you're going to think i'm joking, but indians have for thousands of years been obsessed with huge structures that can crush them. there is a ritual called the juggernaut. a juggernaut is a huge stone wagon, as big as they can build, that is dragged through the land on a grand tour. the idea is it's like a mobile temple, 'i'm such a great, kind, and powerful king i'm bringing god to the little people out in the boonies for a day", so the juggernaut is considered very holy. touching the juggernaut is good luck, and naturally, people would swarm them, theyd press each other into the wheels, or get their clothing caught, and be mulched up. youd think that would be the end of it. actually, for the indiant 'ignoring danger' is considered very honorable, great bravery. so young men would stand before this slow steamroller daring each other to be the last to move. this too, was a source of death. you think thats the bottom but it isn't. you see, touching the juggernaut and daring the danger of the juggernaut are all well and good, those are little blessings. the *best* thing that can happen to you is to be *killed* by the juggernaut. see, you have been killed by something holy, and thus your next life will be blessed. people would lie down in itis path, lay their infants down before it, they would command their children to crouch in itis way with their eyes closed or blindfolded. this is considered racist myth today. "all the deaths were accidents" they say. even though we have photographs of foreigners pulling the children away from the wheels, and every single foreign people who ever saw the ritual said the same thing: "they sacrifice their children to a big stone wagon" perhaps this is why the indian loves the cow and the elephant, nature's crushing monoliths. who knows where this indian sickness began, perhaps some part of him misses his ancient charioteer masters, who brought prosperity even as they trampled.
United States