Sunday, April 11, 2010

We don't need a messiah, and I'm not the one, says Raj Patel...

Firstborn sons of British Asian families aren't so much raised as feted, and as a child I became quite comfortable being a little prince. At seven years old, I wanted the privileges of primogeniture to carry on forever. When people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I responded with the full spectrum of acceptable answers: Accountant! Dentist! Quantity Surveyor! Secretly, though, I wanted to be full-time royalty. From what I saw of the British monarchy – and I have yet to be disabused of this view – it seemed that if you were born in the right place and time, you could enjoy almost permanent adulation, free money and long hours of indolence.

I mention this first because earlier this year a trickle, and then a flood, of email asked whether I was, in fact a prince. Specifically, people asked whether I was Maitreya – The World Teacher – a prince of peace, the leader of a movement that might be able to save the planet from itself. Others wrote to ask whether I was the antichrist, the Prince of Darkness. More...

Don't miss:

  1. Why is this Indian dude being hailed as the Messiah?
  2. Barack Obama is the ... Antichrist???
  3. Obama the Saviour, the Anointed One, has come...
  4. The Church of Joy? Or mob hysteria...
  5. Dalai Lama's "Buddha Boy" turns his back on Nirvana!!!

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