Current Ancestor of 'Companions'?
POSTED BY: AgentRouka
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 5, 2010 21:07
VIEWED: 2580
PAGE 3 of 4
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Originally posted by Bytemite:
Why is a cult considered automatically evil? They aren't.
Well, you framed it in a context of greed and naivety, so.. yeah.
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That's a pretty specific assumption, though, which discounts the possible shift and fusion of religious believe and practice in a space of 500 years.
From the Vajrayana? o.0 I find that extremely unlikely, unless the Guild took all of this from new-age tantricism... Which arguably is neither Buddhist or Vajrayana.
Honestly, I barely know what those are nor do I really think it's relevant. What I mean is that 500 years down the line in cultural fusion a whole lot of spiritual believes can develop that are not static copies of current geographically assigned faiths, nor would they be "hokey" or fake or artificial. All religions were new once and developed from other sources. That doesn't make their followers cult victims or phonies.
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I don't see it as mainly a business. I see it as a union for business women, but a union with a spiritual bend that grew out of a genuine spirituality.
Yeah, you're right, we don't see eye to eye. I just don't see how that's possible. For me the only thing that makes sense is either that the Guild started as a business and had a spectacular PR campaign that evolved into an actual culture and spiritualism, or the Guild was started by someone who wanted to mainstream prostitution/protect prostitutes and created a cult to do so. Neither of which are evil goals, I note.
The implication of fake spirituality is certainly far from virtuous or even neutral. And so is the (as you stated) profit-oriented nature of cults, so the implication if not "evil" is certainly derrogatory.
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I'm also not sure how the Guild can have such a pervasive spiritual bend, when it's not necessarily part of the package that companions offer.
I see it as part of the package that the Guild offers Companions. Their own practice of it bleeds into their business, but mostly I think it would serve as a spiritual focus for women in a profession than can be isolating and emotionally taxing.
Let's agree to disagree. Again.
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But try being snarky and mean consistently the way Mal can be and keep those friends around.
Yet his crew comes to save him from Niska, in spite of his treatment of him. If this concept exists for Mal, it must be largely delusion.
I wonder if once he was feeling better after Niska he started being exceptionally mean to his crew, to reestablish the status quo in his mind. :)
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Originally posted by Bytemite:Quote:
But try being snarky and mean consistently the way Mal can be and keep those friends around.
Yet his crew comes to save him from Niska, in spite of his treatment of him. If this concept exists for Mal, it must be largely delusion.
I wonder if once he was feeling better after Niska he started being exceptionally mean to his crew, to reestablish the status quo in his mind. :)
Lots of people will say some amazingly snarky and mean things to their closest friends - things that would get you punched right in the face if you dared say them to a stranger or mere acquaintance. Mal's crew knows about him what he knows about them: for all the snarkiness and ass-hattery, when the chips are down and one of them needs the others, they're going to be there, no matter what. Everything else is just fun and games in comparison.
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Well, you framed it in a context of greed and naivety, so.. yeah.
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nor would they be "hokey" or fake or artificial. All religions were new once and developed from other sources. That doesn't make their followers cult victims or phonies.
>_>
<_<
Well... I was trying not to say it. But that kind of is how I see religion. Just people in power trying to make money.
The religion itself and the followers aren't evil, and neither necessarily are the leaders evil. It's a business like any other, but it's in the business of selling hope and salvation to people.
Pretty neutral, from my POV.
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Let's agree to disagree. Again.
Probably a good idea, since I'm pretty sure I'm about to get wrecked by other people having to admit my true thoughts about religion.
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Originally posted by Bytemite:Quote:
She brings it up to negate it, not to affirm it. So this does - again - not apply.
Okay, so perhaps this isn't something Inara believes. But does Inara hold new-age beliefs?
What do you make of the time when Inara tells Kaylee she selects clients based on their "energy"? That's pretty new-age.
"But physical appearance doesn't matter so terribly. You look for a compatibility of spirit. There's an energy about a person that's difficult to hide, you try to feel that--"
I honestly think she was trying to describe "I use my intuition" in a more visual frame. 'Energy' certainly creates the image of a personality and demeaner based impression. I doubt Inara would walk up to a person and espouse about their "energy". More a form of gut instinct. "Compatibility of spirit" is flowery but it's a solid enough thing to say in description. Inara is emotionally involved in her profession, she won't describe it in clinical terms.
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Originally posted by AgentRouka:
"But physical appearance doesn't matter so terribly. You look for a compatibility of spirit. There's an energy about a person that's difficult to hide, you try to feel that--"
I honestly think she was trying to describe "I use my intuition" in a more visual frame. 'Energy' certainly creates the image of a personality and demeaner based impression. I doubt Inara would walk up to a person and espouse about their "energy". More a form of gut instinct. "Compatibility of spirit" is flowery but it's a solid enough thing to say in description. Inara is emotionally involved in her profession, she won't describe it in clinical terms.
Hmm, makes sense. She also talks about chi energy in Better Days, but Chinese Massage actually was probably something she was trained in.
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(Edited to add disclaimer: I am a self-righteous jerk. Please refer to apology in my next post.)
In closing, so to speak:
I used "spiritual" on purpose because I did not want to use "religious" with all its abusive connotations.
I think for many people the term, though perhaps fuzzy, describes more an internal than an external experience. If it's not tied to doctrine, especially, it can just be a metaphorical construct for a complex understanding of the world, sometimes coupled with rituals as a deliberate form of self-manipulation.
Marking birthdays is a ritual that makes aging concrete. A similar ritual can be a symbolic sacrifice to an embodiment of a particular area of life, in order to create emotional outlets or a reminder of philosophical insight. Prayer can be a form of meditation.
Unless made rigid, literal and connected to political motives, spirituality or its expression in religion is, indeed, neutral.
I'm not fan of how religion is or has been used in many cases, but I don't consider the arrogance with which the experience of spirituality is dismissed to be a sign of enlightenment but rather of an unwillingness to understand, a lack of curiosity and closedness no better than any other doctrine.
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EDIT: editted for snark.
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Aww crap.
I apologize for my self-righeous tone and the way it seems to imply those things about you to the exclusion of everything else.
I do not think that about you, at least not mostly. I think you do dismiss some things and that it contradicts the open-minded way you approach other things, but the aggressive tone of my post is completely unwarranted and I'm ashamed of making you feel attacked by it.
It was not my intention to sound so harsh. I'm sorry.
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Nerg. You... Shouldn't apologize. I've sounded like an ass and I know it, which is why I've been trying to avoid speaking so plainly. But I can't change my general sense of mistrust and paranoia.
People can practice religion, and I don't think they're naive, at all. I think they're just trying to find comfort in a world that offers very, very little. In many ways, that's probably smarter than I am, trying to cope with everything on my own.
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