freaks, monsters, and raelians.
Spring 2006. John, Patterson, and I took “Freaks and Monsters,” a general LLEA class that was about, well, uh, what people have called odd, strange, etc. There are about a million things that could be said about this class, but here’s one for today.
The whole vibe of the class was that it was really wrong to make fun of “the other.” That is, the name “Freaks and Monsters” was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. As the professor pointed out on the first day, she was actually all about teaching tolerance. We were learning that those who had been castigated as freaks and whatnot did not deserve such a treatment, and at the very least we should all respect each other as fellow humanoids, even if they were conjoined at the head or were pinheads…er, I mean, microcephalics. Yeah, I still remember that. So the professor did impart something worthwhile to me. In retrospect, it really wasn’t a terrible class, but it wasn’t great either. It was honestly interesting subject matter, but it probably could have been better, but eh, I suppose the professor was trying and it was a 200-level lecture class, so it’s not going to be the best ever.
Actually, that’s neither here nor there, but that’s enough of a disclaimer of me not actually out to hate on the class or the professor. That being said, that class had its moments:
Oftentimes in class I was gagging on the amount of “tolerance” that was crammed down our throats, and then suddenly one day there was a clear break. I am almost certain it was the last day before Spring Break, because I remember thinking that I would soon be free, only having to tolerate one more period of tolerance.
The topic was cloning. At one point the professor starts talking about the Raelians, which for those of you who don’t know, is some small UFO-cult that claimed that they had already successfully cloned a human.
The class had covered way “kookier” things than Raelism, but for some reason this small UFO cult that claimed they had cloned a human was the professor’s breaking point. She started cracking a ton of jokes about how crazy they were. I mean really, she spent at least a good twenty to thirty minutes surfing around their website, reading every claim they made on the site out loud, and mocking them. It was actually rather vitriolic.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Raelian apologist. Nor do I really have any problem with making fun of them. I agree, they’re pretty much crazy and definitely a weird cult, but on the grand scheme of things I don’t know if they’re actually harmful or anything. God/Rael knows I’m no expert on Raelian practices and beliefs, although I guess if I remembered that day in class more clearly I might have been, since she did go into them in detail.
Anyhow, so it’s not like I was really offended or anything. But I definitely noticed it was a clear break from her “love everyone” mentality, and that makes it stick out in my mind for some reason. I wonder if someone in her family was abducted by Raelians or something.
Then we talked about Alcor, the company that has Ted Williams’ body on ice, and well, then I went and ate lunch.
