physics guy wrote:Effective cults need no fence. Is this your point, Gadianton?
This is the crux of the whole thing, and so yes, dead on. Salvete, MG 2.0, here is an example of somebody who displays reading comprehension before criticizing. The board rules don't force you to do so, but if you're going to rain on somebody's parade, it's always more effective to know what the parade is commemorating.
physics guy wrote:I see two ideas in the OP and I wonder how to relate them. The first is the idea of secrecy, with people who share an unusual background recognizing each other by secret handshakes, as it were, and blowing dog whistles to find each other without anyone else noticing. The second is the idea of people caring much more about something than most people would. The two ideas are connected because people who care especially much about something may try to find each other without betraying their unusual interest to outsiders. I’m not quite sure which idea Gadianton really meant to express in calling Mormonism a cult.
My guess is that his thought was that the secret-handshake dog-whistle behavior of Mormons shows their extreme, cult-like investment in their religion. This is how I interpret the Reptilian analogy. If you just think that of course Reptilians are monsters because they’re Reptilians, duh, then it’s not surprising that they would reveal themselves to each other secretly and chuckle inside about it. If you think about it more seriously, though, it seems childish for a few Reptilians, far from home for so long, to be so excited about eating humans while pretending to be humans. Evil isn’t just banal, it’s idiotic. The Reptilians must in fact be brainwashed culties, and their oh-so-clever signaling to each other just betrays this.
Talk about knocking it out of the park, I should have just PM'd you and had you write it. The bolded is of particular importance.
My only hesitation is where you say 'may try to find each other' and the gaydar connection -- In the first instance as the invasion begins, central command likely tries to avoid placing the Reptilian agents in close enough proximity to where they would be able to find each other. And in fact, they avoid looking for each other -- don't want to risk blowing cover, and don't want too be too close if another agent is found out. But all the more satisfying, isn't it, when by whatever happenstance, the two end up in unexpected proximity and share the brief moment of recognition.
"yes brother, it is I." And then turn away from each other quickly to get back to their work.
Now think about the Mormon idea of the pre-existence. Was the pre-existence a cult? Perhaps. But God the Father knew that the allegiance of his children meant very little without the possibility of the children being distracted by something else. And so, God really goes way beyond the Reptilians here, because the Reptilians aren't necessarily looking for a challenge to build character, it's existential. Character building (in the way cultists conceive of good character) is secondary. God had to create this big diversion and then everybody goes out blindfolded, and only those with the identity of Godhood printed deepest within their souls will figure out that it's all a ruse and focus on the mission with the fervor to pass the test.
There's some major tension with the idea of free agency. On the one hand, the fence exists within the mind as you observed, so how can anyone who makes it back be anything but the most deeply programmed? But agency is important, because you have to pretend that everything could be otherwise so that the truth of Godhood doesn't appear circular. It's like in the movie Gladiator, when Russell Crow had "seen how they lived" in regards to the barbarians, which justified Rome's dominance and subversion. A "Yankee White" Roman who had never lived abroad can be deeply committed, may never have wandered after other Gods, but can't validate Rome the way the man who lived among the world could. I imagine the Reptilians at some point developed analogous ideas to humanism that justifies their identity from a standpoint of would-be objectivity.
The idea I meant to express, from your first paragraph, I think connects to your last observation -- the secret (as Reverend K distilled it) must be tried from outside the boundaries of the insular community. Hyrum Abiff was confronted by three attackers trying to get the secrets of masonry, and so the importance of his work must have involved Hyrum out and about, facing the dangers of the forest.
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