Let's talk about this iteration of this recent meme (memetic evolution is amazing, btw) 
First, the perfect rebuttal to the interpretation of this meme where *then* we were religious but now we're not:
Maybe you need more argument on this point; if so there's plenty of reading for you at unqualified reservations.
How did we go from the left to the right?
How did we go from the left to the right?
The left religion had a bunch of outlets and rules that prevented a certain specific use of the religion; if you wanted to posture as the world's holiest man, great, go live in a monastery or as a hermit at the top of a mountain.
Society does really well - you get all the facilitation of cooperation without leaving a route to power that would be socially destructive.
Rough if you want power though.
Rough if you want power though.
At some point a mutation appears; a *new* formulation of the religion where the holiest man does deserve power. This doesn't do nearly as well for society but individuals and small groups do great when they adopt it.
They grow in wealth and power and eventually get *noticed* - this noticing is... unfriendly. They sound like heretics to the adherents to the old religion - the exact type of thing that according to the rules should be suppressed brutally.
Instead of wiping out the heretics, the adherents of the old religion exiled them to a giant, rich, lightly populated continent with insurmountable geographic barriers to invasion.
Zoom out and this is the story of a metastasized tumor; first you mutate away the protections against defecting on the whole, next the immune response from a body that still has the protections; finally the tumor escapes and using its new resources grows out of all control
Over the last few months we were seeing a body that was too sick to respond to a plague; over the last week we're seeing the individual clawing for holiness points possibly finally pull enough energy from the host to make it unable to function at all
Examples here of desperate clawing at holiness at the expense of the hard work of keeping out disorder.
Both are eager to point out how they both encouraged the chaos that now engulfs them.
Both are eager to point out how they both encouraged the chaos that now engulfs them.
Lots of people will lose eyes and worse in the disorder going on now but only this guy will get holiness status and 97k likes for losing his.
The signalling becomes a trap; you get status but you've degraded society so much that you're worse off.
Still, if you don't...
The signalling becomes a trap; you get status but you've degraded society so much that you're worse off.
Still, if you don't...
... someone else will
/fin
/fin
@threadreaderapp unroll
