[Rule of Law]

I also find it interesting that their prescription to return to a (fictional) idealized, anarchic past, marked by small groups and descision by consensus is to implement a vast, all-powerful, autocratic state.

Personally, I love the "Druids" and other assorted heathen who practice a made-up and sanitized versions of their "religions". You wouldn't see very many modern people attend druidic ceremonies if the priest was going to choose one of the congregation of a human sacrifice. And how many tree-huggers who love the American Indians and their "nature religions" even want to think about how these savages ensured that the sun would return in the winter?

[general_re]

Ah, yes - the Church of the Latter-Day Druids (or whatever they call themselves) is one of my favorites also. Especially since what little we know of the original Druids comes mostly from Caesar's accounts of tromping around Gaul. And he had almost nothing nice to say about them - I seem to recall that one of their preferred methods of predicting the future consisted of boiling a man alive, and interpreting his screams as he died. I don't hear about that one much anymore. Maybe they've retired it ;)

[delphine]

Personally, I love the "Druids" and other assorted heathen who practice a made-up and sanitized versions of their "religions". You wouldn't see very many modern people attend druidic ceremonies if the priest was going to choose one of the congregation of a human sacrifice. And how many tree-huggers who love the American Indians and their "nature religions" even want to think about how these savages ensured that the sun would return in the winter?

Be fair to the Indians. The pre-Columbian Americas consisted of two empires, a larger number of chiefdoms, and numerous independent villages and hunter-gatherer bands. Fixing the blame for the sins of the Aztecs (who praticed ritual human sacrifice, what I believe you are referring to) onto all Indians makes about as much sense as blaming the medieval Scots for the sins of the Byzantine Empire (same continent, different people). Naturally, liberals often make the same generalization, but in reverse (the Yahi were nature-oriented and environmentally conscious, therefore all Indians were *puke*). You are right that some Indian tribes and/or empires certainly were extremely brutal.