In which I find that cults have been declining in the United States and across the world since the 70s-80s and speculate on reasons for this “cult deficit”.
1. The Lindy Effect of religions vs cults, and how things often change after hitting a tipping point, from Greco-Roman to Christian, from Chinese Folk to Confucian-Taoism, from Vedic to Dharma, can this happen again in the next few centuries? https://megatherion.substack.com/p/the-new-axial-age/comment/7056223?s=r
3. Are AIs going to create a new religion? "Hexcorp" seems like an example of a proto-religion or quasi-cult that has sufficient crowds and principles. What are the determining factor of a Lindy Effect cult contra mainstream religion? https://rogersbacon.substack.com/p/20-modern-heresies/comment/6926733?s=r
In the current incarnation, AltHype (some wing-nut) has noted an observation in the video "The Meta Cult", that ex-Scientologists are often fundamentalist (Karen) liberals who egg on MAGA people as cultists (post-Westboro era). Even if such statements are true, it does not exclude the fact that the tribal tonality is also cult-like. Yarvin's "everyone is on crack" rings true in this regard.
A good tell for both sides, is the removal of win-win scenarios in favor of zero-sum logic. The left plays by "WAGMI" socialist virtue logic, the right alternative operates on "degen" speculative idealism (economics, not Hegel). The former looks like it is in pain yet it is with the DAO, yet Samsara exists for the latter. *time to stop with cryptobro punning* https://archive.ph/NGPiyhttps://archive.ph/uKFPlhttps://archive.ph/k3ZEK
Therefore cultism, tribalism, collectivism, transcends both time and space. It could be seen as an extension of the "verbal tilt" model, where the often genetically neurotic are more like to be both creative, idealistic/utopian, and oversocialized. could this exaplain why MLMs, NFT peddlers, and EA advocates all have similar temperaments, and have disproportionate amount of women and non-model minorities than more conventional counterparts? https://kirkegaard.substack.com/p/the-verbal-tilt-model
Questions to reconsider:
1. The Lindy Effect of religions vs cults, and how things often change after hitting a tipping point, from Greco-Roman to Christian, from Chinese Folk to Confucian-Taoism, from Vedic to Dharma, can this happen again in the next few centuries? https://megatherion.substack.com/p/the-new-axial-age/comment/7056223?s=r
2. Secularization of cults as part of the capitalist or democratic system, how can we quantify the effects of scams and MLMs effects compared to the original mail scams a few centuries ago, and cross-compare with prevalence of faith? https://rogersbacon.substack.com/p/the-cult-deficit-analysis-and-speculation/comment/4564950?s=r
3. Are AIs going to create a new religion? "Hexcorp" seems like an example of a proto-religion or quasi-cult that has sufficient crowds and principles. What are the determining factor of a Lindy Effect cult contra mainstream religion? https://rogersbacon.substack.com/p/20-modern-heresies/comment/6926733?s=r
A secondary layer of thinking:
there are a lot of mentions about "meta-cults", or how multiple cults can overlap with one another into a blob historically into a polytheistic structure. https://archive.ph/XnQ00 https://archive.ph/NHaQp https://archive.ph/xrNxi
In the current incarnation, AltHype (some wing-nut) has noted an observation in the video "The Meta Cult", that ex-Scientologists are often fundamentalist (Karen) liberals who egg on MAGA people as cultists (post-Westboro era). Even if such statements are true, it does not exclude the fact that the tribal tonality is also cult-like. Yarvin's "everyone is on crack" rings true in this regard.
Out of the cool-aid frying pan, into the "culture war" fire. The dividing line is now Rob Henderson's "Luxury Beliefs" about "premium" wokeism vs Venkatesh Rao's "Waldenponding" about primitive libertarian isolationism. Liberalism vs Libertarianism. PMC vs "Lower-Middle" Class. https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/p/against-waldenponding https://robkhenderson.substack.com/p/status-symbols-and-the-struggle-for https://putanumonit.com/2017/08/26/premium-mediocre/ https://danco.substack.com/p/michael-dwight-and-andy-the-three
A good tell for both sides, is the removal of win-win scenarios in favor of zero-sum logic. The left plays by "WAGMI" socialist virtue logic, the right alternative operates on "degen" speculative idealism (economics, not Hegel). The former looks like it is in pain yet it is with the DAO, yet Samsara exists for the latter. *time to stop with cryptobro punning* https://archive.ph/NGPiy https://archive.ph/uKFPl https://archive.ph/k3ZEK
Therefore cultism, tribalism, collectivism, transcends both time and space. It could be seen as an extension of the "verbal tilt" model, where the often genetically neurotic are more like to be both creative, idealistic/utopian, and oversocialized. could this exaplain why MLMs, NFT peddlers, and EA advocates all have similar temperaments, and have disproportionate amount of women and non-model minorities than more conventional counterparts? https://kirkegaard.substack.com/p/the-verbal-tilt-model
Is this paradigm shift into cultism simultaneously corporate (Harold Jarche), political, AND biological? https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1134367822384173056.html
Newest discovery: "death of rituals" might be tied to this https://jamesrichardson.substack.com/p/the-death-of-ritual/comment/12699807