[{"post":{"author":"Tariq Desai","body":"\"DISOBEY, v.t. To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command.\" ~ Ambrose Bierce\r\n\r\nToday, be a blasphemer. Hug a heretic. After you read this, go slay some sacred cows. But, get this right, you're not to pick the easy ones - not the fat, bow-legged, short-sighted cows, the thick fillets-on-four-legs already cosying up to the butcher. The ones you want to hunt down will be trim, lively, prize-specimen sacred cows. Hell, slaughter a farm of them. Skin them, roast them over a low fire and let them cook through. Turn out a line of leather jackets.\r\n\r\nYou have much choice. Religions are of course bountiful hunting grounds, but today you'll want to pursue the more unsuspecting of cherished beliefs. Plumb the depths of your community's moral presumptions, find a principle too valuable to question and turn it on its head, renounce it, cut it up. Be analytical or be brash, subtle or vulgar.\r\n\r\nWill this make you feel happy or inspired? Unlikely. Will it give your life new meaning or help you find yourself? Hopefully not. But it will certainly make 2013 begin on an interesting note.\r\n\r\n\r\nTariq Desai \r\n@tariqDesai\t \r\nCape Town, South Africa\r\n\r\n","date":[2013,1,1],"subject":"[The Listserve] The Joys of Blasphemy"},"post_html":{"body":"
\"DISOBEY, v.t. To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command.\" ~ Ambrose Bierce
\nToday, be a blasphemer. Hug a heretic. After you read this, go slay some sacred cows. But, get this right, you're not to pick the easy ones - not the fat, bow-legged, short-sighted cows, the thick fillets-on-four-legs already cosying up to the butcher. The ones you want to hunt down will be trim, lively, prize-specimen sacred cows. Hell, slaughter a farm of them. Skin them, roast them over a low fire and let them cook through. Turn out a line of leather jackets.
\nYou have much choice. Religions are of course bountiful hunting grounds, but today you'll want to pursue the more unsuspecting of cherished beliefs. Plumb the depths of your community's moral presumptions, find a principle too valuable to question and turn it on its head, renounce it, cut it up. Be analytical or be brash, subtle or vulgar.
\nWill this make you feel happy or inspired? Unlikely. Will it give your life new meaning or help you find yourself? Hopefully not. But it will certainly make 2013 begin on an interesting note.
\n
Tariq Desai
@tariqDesai\t
Cape Town, South Africa