CM wrote:

>Wei,
>    Sorry you didn't like that quote from Mencken.


That's OK.  I like most of what Mencken wrote about the Scopes Trial.  Great
stuff.


>Maybe this one from e.e.
>cummings will make up for it.

          "Nothing"  in 1944 A  D
          "can stand against the argument of mil
          itary necessity"  (generalissimo e)
          and echo answers  "there is no appeal

          from reason"(freud) - you pays your money and
          you doesn't take your choice.  Ain't freedom grand
>
>

Yes.  That's much better.  Thank you.



>    But partly in answer to your question, I think it's great being an
>American although I'm not sure how many would vote for my interpretation of
>what that means, but I really don't care if they would. . . .

Well of course.  It's great being American.  It's great being Chinese.  It's
great being Jewish.  It's great being Black.  Whatever.

But I was talking about government.  Whether the US system, or whether
democracy, is a good idea (or both).

>This is putting it kindly to you, I think.

I appreciate that.

>Question for you - Why did the Boxers call Christianity a "pig and
>goat" religion?

What else would you expect them to call it?

Christianity, as a Western export to China, was primarily packaged as a
means of ensuring cultural subordination.  More interesting than Western
missionary Christianity was the religion of the Taiping rebels, who read the
Bible, and came up with their own more egalitarian version (which somewhat
resembled the religion of the Christian levellers and diggers during the
English revolution, as it arose around 1649).

Part of the fascination with Pound lies in the fact that he is the ONLY
Western thinker who thought of importing Confucianism into the West to
consolidate fascist hierarchical thinking.  He needed more help though, and
for that reason he is looked at by some as an "oddball."

Remember the Zen philosopher-poet Basho once wrote:

"A flute with no holes is not a flute"

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