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The "public image" of polytheism is the main reason why we aren't taken seriously by the average Joe.
Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't, in any way, a problem inherent to our faiths. And I couldn't care less about the average Joe's view on polytheism. So, why even bother?
Now, don't get me wrong, this isn't, in any way, a problem inherent to our faiths. And I couldn't care less about the average Joe's view on polytheism. So, why even bother?
This "public image", being how others see us, is dictated by:
1. a c. 2-millennia process of vilification of our religions, be they african, european, asian or american;
2. how we currently present ourselves to the world;
1. a c. 2-millennia process of vilification of our religions, be they african, european, asian or american;
2. how we currently present ourselves to the world;
We should take great pains adressing point 1 for a handful of reasons that seem, to me, pretty apparent - the main ones being: piety; an exercise of truth; helping fellow polytheists who do not express themselves fully simply by stigma; never again let it happen.
Less straightforward is point 2, as it implies individual accountability on what we say and write as polytheists, and how we act in the name of our Gods. And just as this is individual and personal, so is ultimately our religion with the Gods. What is there even to bother with?
We now thread in a slippery ground, for if our actions and words are personal, and so is our religion with the Gods, who are we to stablish a metric for this "individual accountability"? And what metric would that even be?
The point here being that our public image affects us as individuals and polytheist answers question number one: we are not isolated in our acts; as we act individually affects how the next is seen, which limits his workground. More importantly, we have responsibilities to the
Gods. For these reasons, individual accountability should be adressed and there should be a metric for it.
Which metric should be that? Even the most pious practitioner would be alien to the "average Joe", so how we write, speak and act about and with the Gods shouldn't be
Which metric should be that? Even the most pious practitioner would be alien to the "average Joe", so how we write, speak and act about and with the Gods shouldn't be
under that metric. For me, it is should be behaving piously. Stablish religion with the Gods in a honest, conscious and well-thought way, do not act or speakin Their names for any non-devotional ends. That does it as far as we contribute individually for our public image.
This being said, how do we affect negatively our public image in what seems to be such a large scale?
While we have consolidated a solid community of thinking and pious polytheists here on Twitter, that doesn't seem to be the norm. As soon as we step out of this oasis of ours,
While we have consolidated a solid community of thinking and pious polytheists here on Twitter, that doesn't seem to be the norm. As soon as we step out of this oasis of ours,
we find a spectrum of "polytheist" ranging from those who take their "worship" for a child-like debate on "which Power Ranger is stronger" to racists believing in the Gods as archetypes who metaphysically justify their biggoted beliefs on race (and gender), and all the degeneracy
in between.
So, even if our public image doesn't matter as far as the average Joe is concerned, it still is a mirror of what and who we are. How we have been - and are - attacked during saecula, and how that conditions us and should be adressed, is reflected in it. It also
So, even if our public image doesn't matter as far as the average Joe is concerned, it still is a mirror of what and who we are. How we have been - and are - attacked during saecula, and how that conditions us and should be adressed, is reflected in it. It also
reflects how our faiths are hijacked by loonies and, simply put, human scum, and how that distorts the image of polytheism and spits on the good names of the Gods.
It is not that our public image matters because of them; it matters because of us and our Gods.
It is not that our public image matters because of them; it matters because of us and our Gods.
