Searching Google last week I found the Awakening mentioned only on truther sites. A more innocuous announcement has appeared on another site. Here's how this one describes the event:
The Great Awakening will be a fantastic live musical event. It will a peaceful public awareness event containing civic education addressing may topics & situations. Will have tables of various interest, the stage will be highlighted with video & will host various speakers of wisdom & inspirational vision sources. Great food, free parking, open access to the farmers market and free to the public. If you have concerns about what is
happening in the USA come share and meet others that are too!
"Wisdom and inspirational vision sources" looks more like what I'd expect from an event billed as a "Great Awakening." Historians use the term to denote a number of major religious revivals that have taken place since the founding of the U.S. Perhaps by coincidence, a Christian group earlier this month issued a public call for a "new Great Awakening." An Awakening America Alliance has come into being to further this end; it organized a number of repentance gatherings at court houses last 11 September. By some estimates, a revival now would be the fifth "Great Awakening" in American history, though some historians contend that the Fifth Awakening took place back in the late 20th century.
Apart from the name, however, there's no overt religious content that I can see in the promotion for the Troy Great Awakening. Is it a Christian event? The OathKeepers will be there, but they're not to be confused with the Promise Keepers. The OathKeepers are military and police personnel whose "oath" commits them to defy any unconstitutional orders given by the government, the constitutionality of such being determined by Madison knows who. They might have a Christian bias but I don't think it determines their agenda.
What about the music? Can we guess anything about the essential content of the Great Awakening from the acts scheduled to perform between the speakers? The Ameros claim to be "saying things that no one else is saying" and have a quote from The Matrix on the ReverbNation site. Ashes of Ruin appear to be just another metal band. The Realside also appears to be apolitical, and this seems to go for the other acts. Do they know what kind of event the Awakening is or may be? Should they be expected to endorse whatever may be said there? I'm not sure. There is an inclusive quality to events like these (perhaps too much so if it extends to truthers) so there may be no political tests involved in the booking, and no implicit endorsement of any ideology or conspiracy theory by the bands who agree to appear. The September 26 affair may simply be one that cannot be dismissed, at least as a whole, without going into Troy to take a look at it, which is what I intend tentatively to do. More on my plans as they develop.
1 comment:
The lack of detailed information about the speakers and performers scheduled says more about the Great Unawakening than you think. By keeping things close to the vest, the organizers are trying to use curiosity as a lure. That doesn't always work.
Downplaying the "truthers" suggests to me that they're realizing that the "truthers"' lame-ass claims won't fly here. The best place for them would be in a rubber room, and I happen to know one such place.
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