And we thought pork belly politics were too much in Congress. In Kyrgyzstan, legislators have sacrificed seven sheep to drive out evil spirits out of the parliament chamber.
The meat will be given to the elderly and the disabled, according to Parliament press officer Shairbek Mamatoktorov. The evidence of the evil spirits included disagreements between the two parties that came to an actual brawl recently on the floor. Sounds familiar.
Scapegoating is a remarkably widespread practice that is found in the Old Testament. In Ancient Greece, it could be a person like a criminal or a beggar. Somehow goats or sheep became the common choice for this primitive tradition.
We have seen chickens continued to be killed as part of the Jewish Kapparot tradition.
What is astonishing is that some nations remain in the control of such superstitious throwbacks.
Source: Salon
I wonder if this is the origin of “Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing.”…..
At least the poor got some mutton out of the deal. That’s more than can be said for the American solutions to political arguments.
What I’m concerned about is that after the evil spirits come to inhabit the sheep — I think it’s naive to assume that the spirits will simply be “driven away” — the accursed meat is being given to the elderly and the disabled. Why are the Kyrgyz legislators trying to damn those vulnerable groups? It’s euthanasia by another name!
Fortunately, we are a much more civilized people. When evil spirits infect the halls of Congress, we get rid of them by sacrificing the poor, the elderly and the disabled.
Mike A.,
And what is the difference….the poor are still getting fed by what was left by the fat cats….
Mike A. and AY,
Well said. The poor and elderly are getting fed the shaft.
If we did this here and it worked?
Congress would be largely empty affterward.
I’m going to have to talk to my butcher about this … I want to be certain he isn’t giving me any evil-spirit infected meat.
I’m not sure if “evil spirits” is the right way to put it.
As I understand it there were several people killed in the parliamentary building in the fights April 2010 and the sheep were sacrificed to lay those haunting souls full of anger to rest.
Yes, that is incredibly superstitious and irrational.
But they where just three hairs away from sliding into ethnic civil war last year and sometimes politics is all about symbols.
*I* would sacrifice sheep if that symbol would help preventing civil war in my country. Better than “second amendment remedies” or “no-fly-zones” and “military advisers”…
And it is a nice change to see stupid believes helping to dampen ethnic strife rather than promoting it.
Our Congress regularly has a prayer before the opening of sessions. Isn’t this the Kyrgyz version of prayer?
Isn’t one persons religion another person’s superstition?
ya know that one ewe on the left front in the picture is kinda cute.
pete,
Ewe’er such a romantic.