrenaline rush of winning a game of high-stakes poker or mahjong, or breaking the bank in roulette, or flogging off a bunch of dead-horse shares in the nick of time - these are "adult" pleasures akin to a night out with the boys at a karaoke club or a pornographic interlude online when your officemates are all out to lunch.

I have never been attracted to gambling, perhaps because I grew up in a household where neither parent was a gambler. As for games, I quickly got bored with Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Checkers, and Scrabble. The last time I played any card game was perhaps 35 years ago. Call me a bore but I would much rather lie in a hammock with a book or a cuddly friend. Never once have I even contemplated the possibility of buying shares in any company or investing my surplus cash in some sort of tontine scheme.

Perhaps I have been saved from getting addicted to gambling by lifelong penury. Having studied the nature of the banking business, I have a pronounced negative bias towards bankers, moneylenders and loansharks - indeed, anybody who uses money to make money, because this is ultimately what widens the gap between haves and have-nots. Alas, this planet is pretty much akin to a giant casino operated by international "banksters" - but it's obvious that time is running out for them, as more humans awaken from their hypnotic trance of powerlessness and reclaim their lives from the corporate enslavers.

Certainly I tend to have a puritanical attitude towards business investors who become entrapped by sheer greed. It's difficult to understand why anyone who already owns millions or billions would continue to "cari makan." How much can anyone eat at one sitting anyhow? Uneaten food is wasteful and shows disrespect towards nature. For me, therefore, Islam's edicts against gambling and usury are eminently sensible and fully in keeping with my own values.

As for alcohol, after a 10-day Mekong binge in Phuket twenty years ago, my body became allergic to the poison. When offered alcoholic drinks at a party, I tend to refuse half the time - and when I do accept I find it difficult to finish an entire can of beer. A champagne toast at a wedding celebration can enhance one's enjoyment - and on cold evenings a shot of Irish coffee is just what the doctor ordered.

Nevertheless, living as I do in an Orang Asli community where 90% of the men are compulsive and terminal alcoholics, I have grown disdainful of drunken behavior and have little patience with the idiotic babblings of the inebriated. In effect, I wouldn't miss alcohol if it simply vanished off the face of the earth. But, please, don't you dare take away my tobacco!

The more puritanical among us, regardless of religious affiliation, will always condemn certain behaviors as "immoral" - while to others these are merely a fun way to kill time. What constitutes "morality" can be debated endlessly and inconclusively - but most of us will agree that the Golden Rule, do as you would be done by, has universal appeal and value. Indeed, once we adhere to that ethical principle, all other rules become redundant.

To my brothers and sisters in PAS I would like to convey this message: I salute your sound moral sense and agree that we would all be better off living in a vice-free environment. However, to use the law to enforce "moral behavior" often leads to abuses far worse than the vices themselves. Look at what happens when agencies like JAIS are given the power to harass courting couples or rudely raid bars and pubs. They turn into uniformed thugs, fascist brownshirts who get their kicks by pretending to be morally superior and throwing their weight around. This sort of loutish behavior is far more dangerous, in my opinion, than allowing a few Muslims the freedom of conscience to imbibe alcohol or experiment with sexual freedom.

The imposition of external discipline has the unfortunate long-term effect of infantilizing the populace, because it treats people like wayward children rather than mature and self-governing, self-improving adults.

Ultimately, the goal of all religious teachings must be to help people attain mastery over themselves (not others!)

And the only way one can become a Master is through the trial-and-error of personal experience, through internal discipline, not through legislation and enforcement. Get the picture, Hasan?

Sincerely,
Antares
~^@^~

MORALITY QUESTIONNAIRE (One Size Fits All!)

[A sociology student posted me these questions as a reaction to attempts by quasi-religious agencies like JAWI, the Federal Territory Religious Department, to enforce public morality by brute force.]

1. What are your views on the current morality of our Malaysian citizens and why do you think this is the case?

Morality comes from the word "more" meaning "social custom." As such, each society will have its own culturally specific, and ethno-specific, preferences and traditions. None of these traditional social customs is immutable, that is, social mores change with changing economic, educational, and technological conditions. Therefore, "morality" is NOT, in my view, a relevant issue.

HOWEVER, what we're really talking about here is the question of ETHICS. Ethicality - the innate sense of what might be called "decent" human behavior, particularly in terms of interpersonal interactions, is a universal concern and has validity beyond the confines of cultural imprinting, and beyond economic, political, social, ideological, and biological considerations.

Very few human beings on this planet are imbued with an ethical core; simply because the majority of humans are akin to farm animals, kept in a state of abject ignorance and powerlessness to alter their own destiny in order that their energy, their vitality, and their experiential data may be "harvested." Among the few who have somehow broken through their cultural and social programming and attained an ETHICAL sense (which is often accompanied by the evolvement of an AESTHETIC sensibility), there is a strong possibility of these rare individuals gaining sufficient self-awareness to ultimately achieve self-mastery.

Self-mastery implies that the individual no longer refers to any EXTERNAL AUTHORITY for instructions as to how to behave towards others. The "moral authority" is fully internalized in that the individual is no longer an ethical infant, but has indeed attained the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual maturity to govern himself or herself from the highest and most universal perspective available at any given moment.

From this standpoint, few Malaysians - indeed, few human beings, regardless of nationality - have any notion of "morality" that has not been inculcated or indoctrinated into their behavioral programs by an outside source - whether parental, societal, governmental, or ideological. These externally imposed concepts of morality are generally control mechanisms designed to make people easier to manage as statistics rather than as individuals. They often have absolutely no basis in organic reality and function purely as BELIEF SYSTEMS. As such, they are quite unnecessary and irrelevant to existence itself, but serve the hidden agenda of the Elite or ruling class.

When people refrain from certain behaviors out of fear of punishment, that is a sure indication that they have yet to acquire an ethical sense. Their fear of "breaking the law" and incurring "the wrath of God" or being penalized by the Law is what governs their actions. The more perceptive individuals who quickly learn that their parents and governments and spiritual leaders are inclined towards hypocrisy as a way of life ("Do what I say, don't do what I do!") will be prompted to break the taboos and behave in antisocial or criminal ways - but they will do so furtively because "getting caught" would mean severe punishment. Any attempt to "correct" their negative behavior can only result in more laws and more vigorous law enforcement, which ultimately strengthens the totalitarian state we might describe as "Big Brotherism" rather than enhance people's ethical sense.


In effect, the question you pose has to be rephrased differently if you desire an authentic answer instead of a superficial, programmed response. I suggest you work with this question: WHAT IS THE ESSENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "MORALITY" AND "ETHICS" - AND ARE MALAYSIANS, SPEAKING GENERALLY, AWARE OF IT?

2. In your own point of view, do you think that there are any groups of people who need increased moral policing and why?

The phrase "moral policing" is offensive to me, but let's not quibble about semantic niceties here. In general, the stratum of society most often in need of ethical resensitization is the so-called "ruling class" (which includes hereditary rulers, politicians, bureaucrats, and the uniformed personnel employed and trained to protect their private interests). This widespread condition of hypocrisy has its origins in the distortion of truth stemming from a long history of political power coups whereby authentic authority has been systematically usurped by "pretenders to the throne" - in other words, those least qualified to rule (because they have yet to master themselves) are usually the ones most determined to seize power and pose as "moral authorities."

3. What are your views on the recent incidents involving increased moral policing by some religious authorities? (e.g. arrest of a transgendered person in a friend's house, JAWI raid on a KL nightclub, Malacca Belia 4-B campaign to spy on young people...)

No mature community would tolerate such a gross abuse of vested authority and power. Agencies such as JAWI are infested with hypocrites and serve only as a haven for acutely aberrated individuals. They definitely serve no constructive purpose and we would do well to abolish them completely.

4. What do you think is a better solution to address such situations and why?

There is really no problem and therefore no "solution" is called for. People everywhere will do what pleases them in the way of recreation - and, so long as their activities do not impinge on other people's civil liberties or become destructive, it's nobody's business what anybody does to amuse himself or herself.

5. Do you think the state or private bodies should be responsible to develop better ways to deal with those situations?

Ultimately, the state itself is an abstraction which exists only as a cover for criminal usurpation of the individual's divine right of self-governance. With clarity of mind, these "social issues" publicized in the press are red herrings, non-issues, and merely serve to distract the public from REAL problems, e.g., environmental degradation and the ruthless abuse and exploitation of "lower" lifeforms - whether these be categorized as the "less privileged" or "those not of voting age" or (in a patriarchal society, the female gender), or non-human species as a whole.

6. Do you think there are weakness in our current moral laws and why?

There is only ONE authentic, universal moral law and it simply states: DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY. All other "moral" rules are arbitrary and utterly useless; and, as such, irrelevant to life and deserve to be abolished or repealed.

7. Do you think our moral laws need corrective measure or changes to be implemented to meet the current society's needs?


Refer to above response.

8. Do you think the State should be given some power to enforce these moral laws and why?

The so-called State has already abrogated unto itself way too many powers. What matters are human beings, indeed, all living beings - not artificial rules and regulations invented to conceal criminal abuse of power usurped from the inherent divinity (the God self) within each entity. Each of us as incarnate Souls ultimately has no evolutionary alternative but to accept TOTAL RESPONSE-ABILITY for how we experience "reality."

9. Many NGOs have campaigned for certain moral laws to be repealed and demand that the State should have no role in policing morality. Do you think this is fair proposition to all parties concerned?


The NGOs are on the right track but have yet to find the right tack. Rather than engage (and waste) their energy on "doing battle" against the "power structure" they will serve themselves and others far more effectively by paying closer attention to their own evolution as sentient beings, with the focus on attaining levels of consciousness some may describe as Buddhahood or Christhood.

10. To your own reasoning, why did you sign the Joint Statement and what do you hope it can achieve?

I am essentially aligned with the NGOs' broad objective of functioning as a system of "checks and balances" to established political authority even if I do not always agree with their terms of reference and modus operandi. An internet petition requires only a few seconds to sign and is the least one can do to contribute to positive social change - at least, in the short term :-)

11. What do you believe constitutes a moral society?

One in which each individual has attained "enlightenment" or Buddhahood and then evolved to the next level of spiritual maturity which some choose to call "Christ consciousness." As such, the "moral society" is constantly evolving and when the point is reached where enough individuals have reclaimed their sovereign power and freed themselves from external controls, the concept of external government will cease to exist - and ETHICS will be a "hardwired" integral component of our Operating Systems.

12. What do you think Malaysians and even yourself can do to bring improvement to the situation?

Ask the questions you have asked in this electronic interview and allow for the widest possible spectrum of responses. In short, we simply have to take time out to ponder the basic existential conundrums - preferably free of the corruption and distortion of institutionalized belief systems, i.e. religious doctrines.

13. Any last words or thoughts?

Enjoy the infinite possibilities of being in freedom and joy!

Thank you very very much :)

You're entirely welcome!

Antares
~^@^~

[First published in this blog on 2 December 2006. Reposted 19 March 2009 & 9 February 2014]

A Course In Laughter: Special Discount for UMNO/BN Warlords!

Laughter and Humor Important? You Must Be Joking! Here's A Chance to Wake Up Laughing ... and Leave Laughter in Your Wake

"To be happy in life, you must be able to take a joke. And if you can leave a few, that's even better." ~ Swami Beyondananda

Dear Friends:

What with all the serious problems in the world, it might seem a stretch to take laughter and humor seriously. But what if healing laughter and "cosmic comic consciousness" provided the very tools we require in these evolutionary times?

Seriously.

At a time when our civilization needs to shift from a state of emergency to a state of emergent seeing, humor is a way to integrate the left and right brain, the intuitive and the linear. A transformational joke or phrase (what Swami calls "an irony supplement") can free the mind of obsolete beliefs, and hearty laughter puts us into the heart. Consider the irony that the most reliable take on the news nowadays comes via the Comedy Channel! Why? Because humor is a delivery system for information that simultaneously exposes the B.S., while the levity allows us to "rise above" the situation - to emerge from the limited thinking that created the problem in the first place - and "see" our way to an emergent solution.

Laughter has the power to break the cultural trances by making the insanity palpable. When enough people are laughing at an insane and crazy-making societal story, that story loses all power, and a new story becomes possible.

Even more important, what the Swami calls "self-facing humor" allows us to break our own personal trances and see our own shadow. In a moment of "fool realization," we laugh heartily and lovingly at our own foolishness... and become a wise fool in the process.

Starting this Thursday, September 8th, you'll have a chance to learn the secrets of transformational humor from a master - Steve Bhaerman aka Swami Beyondananda, who has been called "the Mark Twain of our generation" by author Marianne Williamson.

So sign up for A Course in Laughter now, and find out what God is laughing about! You'll laugh while you learn and learn while you laugh ... you'll wake up laughing, and leave laughter in your wake. Click here to find out more and to sign up.

Spontaneous Evolution
Swami's Om Page

Swami Products

Well, Muhyiddin... Nazri... Daim... Ibrahim Ali... all you hypocritical wankers in JAIS.... how about it? The 5-week course fee is only $147 (less than RM440) so no problem lah. I was only kidding about the discount. Heh heh.

OH NO... HASAN "AYATOLLAH" ALI IS AT IT AGAIN!!!

Source: Malaysiakini

Source: The Malaysian Insider

[This was originally posted exactly two years ago, but Hasan Ali's latest obnoxious ayatollah act compels me to dust it off and repost...]

The Rabid Face of a Fucking Inquisitor

Hasan Ali, Selangor PAS Commissioner

SELANGOR PAS: BAN ALCOHOL IN MUSLIM AREAS 

Malaysiakini | August 4, 2009 | 1:57pm 

Selangor PAS wants the Pakatan Rakyat state government to implement a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol in all Muslim-majority areas.

Speaking at a press conference in Shah Alam, Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali said the proposed ban will only concern Muslims and not impinge on the right of non-Muslims to consume alcohol.

Asked if the move would be unfair to non-Muslims living in Muslim-majority areas, the PAS leader said they would just have to travel further to get the beverages.

Hasan also called on the state government to switch the portfolio of DAP exco member Ronnie Liu, who has "meddled in Islamic affairs."

He said Liu, who oversees local councils, had misunderstood the ban and therefore overstepped his jurisdiction.

"We are disappointed when certain quarters intervene in our initiatives to control the sale of alcohol among Muslims," he added. 

[Source: Malaysiakini]

HASAN ALI could be Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian... any religion at all, makes no difference whatsoever. He would still be a Goddam Red-Faced Control Freak, hellbent on minding other people's business. Because that's how he gets his rocks off - exercising power over others.

People like Hasan Ali have long been a scourge on human freedom and joy. To call them Wet Blankets or Spoilsports is too lame. Anal Retentives comes a bit closer. People like Hasan Ali are busting full of shit because their anuses are waaaaay too tight for anything to pass through except noxious gases.

Selangor Religious Police

I don't drink (well, very rarely anyway). If alcohol were to vanish off the face of the earth, I wouldn't notice. So this rant has nothing to do with defending the rights of those who enjoy a beer or two - or even a whole bottle of whisky. I'm just cheesed off that idiots like Hasan Ali are allowed to bring everybody down with their toxic hypocritical crap. It's evolutionary retards like him who sit in judgment of unmarried mothers and young lovers caught in the bushes by the fiendish religious police (what an absolute contradiction of terms!)

Hoy, Hasan Ali! Go ahead and believe whatever you like... but please keep your repugnant beliefs to yourself, instead of trying to ram them down everybody else's throats like some asinine Ayatollah.

Why don't you return to Umno and team up with your mentor, the jerk with two Muhammads in his name? You'd be doing us all a big favor, especially PAS.

I strongly suspect you're an Umno undercover agent and saboteur. The Pakatan Rakyat state government is busy fighting off scurrilous attacks led by Najib and Khir. You couldn't have picked a worse moment to spread more anxiety and suspicion amongst the non-Malay voters that PAS, just like Umno, is incapable of change. With "friends" like you and Ibrahim Ali and that silly Zul Noordin, who needs political enemies?

Folks like you will NEVER - I repeat, NEVER - make it through the frequency gates of paradise. Because the only talent you possess is to create a living hell on earth.

With apologies to the late Frank Zappa: "Heya, Hasan! Stick a finger up your ass and sniff it for Harry Belafonte!"

A Letter to PAS via Malaysiakini

With reference to Malaysiakini's lead story on August 17, 2008:

PAS ABANDONS GAMBLING, ALCOHOL BAN PLANS

Conservative Islamic party PAS has shelved a proposal to ban gambling and restrict alcohol sales in the four states it rules with its political allies.

Dear brothers and sisters in PAS,

Thank you for being so reasonable, so wise, so patient, and so accommodating.

Like most Malaysians, I am determined that differences in beliefs and ethnic origins must not be allowed to cause the disintegration of our beloved nation. Far wiser to encourage open and sincere discussion amongst the various parties in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition - than for the destructive forces of racial and religious polarization to be used as an excuse for the perpetuation of BN-style authoritarian misrule.

A great many of my non-Muslim friends have long held a negative perception of PAS - since the party is founded on Islamic government as a core doctrine. That Anwar Ibrahim has been able to pull DAP and PAS together in a political alliance with PKR is nothing less than a miracle. Since the euphoric results of GE12 which broke BN's two-thirds majority stranglehold, the BN-controlled mass media have gone out of their way to magnify every little disagreement within the fledgling Pakatan Rakyat.

Right after the elections Umno attempted to forge an unholy power-sharing pact with PAS behind closed doors. When PAS rejected Umno's engagement ring, Khir Toyo used these clandestine meetings as a weapon to plant the seeds of doubt, mistrust and fear into the non-Muslim psyche.

Fortunately, Tok Guru Nik Aziz, spiritual leader of PAS and a wise old fox, was able to reassure his partners in Pakatan Rakyat that all was well and that there was no possibility of a PAS-Umno merger. The coalition remains strong, despite the inevitable jostling for power and influence amongst the various component parties. In any marriage, power play is part of the learning process of attaining true harmony and cooperation.

From a personal perspective, I have no fear of PAS and their Islamic agenda - at least they are completely open about it. Ironically, I am aligned with many of their "Islamic values." For example, I detest gambling and generally shun alcohol; to live in a community free of these vices would suit me fine. However, I'm also a hardcore libertarian democrat in that I would defend the right of those addicted to gambling and alcohol to indulge their chosen vices. To my mind what each of us chooses to do for pleasure is nobody's business - unless, of course, these activities come with deleterious side effects that negatively impact on others. And here we enter a fuzzy area where there are no simple formulas and pat answers.

The entire post-industrial model of economic development is largely founded on financial adventurism, speculation and risky investments - euphemisms for gambling. What is the stock market if not a 24/7 gambling den for white-collar punters playing with blue chips? Financial catastrophes are mostly the result of inveterate gambling - whether the game is called derivatives, commodity futures, sub-prime mortgages or treasury bonds. Gambling or gaming run almost as deep as our hunting and gathering instincts. The adrenaline rush of winning a game of high-stakes poker or mahjong, or breaking the bank in roulette, or flogging off a bunch of dead-horse shares in the nick of time - these are "adult" pleasures akin to a night out with the boys at a karaoke club or a pornographic interlude online when your officemates are all out to lunch.

I have never been attracted to gambling, perhaps because I grew up in a household where neither parent was a gambler. As for games, I quickly got bored with Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Checkers, and Scrabble. The last time I played any card game was perhaps 35 years ago. Call me a bore but I would much rather lie in a hammock with a book or a cuddly friend. Never once have I even contemplated the possibility of buying shares in any company or investing my surplus cash in some sort of tontine scheme.

Perhaps I have been saved from getting addicted to gambling by lifelong penury. Having studied the nature of the banking business, I have a pronounced negative bias towards bankers, moneylenders and loansharks - indeed, anybody who uses money to make money, because this is ultimately what widens the gap between haves and have-nots. Alas, this planet is pretty much akin to a giant casino operated by international "banksters" - but it's obvious that time is running out for them, as more humans awaken from their hypnotic trance of powerlessness and reclaim their lives from the corporate enslavers.

Certainly I tend to have a puritanical attitude towards business investors who become entrapped by sheer greed. It's difficult to understand why anyone who already owns millions or billions would continue to "cari makan." How much can anyone eat at one sitting anyhow? Uneaten food is wasteful and shows disrespect towards nature. For me, therefore, Islam's edicts against gambling and usury are eminently sensible and fully in keeping with my own values.


As for alcohol, after a 10-day Mekong binge in Phuket twenty years ago, my body became allergic to the poison. When offered alcoholic drinks at a party, I tend to refuse half the time - and when I do accept I find it difficult to finish an entire can of beer. A champagne toast at a wedding celebration can enhance one's enjoyment - and on cold evenings a shot of Irish coffee is just what the doctor ordered.

Nevertheless, living as I do in an Orang Asli community where 90% of the men are compulsive and terminal alcoholics, I have grown disdainful of drunken behavior and have little patience with the idiotic babblings of the inebriated. In effect, I wouldn't miss alcohol if it simply vanished off the face of the earth. But, please, don't you dare take away my tobacco!

The more puritanical among us, regardless of religious affiliation, will always condemn certain behaviors as "immoral" - while to others these are merely a fun way to kill time. What constitutes "morality" can be debated endlessly and inconclusively - but most of us will agree that the Golden Rule, do as you would be done by, has universal appeal and value. Indeed, once we adhere to that ethical principle, all other rules become redundant.

To my brothers and sisters in PAS I would like to convey this message: I salute your sound moral sense and agree that we would all be better off living in a vice-free environment. However, to use the law to enforce "moral behavior" often leads to abuses far worse than the vices themselves. Look at what happens when agencies like JAIS are given the power to harass courting couples or rudely raid bars and pubs. They turn into uniformed thugs, fascist brownshirts who get their kicks by pretending to be morally superior and throwing their weight around. This sort of loutish behavior is far more dangerous, in my opinion, than allowing a few Muslims the freedom of conscience to imbibe alcohol or experiment with sexual freedom.


The imposition of external discipline has the unfortunate long-term effect of infantilizing the populace, because it treats people like wayward children rather than mature and self-governing, self-improving adults.

Ultimately, the goal of all religious teachings must be to help people attain mastery over themselves (not others!)

And the only way one can become a Master is through the trial-and-error of personal experience, through internal discipline, not through legislation and enforcement.

Sincerely,
Antares
~^@^~