Thursday, October 19, 2017

"Viking Therapy" Club - white men gone wild

Dougal Shaw, BBC.co.uk/news; Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly


Viking Club where men fight their demons
It's Fight Club all over again, this time in real life, like our annual Renaissance Faire. Europeans love to kill one another, as they did for centuries before turning that war-like spirit on everyone else in imperial adventures like the creation of the US empire that aims to top the British, Spanish, Russian, German, Norse, Icelandic, Berserker, French, Portuguese, Scandinavian, Ancient Greek... and Holy Roman empires.

It looks like the set of Game of Thrones. Wolin in Poland hosts one of the world’s largest gatherings of Viking enthusiasts each year.

Hundreds come to recreate Viking culture -- and take part in fierce, competitive battles. Many are drawn by a passion for history. But, for a significant number, it’s a way of escaping their past -- a past scarred by violence.

"When I was younger, I used to get into a lot of fights. That anger, that frustration, was with me for a very long time." If your family molests or raises you violently, you'll be angry.
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Catharsis fells good but is no cure.
The Viking scene attracts people who are combat veterans, former football hooligans, and others struggling to come to terms with violence.

It also seems to appeal to men who have lost direction in their lives and are looking for a sense of purpose.

Four members of the international group called the Jomsborg Vikings, which is about 2,000 strong, explain what draws them to the Viking world, and how it has changed their lives. More
It wasn't just the men. Scythian (the Central Asian tribe of the Buddha also called Saka) Queen Tomyris was a great female warrior who captured and beheaded Cyrus the Great to take revenge for her son. The French had Joan of Arc, the Native Americans of California had Toypurina. And then there were the Amazonians in fact and fiction.

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