>>One more example: Some people return to the grave of a loved one on the
>>anniversary of his or her death, lay flowers on it, and spend time in
prayer
>>or contemplation united in their loss. This is unequivocally a group
sacred
>>ritual; do you really want to call it dangerous?
of course not . . . in fact it's something i do myself [as, indeed,
are many other rituals]
but my point is NOT that rituals are dangerous -- most of them are
no doubt benign enough . . . it's the IDEA that something ought to
be done simply because we've always done it that way, or out of
some inarticulable but very powerful sense that it's RIGHT to do it,
that scares me, simply because that idea can so easily be perverted
for
uses that are not at all benign
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