Secularism AND Humanism

Secularism says basically whatever your religious position/philosophy, including atheism, it is irrelevant in the eyes of the law. Secularism does not necessarily preclude strange rituals and prohibitions, it does however stand against any group being able to impose their rituals and prohibitions on even their own members and adherents in anything but a voluntary capacity.

Humanism is the idea that just because a holy book or quasi-historical figure or leader (spiritual or temporal) says "Thou Shalt" or "Thou Shalt Not" does not carry any weight above and beyond the deliberations and decisions of rational human beings working together to create a mutually agreed set of rules by which to live. They are often traveling in the same direction but they are horses of rather different colours.

Gods in Wicca

I often explain the Wiccan "belief" in gods as like the western cultural belief in Bugs Bunny .

When I say Bugs Bunny, you have a picture in your mind, and we have communicated much ancillary matter by holding that common cultural icon in our minds. When a historian or Asatru or Marvel comic fan says "Thor" likewise there is an immediate mutual understanding (and grounds for endless dispute, discussion and exploration of the nature of that divine entity).

Individual Wiccan belief in Gods varies from a simplistic adoration of a pair of pseudo-parental Sky Fairies one Male one Female, to a non-theistic interpretation that draws strongly on the work of Jung on Archetypes. WIccans are not defined by a common doctrine, but only by a reverential attitude to nature and the place of human beings in it; acknowledgement of the power of romantic and sexual love and the duality of masculine and feminine natures; and a dual solar/lunar ritual calendar. Beyond that everything is up to individual interpretation.

FOOs

Forces

Of

Occupation.

Doesn't matter if the Jackboot pressing on your neck is worn by an Alien Space Bat; a member of the Bananian Army; an Officer of the Special Police; a regular beat cop or some guy from the department of agriculture, once they strap on those Jackboots they become the Forces of Occupation.

Subject, Citizen, Comrade, it matters not what you used to think of yourself as, you are now just a doormat.

In the 19th Century we could look back fondly at the 18th century revolutions, but from automatic rifle to Predator/Reaper/Avenger drone the asymmetry between "we the public" no matter how well armed and military might has grown from merely overwhelming to defying quantification. The Eureaka Stockade fell to superior training and equipment deployed with the unwavering willingness of Jackbooted thugs to act in a dishonourable manner. The Spanish Civil War saw Franco's triumph in part due to provision of state of the art aircraft by the Italians and Germans and the blockade preventing similar aid reaching the Republicans.

As the 20th Century wore on, we saw the limit of oppression being only the intestinal fortitude of the oppressors. With a few horrifying exceptions, there have been limits to how cold blooded the oppressors are willing to be. Where they have acted without qualms, the atrocities have been devastating and crushing.

In the 21st Century we are forced to confront the fact that where the rule of law loses the power to protect us, the military and the increasingly indistinguishable paramilitarized police can hunt us down and kill us at whim, limited only by their willingness to accept collateral casualties and their own core humanity. The moment they take a page from the history of the SS and start executing random civilians in retaliation for resistance, we are lost.

That raises a new specter. DNA testing means that the families of resistance fighters and revolutionaries can be targeted even where there is no traditional evidence to form links. Perhaps we have reached the point where only an orphan can oppose the might of the state.