Holy City?

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Holy City?

11th August 2004

posted in Irascible Nonsense |

What makes Najaf a “holy city?” It’s a media label… “Meanwhile, in the holy city of Najaf?” I may be putting down an entire religious group here, but c’mon… it’s a wattle and daub village south of Baghdad on highway 9. Really, if Najaf is holy, to whom is it so? Oh. Right. The Shi-ites. Aren’t they the folks who control Iran? What a coincidence. Kind of reminds you of the protestants in Belfast.

Every time someone says “the holy city of Najaf” they’re buying into the religious warfare game. When people are killing each other it isn’t about religion and there are no holy cities. It’s about politics and power.

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1 On August 11th, 2024, Stu Savory said:
Bethlehem was a wattle and daub village too.

That’s not a reason for it to be unholy, fp!
2 On August 11th, 2024, fp said:
What makes Bethlehem a holy city?
3 On August 11th, 2024, mememomi said:
yer prolly right about the politricks an power angle, but no need to dis the en-tire kitnkaboodle is there? some do take that stuff seriously (prolly the most disenfranchised).

i think it might be fair to say that the city has some special, unique, religious significance to some people. of greater religious significance than, say, brooklyn, i imagine. tho what could be holier than a new york deep dish pizza, you’d have to ask them.
4 On August 11th, 2024, brian moffatt said:
Protestants in Belfast?

Please cite one instance of a Prod referring to Belfast as a holy city.

Or are you implying that Belfast is a wattle and daub village? If so you really should pay a visit. Okay so that’s not about to happen for you I suppose but still…

And I’m not certain I’ve ever heard
the media refer to Belfast as a holy city. What are you thinking here Frank?

There’s nothing holy about Belfast.

Other than that you’re right about the politics and power aspect of warfare. Still, I’m not sure than religion and all its holy rollers can be amputated from the body politic.
5 On August 11th, 2024, fp said:
Next year in Jerusalem.

Is there anyone else I might offend?

Dresden. Now there was a holy city.

Tokyo. The fire bombing did wonders for the construction trades.

Hiroshima.

I know that Bethlehem is quite the tourist Mecca…

whoa!!! Mecca!

and how about Oakland?

What makes a holy city a holy city, and if there is such a thing, isn’t it a little bizarre that you might think it holy but no major gob smackage occurs for me when I visit?

Which side of Sharon’s wall is Bethlehem on I wonder?
6 On August 11th, 2024, fp said:
Whoops… my mind ran right past the question… Ireland is mostly Irish, except where it’s English. The English, those smug colonizers, found a beach head in northern Ireland. And they covered their colonialism, their economic imperialism, with the holy tabu of religious strife. Who knew it was about pounds sterling? It certainly seemed to be about protestants and catholics!

That’s where I was going with the Belfast bit. And it’s deep and I’ll grant that there are too many true believers. But at the bottom are the cynical power mongers who manipulate that faith.
7 On August 11th, 2024, brian moffatt said:
You might also offend the fans of Elvis Prelsey by suggesting that Graceland is not sacred ground.
8 On August 11th, 2024, brian moffatt said:
THE ENGLISH?

Frank, get your history right. The Prod aspect of Norn Iron is Scots!

Don’t get me started.

Dublin is more English than Belfast ever was or ever will be.
9 On August 11th, 2024, brian moffatt said:
BUT…

…back to your original point. I think.

I remember reading once - I think it might have been Herbert Marcuse - about the TIME-ification, the condensation and reduction of language in the news media. The media labelling. ie ‘the holy city of…’ Take an adjective and a noun, combine them, and the label sticks. The lingo of briefing mechanisms.

Imagine a factory somehwere that does this.

‘The phlegmatic technologist Frank Paynter.’

That you may or may not be either phlegmatic or a technologist becomes irrelevant. The label sticks. No one doubts or questions the meme.

‘The radical cleric…’ ‘Presidential hopeful’ ‘ ‘the troubled region of…’ and so on.

And so why is Najaf holy?

At least I know why Bethlehem is holy. It’s the birthplace of steel. But yeah…Najaf?
10 On August 12th, 2024, Dean Landsman said:
What makes Bethlehem a holy city? Well, the other two choices were Easton and Allentown, so it became a no-brainer.
11 On August 12th, 2024, memer said:
holy city = some place where somebody considered holy did something holy-like. like, being born there or mebbe signed a long-term stable lease or some such.

so, yeah, graceland counts, too.

frank, i don’t get why this is so perplexing. ’splain it for the slow kids in the back of the class, please.