58. Borrowed Illusions

58.


Borrowed Illusions

Just what is going on in this old Cuzco church?

Well, it looks to me like the military conquerors and colonists from Spain used the psychological warfare techniques developed by Rome to control their European minions--based on the always-powerful pre-Christian God-man myth plus a heavy fear-trip as perpetrated by the Spanish Inquisition--to subdue the South American human beings. But it is also clear that these present-day totally subdued and entirely brainwashed “natives” love living in their borrowed illusion and would not willingly give up any of it.

Perhaps we are all most content living in our own favorite, familiar and comfortable daydream and, since there is security and power in numbers, we like it when multitudes share our fantasy to some extent. Maybe this is why missionaries and military expeditions still exist today—to make the world safe for someone’s favorite illusions.

I flow out in the evening to watch the Good Friday parade.

The military might of Peru is represented by plenty of snappy troops formed up in front of the old cathedral. Political bosses wearing black suits with red sashes lead the parade as it leaves the cathedral. Men carrying statues of various saints flickering with battery-powered psychedelic colored electric lights follow them.

In effigy, "the late J.C." (Jesus Christ) is there in a spiffy new coffin. The pyramid lady herself, His statuary mother, dressed in a starry dark blue robe, is quietly strobbing along behind Him.

It is wonderfully colorful street theater. The streets are jam-packed crowded and everyone is deadly serious. There are no “unbelievers” here and no one smiles.

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