Rastafari movement=socialist religion

[CHEtheLIBERATOR]

Rastafarai speak against imperialism in terms of religion kind of interesting

[Revolutionary Youth]

Comrade, care to post some info at least? ;)

[Dóchas]

ye it wouldnt hurt ;), do you really expcet us to look it up ourselves? :D

[Killfacer]

Doesn't it also think that the king of ethiopia was some kind of god king?

[Cunning_plan]

Yeah I was going to say, in the terms of a pretentious pot head in a colourful beany looking for a justification of their existence it might. Think of the states with links to rastafarianism and let me know how socialist you think they are...

There's no socialism in it, same as every other religion, there's a few nice things and a lot of means of control...

[Pirate Utopian]

Doesnt it also have that back-to-Africa bullshit in it?

Love the music, though.

[Sasha]

homophobic, sexist, opressive, god worshippers

sounds like just your standard religion to me...

well maybe the hyms and the insence are a bit better at this one :cool:

[mykittyhasaboner]

Depends on what Rastafari you talk to. Some stray into black nationalism, and that "back to africa shit" unfortunately. While others or more sympathetic towards oppressed people everywhere, and are more anti-colonialist than anything.

Either way its just to religious, their dreads are cool though. Their music as well...

[Random Precision]

Sigh. You have black people in Jamaica being told to accept a white queen's rule and worship a white god who instead decide on their own black king and to worship a black god. No one can say there isn't at least something progressive about that.

[Cunning_plan]

how is it progressive... its just sideways

[Vendetta]

Sigh. You have black people in Jamaica being told to accept a white queen's rule and worship a white god who instead decide on their own black king and to worship a black god. No one can say there isn't at least something progressive about that.

And drugs.:thumbup1:

[synthesis]

how is it progressive... its just sideways

It's progressive because it is turning the paradigm of white superiority on its face.

Rastafarianism is what Marx would call the "nationalism of the oppressed" expressed in religious terms. I don't think it's our place to condemn it.

That said, I do find this hilarious.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/40968/saturday-night-live-digital-short-ras-trent

[Cunning_plan]

if the skin colour has changed but the social implications have got worse how is that progress? can kind of see it on a racial front but looks more like the illusion of progress.

[Dimentio]

It's progressive because it is turning the paradigm of white superiority on its face.

Rastafarianism is what Marx would call the "nationalism of the oppressed" expressed in religious terms. I don't think it's our place to condemn it.

That said, I do find this hilarious.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/40968/saturday-night-live-digital-short-ras-trent

I condemn the angel who inflicted the idea in someone's head to create this thread.

[Bud Struggle]

http://www.trilogyarts.com/myspace-selassieIpainting.jpg

He's the man!

[Holden Caulfield]

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/66/766-004-C9DCD21B.jpg

[Bud Struggle]

Your guy definitely has a nice hat, but mine has more medals.

[Sasha]

but mine has even more medals and ate people :p

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/08/17/images/2003081703580101.jpg

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

Haile Selassie wasn't all that socialist, but he was the black leader of a black country when the Euros were ruling the world.

Of course, Ethiopia had been given to the Italians to conquer, and the only way that was going to happen was by accident :lol:

[iraqnevercalledmenigger]

Rastafarianism shows how badly socialists have failed to win a strong role in oppressed communities in some ways. Whether it was the failure of those in the anti-colonial revolution to win the allegiance of the most radical layers through their side-deals with the colonial and imperialist authorities or the rotten attitudes Communists in the U.S.A under Stalin's C.I. took towards Ethiopia when Black people in Harlem were volunteering to go bodily fight against Italian invasion.

Also people seem to like to heap some kind of "extra" scorn on Rastafarianism as if its methods and traditions of worship are any more cooky than those of more accepted religions like Christianity. A revolutionary in a country like Jamaica would side with the reaction with such an attitude given the collusion of the church with the repression of Rastafarians, most viciously symbolized by cutting the dreadlocks of various rastas as a politicals statement.

[TheCultofAbeLincoln]

Well said. I think many of the comrades here lump all religion into a category without taking into account the social conditions which lead to that belief being adopted by the oppressed. Or, in other cases, to justify oppression.