Spice Wars Study Guide
“He who controls the spice controls the universe.” — Frank Herbert, Dune (1965) It came to me in a flash last summer . Why the United States of America had spent the past two decades trying to control Afghanistan. Why Big Pharma was pushing the vaccines. It was the spice. The opium of the poppy fields. The opioids of Big Pharma. Everything was about controlling the spice. And always had been. Once upon a time, there was a Silk Road. You’ve heard of it I’m sure. The caravan road across the middle of the great Eurasian continent, linking the treasures of the Orient with the markets of the West. Except throughout the Middle Ages, the markets in the West weren’t much to speak of. A few Italian city-states. A few burghers in the north. Back in high school, I did a presentation about the fairs where they sold their spices. I even wore a costume—a hat that I got at the Renaissance Faire north of Houston, the autumn before I started college there...

"Once upon a time, Catholicism blended with Mexican chivalry and machismo to produce.....the Cristeros!!"
ReplyDeleteDear Lady!
Nice defense of medieval chivalry....when you all were discussing the calumniating rape accusations...it reminded me of a 1979 Mexican movie, 'La Santa Guerra', about my heroes-The Cristeros!!!
(https://kneelingcatholic.blogspot.com/search?q=cristero)
The other night I stumbled upon the film and thought I might gain some info or inspiration and watched it for a while...only to see
1. all Cristeros instilled with either a 'Gilligan' affect or else a 'Darth Vader' affect
2. all priests as connivers (also Darth Vaders)
3. a really 'good' Cristero gang rape scene complete with bare breasts - (which I presume was intended to indoctrinate masturbators with pro-government propaganda)
I love that you are defending medieval knights...
If you have not yet had the chance, I encourage to read (or watch youtube) about the French historian Jean Meyer. (Your career trajectory certainly is a mirror of his) He single-handedly rescued the Cristeros from their detractors, in the Mexican Government , the Mexican Protestant Churches and IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
Jean Meyer.....
1. came to Mexico in the 1960s as a Marxist grad student
2. needed a doctoral thesis
3. picked an obscure topic (the early 20th Century Cristero War in Mexico)
4. was totally won over to the Catholic side by his interviewing hundreds and hundreds AND HUNDREDS of Cristero veterans
His treatment of his topic was so thorough that he made it impossible for the other side to come back with a scholarly revision. He drove them off field of play. It is too bad that pornographic smears are just as effective.
(When I listen to Owen Benjamin make his ignorant attacks on medieval Catholics --you really should challenge him on that-- I wonder if he-or anyone- realizes that the middle ages didn't end in Mexico until 1929)
Oh! Forgot to complete the positive identification of the Cristeros with knightly Crusaders of yore.
DeleteThe Cristeros were totally dedicated to Our Lady and carried images of her into Battle. (when is the last time you saw something like that?!)
Also--as opposed to Government and Protestant smears against the Cristeros-- Popular culture sometimes did celebrate their bravery...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM8NbvGvXfc (most famous ever Mariachi singer singing a ballad about a Cristero peasant martyr)