This is a follow up post to my first article on culture: Culture: The Death of Humanity. That post focuses on what culture is, universal morals, and then scratched the surface on how culture works. In this post I hope to dive more into what culture is capable of. As the title says, I hope to show you that culture can only exist within a cult-ish society. Trying to have culture in a society of people with free minds that can properly reason for themselves is impossible. Let's take a look at some of the insane things humans have done and see how culture was responsible.
Back In The Old Days...
Human sacrifice has been practiced all over the world. Obviously, killing anything (humans, goats, etc.) will have no effect on the rain. Killing a virgin will not make the plants grow, killing a sheep will not make you rich, and killing a cow will not give you an advantage in war. Yet, for centuries this was reality. This type of behavior was based in religion. All religions are a form of culture. The logic behind their thought is as follows: If I kill 'X,' then I will receive 'Y' from God. Although this may follow modus ponens (see my posts on logic for more info) this is unsound. We can do tests to show that sacrifice doesn't do anything. We know that killing doesn't increase or decrease the likeliness of rain. Obviously, this thought must have crossed the minds of those in the past. Some priest (I use this term to stand for a leader/preacher of any religion, not just Christianity) must have killed a few animals and promised rain. Then there was no rain. What happened next?
Back In The Old Days...
Human sacrifice has been practiced all over the world. Obviously, killing anything (humans, goats, etc.) will have no effect on the rain. Killing a virgin will not make the plants grow, killing a sheep will not make you rich, and killing a cow will not give you an advantage in war. Yet, for centuries this was reality. This type of behavior was based in religion. All religions are a form of culture. The logic behind their thought is as follows: If I kill 'X,' then I will receive 'Y' from God. Although this may follow modus ponens (see my posts on logic for more info) this is unsound. We can do tests to show that sacrifice doesn't do anything. We know that killing doesn't increase or decrease the likeliness of rain. Obviously, this thought must have crossed the minds of those in the past. Some priest (I use this term to stand for a leader/preacher of any religion, not just Christianity) must have killed a few animals and promised rain. Then there was no rain. What happened next?
Any person who was thinking logically and rationally would have said, "Sorry, I guess I was wrong. Maybe sacrifice has nothing to do with the weather. Who knows, maybe all this religious stuff is made up?" This never happened. When you are deep in a culture, you are in a cult. If you are a priest, you are the cult leader. You can't step down from that. You've worked your whole life to build up this alternate reality for the people in your community. If you suddenly say, "Nope, I was wrong," people will do one of two things. They will either feel that everything they know is a lie and the society will fall apart, or they will refuse to give up the belief and the priest will be cast out as a non believer. So, what does the priest do?
Pass the blame off. If he sacrificed a lamb, hoping to get rain, and it doesn't rain, he'll have to blame it on someone. He can blame it on a demon. He can say that it was Satan, or other evil-doer, that cursed the weather. This is certainly a possibility, but not the most effective. If you really want to brain wash people and make them worship you, blame them. If it doesn't rain, blame it on everyone else for sinning. Blame it on people taking the lord's name in vain, blame it on people indulging in drugs or sexual acts, blame it on children not obeying their parents. This is how culture works. Make people believe that they are evil and corrupt, and that you are here to save them.
This Doesn't Happen Anymore, Right?
How does this work in modern societies? It is very similar, but with less blood and gore in most cases. For example, praying is like the modern day human sacrifice. Praying has never been shown to have any effect on reality. If I pray for a cupcake to appear in front of me right now, guess what? Nothing happens. However, people will, and do, pray for anything. People pray that their sick family member will heal, people pray to win a football game, people even pray to win the lottery. Let's focus on that last one real quick.
Based on this site, about 19% of Americans are not affiliated with a religion. Some of these are Atheists, Agnostics, and some are 'Nothing in particular.' So, to round a little, 80% of people in America are religious. So, roughly 80% of Americans playing the lottery would likely be religious people. Yet, how often do they win? How often does anyone win? Let's just focus on Christianity. About 73% of the U.S. population is Christian. Shouldn't about 73% of the people playing the lottery win every time? I mean, if you have God on your side, winning a lottery should be pretty damn easy.
People obviously know that praying doesn't work. Anyone that truly believes that praying works has serious mental problems and should be avoided. But, why do people still do it? Why do they continue to go to their religious cult meetings once a week, read their silly books and pray? The answer is culture. Everyone feels they are too deep in to get out. A priest, and his/her followers, can't step out of the religion without losing all of their family and friends. It is a cult.
That is what culture is. It is a trap. You get stuck in it. Day in, day out. You do the same old things, even if they feel wrong. Why? "That's just how it is," you say. Or, "well, everybody does that, so..." Or, "I could never do that. What would ... think?" It's all culture. You never think about why anything is the way it is. You just put your head down and hope for the best. Then one day your 40, married with kids and realize how fucked you are. Your married to someone who believes that there is a man in the sky watching everyone. You've raised you kids to believe in this invisible man. How can you ever turn back now?
I honestly don't have an answer. For a twenty-something independent person, it's probably not a big deal. You can try to break the culture. Don't get me wrong, trying to escape a culture is not an easy task. You may spend years trying to figure out what true reality is compared to the 'reality' you knew. However, there likely won't be many repercussions of your actions. Maybe you have some friends who are very religious that may not want to talk to you. However, for the person married with kids, I don't know what to say. Will you be more happy living a lie for the rest of your life? Will you be more happy leaving it all behind? Could you confess to your kids that you were wrong and still expect them to believe anything you say? I don't know. I'm not going to even try to pretend to know what that would be like.
As I said at the end of the last article, I hope you take some time to consider what I've said here. This can be a big shock to many people. Most people are raised to believe that culture is good and is what brings us together. Obviously, my take on it is quite different. I plan on doing another article on culture and the state. Follow me on twitter @SkylarRuloff or check back here at AmericansAgainstTyranny.weebly.com/updates for that. Also, I still don't have my cupcake!
Pass the blame off. If he sacrificed a lamb, hoping to get rain, and it doesn't rain, he'll have to blame it on someone. He can blame it on a demon. He can say that it was Satan, or other evil-doer, that cursed the weather. This is certainly a possibility, but not the most effective. If you really want to brain wash people and make them worship you, blame them. If it doesn't rain, blame it on everyone else for sinning. Blame it on people taking the lord's name in vain, blame it on people indulging in drugs or sexual acts, blame it on children not obeying their parents. This is how culture works. Make people believe that they are evil and corrupt, and that you are here to save them.
This Doesn't Happen Anymore, Right?
How does this work in modern societies? It is very similar, but with less blood and gore in most cases. For example, praying is like the modern day human sacrifice. Praying has never been shown to have any effect on reality. If I pray for a cupcake to appear in front of me right now, guess what? Nothing happens. However, people will, and do, pray for anything. People pray that their sick family member will heal, people pray to win a football game, people even pray to win the lottery. Let's focus on that last one real quick.
Based on this site, about 19% of Americans are not affiliated with a religion. Some of these are Atheists, Agnostics, and some are 'Nothing in particular.' So, to round a little, 80% of people in America are religious. So, roughly 80% of Americans playing the lottery would likely be religious people. Yet, how often do they win? How often does anyone win? Let's just focus on Christianity. About 73% of the U.S. population is Christian. Shouldn't about 73% of the people playing the lottery win every time? I mean, if you have God on your side, winning a lottery should be pretty damn easy.
People obviously know that praying doesn't work. Anyone that truly believes that praying works has serious mental problems and should be avoided. But, why do people still do it? Why do they continue to go to their religious cult meetings once a week, read their silly books and pray? The answer is culture. Everyone feels they are too deep in to get out. A priest, and his/her followers, can't step out of the religion without losing all of their family and friends. It is a cult.
That is what culture is. It is a trap. You get stuck in it. Day in, day out. You do the same old things, even if they feel wrong. Why? "That's just how it is," you say. Or, "well, everybody does that, so..." Or, "I could never do that. What would ... think?" It's all culture. You never think about why anything is the way it is. You just put your head down and hope for the best. Then one day your 40, married with kids and realize how fucked you are. Your married to someone who believes that there is a man in the sky watching everyone. You've raised you kids to believe in this invisible man. How can you ever turn back now?
I honestly don't have an answer. For a twenty-something independent person, it's probably not a big deal. You can try to break the culture. Don't get me wrong, trying to escape a culture is not an easy task. You may spend years trying to figure out what true reality is compared to the 'reality' you knew. However, there likely won't be many repercussions of your actions. Maybe you have some friends who are very religious that may not want to talk to you. However, for the person married with kids, I don't know what to say. Will you be more happy living a lie for the rest of your life? Will you be more happy leaving it all behind? Could you confess to your kids that you were wrong and still expect them to believe anything you say? I don't know. I'm not going to even try to pretend to know what that would be like.
As I said at the end of the last article, I hope you take some time to consider what I've said here. This can be a big shock to many people. Most people are raised to believe that culture is good and is what brings us together. Obviously, my take on it is quite different. I plan on doing another article on culture and the state. Follow me on twitter @SkylarRuloff or check back here at AmericansAgainstTyranny.weebly.com/updates for that. Also, I still don't have my cupcake!