Dear George(s) Monbiot and Felos -- Who's calling who 'bonkers'?

What Constance Thinks

Dear George(s) Monbiot and Felos -- Who’s calling whom ‘bonkers’ – The New Age (crack)pots calling the Christian kettles 'black'!

Marginalization of opposition is a time honored tactic. The first step in removing something unwanted in society is delegitimizing or dehumanizing it. I began speaking and writing against the New Age Movement in 1981. Although I have been accused of marginalizing the New Agers (which to an extent, I certainly hoped to do), my attention was called to them by their obvious active campaign of marginalizing us. It seems that in the New Age world, everything is good for one but monotheistic religion. All expectations of the future, no matter how bizarre are ‘hopeful,’ save for those we were told to expect by sacred scripture.

A bold shot was fired across the Christian bow in April 2004. George Monbiot, reportedly the son of an evangelical family wrote an article first appearing in London’s GUARDIAN UNLIMITED, being internationally googled that day, saying, “their beliefs are bonkers, but they are at the heart of power.’ Monbiot held up to ridicule every legitimate prophesied Christian apocalyptic belief and expectation. He talked sneeringly about caricatured beliefs of a rapture as “flying nudists” and people flying out of their ‘pyjamas.’

In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion . . . Jesus will return to Earth when certain preconditions have been met. . . The legions of the antichrist will then be deployed against Israel, and their war will lead to a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon. The Jews will either burn or convert to Christianity, and the Messiah will return to Earth. . . . before the big battle begins, all "true believers" (ie those who believe what they believe) will be lifted out of their clothes and wafted up to heaven during an event called the Rapture. Not only do the worthy get to sit at the right hand of God, but they will be able to watch, from the best seats, their political and religious opponents being devoured by boils, sores, locusts and frogs, during the seven years of Tribulation which follow.

The true believers are now seeking to bring all this about. . . . and seeking to provoke a final battle with the Muslim world/Axis of Evil/United Nations/ European Union/France or whoever the legions of the antichrist turn out to be.

The believers are convinced that they will soon be rewarded for their efforts. The antichrist is apparently walking among us, in the guise of Kofi Annan, Javier Solana, Yasser Arafat or, more plausibly, Silvio Berlusconi. . .

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At the time of that writing, Monbiot had just released his own new book, Manifesto for a New World Order. It called for a proletariat led revolution. I purchased the book and read every page of it in the most appropriate room in my house for Monbiot’s own evidence of “bonkers” -- my bathroom!

Having long studied the New Agers and having debated so many of them over the years, I recall a 1982 radio debate I had with an Arlington, Texas New Ager. He listened politely for awhile and then said, “well, she doesn’t sound crazy, but what she is saying is perfectly absurd. Lady, you’ve got us all wrong – we’re not about that. We’re a cybernetics revolution. In the past, if I needed money, I had to go to the bank and present my driver’s license and other pieces of identification. Now all I have to do is go and present a card.”

I interrupted and said, “Yes, and next thing you know, all you will have to go and present is your right hand or forehead.”

He reacted swiftly and angrily. “Why most ministers no longer take that part of the Bible literally – besides, what’s the difference. You take a credit card now or for the sake of convenience for those who might lose those cards, you take a chip . . . what possible difference could that make? Only your silly religious beliefs could interfere with a convenience like that.”

I again interjected myself: “ ‘Silly religious beliefs’? Ok, let’s talk about some of yours – “Plant Devas”, “Luciferic initiations”, shamans, vibrations, healing crystals . . .”

The gentleman cleared his throat and said, “There’s kooks in every movement.” I said, “yes, but unfortunately, they’re running yours.”

I was thinking about that this morning and wondering if it was just ‘coincidental’ that George Monbiot wrote a positive book about his vision for a New World Order at the same time that New Agers I had been tracking since 1981 were bragging they were in final stages of implementation. So, thanks to the guys who invented google.com, I found that George Monbiot hardly had standing to call Christian religious beliefs bonkers. The folks he was openly hanging with had religious beliefs of their own that far surpassed the bizarre. Since I had trapped the Arlington, Texas gentleman with the Findhorn community evidence, I wondered if maybe I had only to venture that far to see where Monbiot was coming from as well. My hunch was correct! In fact, one notable soon forthcoming Findhorn conference (Findhorn being the main headquarters for the plant deva and ‘luciferic initiation crowed) dealt with ‘sex and magic.’ So, George Monbiot was hanging with the sex and magic(k) crowd?!

Other hecklers besides Monbiot have recently been exposed. As recently dredged from Florida press archives, another New Ager daring to ridicule traditional concepts of sanctity of life is one George Felos, Esq., attorney for recently eliminated Terri Schiavo's husband! That George claims to talk telepathically to the souls of those he would eliminate and stops planes by his thought in midair. What a candidate for superman! I would have love to have conducted that evidentiary hearing that Judge Greer evidently never permitted. The only legal difficulty would have been permitting the judge to allow me to call Felos as an adverse party witness!

George Monbiot is concerned that people who have what he calls these “bizarre beliefs” have access, limited as it may be, to the public square and media. And what of those with whom he hangs? What does he want to do about that problem? Always ready with the quip, George Monbiot pithily says:

“AN ACTIVISTS GUIDE TO EXPLOITING THE MEDIA”By George Monbiot”Every battle we fight is a battle for the hearts and minds of other people. The only chance we have of reaching people who haven't yet heard what we've got to say is through the media. We might, with good reason, regard the papers and broadcasters with extreme suspicion, we might feel cheapened and compromised by engaging with them. But the war we're fighting is an information war, and we have to use all the weapons at our disposal. Whether we use the media or not, our opponents will. However just our cause and true our aims, they will use it to demonise and demolish us, unless we fight back.
”EXPLOIT THE MEDIA, OR THE MEDIA WILL EXPLOIT YOU!”

George Monbiot successfully exploited the media and us. It is time we caught on. Just who is calling whom ‘bonkers’? How can people with these religious beliefs (or those who hang with people with such beliefs) call people with traditional beliefes 'bonkers'? One thing is certain -- both these Georges -- Monbiot and Felos -- have plenty of chutzpah as they seek to marginalize others, when they are so open for ridicule themselves!