At 03:48 AM 11/8/97 -0500, mim3@mim.org wrote:
   
   >No, fuck you for windbag 100,000s of characters typed in on Turanians
   that
   
   >we apparently "never understand" because we "can't." Either grant
   you've
   
   >made a solipsistic error or don't talk to me about ethnicity or
   anything
   
   >else that you would put in the same boat.
   
   I think Tani has a good point, actually. In order to understand a cat,
   you have to be a cat. Otherwise, you cannot ever entirely understand
   what it is like. A similar pattern exists for different races. Heck,
   we even LOOK different! And unless you want to get into a discussion
   about how "mind and body are entirely separated entities," you'll have
   to face it that someone's physical make-up is a determining factor for
   his/her person's mental state (and vice versa).
   
   >I've already made it clear that I think COS has an
   
   >overemphasis on indulgence, including intellectual indulgence.
   
   CoS (or at least Doctor) made it explicitly clear that over-indulgence
   isn't indulgence. He stated in the second-to-last issue of _The Cloven
   Hoof_ that the secret of _The Satanic Bible_ was the balance factor.
   This is of course not to say that all Satanists follow that principle.
   
   --O
   
   On Sat, 8 Nov 1997, O wrote:
   
   > I think Tani has a good point, actually. In order to understand a
   cat, you
   
   have to be a cat.
   
   But there exists the book "The Secret Life of Cats." I just spent the
   last month trashing the postmodernism of the twerps in response to
   "you have no right to judge sadomasochists because you have never felt
   the urge, etc." I tried to stick first and foremost to the objective
   facts of Chakra and Kundalini and others things that I take on faith
   as existent. But when they pushed back with "you can never understand
   my subjective experience" I pushed back harder with a social analysis
   of the eroticization of power and powerlessness inherent in patriarchy
   and how it creates sadomasochism and pornoromantic culture. But, if I
   am wrong to say "sadomasochists find power erotic" because I can never
   understand what they find erotic because I am not them, despite an
   analysis of their actions, I'm fucked. And Lance raised the biggest
   point of all. If I ASK Tani "So, what's it like to be a Turanian" over
   the phone, and she indulges me with six hours of detailed explanations
   on the emotional life of an Ugar tribeswoman I'm really, really fucked
   if she ends the 6th hour with "you can never understand, honkey."
   
   I'm not arguing that biology and psychology are separate entities
   (except in the abstract, Maoist sense, where psychology is a cult and
   not a science). I'm not a cat and I do not think cat thoughts. I am
   not a negro and while people tell me I have a "dark side," I don't
   think they mean it that way. I admit I watched Higher-Learning, Native
   Son, a Raisin in the Sun, New Jack City, and other films that detailed
   "the black experience" for entertainment first and foremost. But I
   would like to hope I have got some information out of it. And, if for
   some reason I watch a documentary on "the black experience," I would
   hope to Satan that I could get some factual information on what it is
   like to be black.
   
   The Balance Factor is grossly misinterpreted by X "Indulge Me" Jones
   The Balance Factor isn't a balance between abstinence and compulsion,
   but a balance between what you want and what you can get.