Did someone say, "mythmaking?"
DING!
One day I´ll tell you about a religion I started on a bet.
"The Divine Pine." (worked good, clever was me, the congregation already had leanings towards tree-hugging, me too!).
Had the whole ball o´ wax:
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AFTERBURNING:
Did someone say, "mythmaking?" DING! One day I´ll tell you about a religion I started on a bet. "The Divine Pine." (worked good, clever was me, the congregation already had leanings towards tree-hugging, me too!). Had the whole ball o´ wax: |
1. A prime belief, swallow that you´ll believe the rest, in this case one sugar pine is connected to all other pines by telepathy and quantum non-locality (toss in a pinch of science, them quantum-geeks have mythmaking down pat).
2. Reinforced by a tithe. Fork up a buck or two and and you sink in deeper, in this case toss the bill in a fire.
3. Repeated mantras, over and over, or you know, a hymn, didn´t have time for a book, chapter and verse. My bet had a time limit.
4. Sacrament, the good stuff like the old days, cheap whiskey and...
4. A sense of mission, gotta make everybody think the same for the good of all. Within an hour them-thar missionaries were already off proselytizing.
5. A promise of nebulous heavenly rewards and "save the world."
How long did it take to launch the "Divine Pine? About four hours.
Did I win the bet, nope, the followers caught on, got pissed and tied me to the Divine Pine. Not kidding.
Almost worked though, could tell by the look in their eyes, fanatical, worse than church.
I think I´ll avoid the details, mythmaking can get outta hand, you know, like Cadillacs, quartz crystals and Big Macs, ummm, the NFL, Stock market, umm, ENRON...
CLUES:
A. Myths are powerful, best to pit them against each other so they'll cancel out or, EGADS, you might have another RELIGION!
B. Religion-making a cinch, (or Lodge-making or Bank-making) but hazardous in the end-run. If you cook up such a mistake DO avoid excess sacrament, once a week only, in lil dinky paper cups.
A far better gig, (note missionary in background)
Dogleg Footnote: German financier Mayer Amchel Rothschild, founder of five European Rothschild banks and father of an international banking dynasty, credit for a brilliant idea. He found out that by lending out more promissory notes than he had backing for, he could create the illusion of wealth, thereby convincing more people to borrow from him. As his debtors paid up, he acquired more real wealth, at a much larger profit than interest alone would ever bear. He never had to admit that the loans he’d delivered were empty, because he always had someone’s gold stock to give the appearance of wealth.