Subject: [Z(enseider)Z] You’ve probably read this elsewhere…
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 16:59:31 -0000
From: “Victor” < baphomet257[at]yahoo[dot]com >
To: zenseiderz
I’ve identified a unique form of hypocrisy in the New Age community. I’m calling it “NAFTI” which is short for “New Age Fluffy Tolerant Intolerance.”
Yes, it seems to be a contradiction in terms but think about and you’ll probably realize that you’ve experienced the same a time or three.
Ever been talking to someone who claims to be “very tolerant” of other religions, primarily because their religion is the target of much malicious gossip and vile rumours? Have you ever met someone like this and then discovered that their “tolerance” really only extends to main-stream religions and their own little minority religion but to no other religions? Such a person is practicing “New Age Fluffy Tolerant Intolerance” or “NAFTI.”
Consider this: You’re at a meeting of pagans, maybe at your local college, maybe at a Rainbow Gathering (where NAFTI seems to be the rule.) You’re happily chatting away with a group of people who practice a very popular form of neo-Paganism when you say, “Well, I practice Voudon.” Suddenly the conversation stops, people near you shrink back, and someone says in a low voice, “That’s not cool…. Those people kill animals…. Animals have rights, too!” That’s NAFTI in action: “My religion is cool because it doesn’t violate my beliefs but yours is not cool because it kills animals.”
Or for that matter when you meet up with some New Age Fluffy who preaches tolerance and then takes umbrage at something that you say or do. They often respond with, “If you don’t try to break the cycle of karma, you’ll keep coming back to relearn these important lessons.” Well, dip-shit, for your information I don’t believe in reincarnation or even a fucking after-life. When I die, I intend to turn to dust. Yup, I’ll be worm fodder upon my demise– no coming back, no returning, no picking up “life lessons” where I left off. Life isn’t about “lessons” for all of us– for some of us it’s a hobby between restful periods of oblivion.
Similarly, you can be talking to someone in your local Barnes & Nobles Booksellers’ Occult Section and you grab a copy of Crowley’s “777” to illustrate a point you’re making. The person you’re talking to chimes up, “That’s from Crowley and he was a liar and a thief of other people’s work. I don’t trust anything he says.” Now, this person has probably never actually read any Crowley in all his life, just what other writers have had to say about him and so he’s based his opinion on something other than the observable facts. Yup– NAFTI. Without investigating the issue for himself, this Crowley-bashing twit has (in a closed-minded fashion) branded Crowley a liar and a thief! And yet this person doubtless consider himself “very tolerant of the beliefs, practices, and religions of others.”
Also, have you ever met one of those fucktards who likes to babble about “finding the path?” “I’ve found my path, have you found your path, yet?” What the fuck is that shit about, anyway? “Find your path…. Find your path…. I’ve found MY path, have YOU found YOUR path?” Well, honey, mine ain’t no fuckin’ path– it’s brambles and it’s briars and it’s rocks and small waterfalls and poisonous snakes and wild boars and vicious dogs because ain’t nobody been here ever before except ME, BABY! For that matter, I can see beyond all this “path” analogy crap to realize that I am the goer, the way of the going, and the goal of the quest! This “path” crap is pure NAFTI because it assumes that everyone has to follow in the foot-steps of another. It assumes, “I’m not spiritually evolved enough to forge my own way through life so nobody else it, either. I’m on a pre-determined path so being on a path must be the way!”
So on this Eve of All Saint’s Day, please take a moment to reflect on tolerance– and then bash anyone who says they practice it. Ain’t nobody tolerant of nuffin’.
