Mawicca | Cults | Scrooge and computers

[Olaf Solstrand]

Yulcx, a huge religious quarrel on Wicca... which _I_ started! Help!

Let me first say that if I knew Wicca was a religion, I would NEVER have written 
what I did. When reading Blum's story, it gave me the impression that Wicca was 
some sort of eccentric game or something - well, let's face it, what Blum shows 
of Wicca is not exactly flattering for Wicca.

And, for Wiccans on the list, let me clear up that I _don't_ think that Wicca is 
some sort of eccentric game - but that was the impression that story gave me.



Katie wrote:
> However, I am uncomfortable with the idea of
> Magica being identified as Wiccan.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH CONTAINS SPOILERS
-----------------------------------------------
She is not. In fact, Magica HATES Wiccans, as their "white magic" is slowing 
down witchcraft websites. But then, she dresses up like a wiccan and fools all 
of Scrooge's employees into "finding their inner selfs". In that way they're no 
hinder to her, and without knowing (or caring, as they're bewitched), they help 
her gain the dime. As I had never heard of Wicca, I was only confused. All I saw 
was that Magica dressed up in white, gave Donald some tea and suddenly all of 
Scrooge's employees was running around doing things I couldn't understand 
anything of ("I'm a sheep!").
-----------------------------------------------
END OF SPOILERS





As for whether Wicca is a cult or a religion, I wouldn't know as I don't know 
much about Wicca - but I've seen encyclopedias saying that Wicca is a cult. (the 
same encyclopedia says that a cult is a religious group that does not have 
strong organization structure (unlike sects, if that IS the English word for it)
, thus there's nothing negative about the word "cult". I would agree that the 
word "cult" has a negative tone (perhaps because it's never used about the world 
religions?), but according to "Caplex" a cult and a religion can be the exact 
same thing.)

Thus: _IF_ this is correct, I can agree with Sigvald on calling Wicca a cult (as 
long as everybody agrees that there's nothing negative about that word), but I 
will not agree with Sigvald on saying that Wicca is NOT a religion (as I find it 
to be that as well). But please don't take only my word for it. I've seen only 
ONE source, and as we all know that won't make me a Wicca expert.

As we're all off-topic anyway: I'm interested in learning more about Wicca. 
Anyone have any good tips on where to find more information? (Send that to me in 
private, of course.) I _could_ just google for it, but then I wouldn't really 
know what is what. By hearing it from Wiccans, I guess I can be sure to find 
information that presents Wicca as good as possible.





Anyhow: I would like to bring up the topic computers again. In the last two 
month, only in USA _two_ stories where computers play a lead role have been 
printed. No doubt computers will have an important role for our Ducks in the 
future - but I bring this up because these two stories show two DIFFERENT sides 
of Scrooge's view on computers.

In the Geoffrey Blum story in U$#320, Scrooge hates computers. He only has them 
because his employees can't work without them. But in the Rune Meikle story in 
DDA#1, Scrooge owns the world's leading computer firm (McDuckintosh) and uses a 
computer every day - and seems to enjoy it.

I can't really decide which one of these I like the best myself - but if 
something is so popular that everybody wants it/needs it (like computers are), 
one would believe that Scrooge would be making it. And still, I like the part of 
Scrooge that's against everything that looks like development...

By the way, I noticed something that amused me in "World Wide Witch". When 
Donald comes to work for Scrooge, Scrooge asks Huey, Dewey and Louie "Can he do 
Windows?" and they reply "Only if they're on the ground floor!". OK, a funny 
gag, but that ALSO means that Scrooge gets his software from Microsoft. Which is 
owned by Bill Gates, the richest man in the REAL world and certainly he must be 
a powerful opponent to Scrooge in the Duckburgian world as well. So why would 
Scrooge buy something from one of his opponents, making him richer? Wouldn't 
that be like trading with Flinty? Hah, I laughed when I noticed this, as I can't 
really see Scrooge being too fond of supporting Bill Gates.






Best,
Olaf the Blue