Ray E. Toler, Jr.

That poem, ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter,’ that’s an indictment of organized religion. The Walrus, with his girth and his good nature, he obviously represents either Buddha, or with his tusks, the Hindu elephant god Lord Ganesha. Now, that takes care of your Eastern religions. Now, the Carpenter, which is obviously a reference to Jesus Christ, who was raised a carpenter’s son, he represents the Western religions.

Now, in the poem, what do they do? What do they do? They dupe all these oysters into following them, and then proceed to shuck and devour the helpless creatures en mass. Now, I don’t know what that says to you, but to me it says that following these faiths based on mythological figures ensures the destruction of one’s inner-being.

Organized religion destroys who we are by inhibiting our actions, by inhibiting our decisions, out of, out of fear of some intangible parent figure that shakes a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says, ‘Do it . . . do it and I’ll fucking spank you!’ — Loki