Προφητεία (41)
Here are a few familiar statements:
1. I am not in a cult, you just don’t understand how Sri Rishi-Rama-Kam cares so much about everyone, you can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice—he’s just pure love…
2. It’s not a pyramid scheme, actually—it’s a distributed finance network, you can see from this chart how all the nodes benefit from an a-hierarchic networked financial utility management system…
3. What do you mean “she looks like a whore”?—you know, you could be happy for me because I’ve finally found someone to settle down with…we happen to be in love.
4. Look at the way he holds that fluffy little puppy—and they dare call him “the butcher of Dnipro”. How could a man who loves animals so much be responsible for that video those propagandists are putting about?…No, I refuse to watch it…“twenty women and children zip-tied and executed in a shallow grave”…that’s the description these liars are giving it…
The non-sequitur is a powerful tool, and people use it all the time to get compliance—or to delude themselves. Let’s unpick these statements from our true-believers (or is it just one person who deludes themselves time and again…):
1. I am not in a cult, you just don’t understand how Sri Rishi-Rama-Kam cares so much about everyone, you can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice—he’s just pure love…
Reality: you can be a mystical leader filled with watery-eyed love and compassion for everyone, gently placing your palms on the forehead of each adherent in a line, and also allow your minions to lock recalcitrant “Ramaites” in a tiny toilet cubicle for 12 hours to scrub it clean with a toothbrush (“No, it’s not good enough—the rishi says you can’t do this properly because you have bad karma from your 12th life, so do it again and do it properly this time.” *slams door, locks it with chilling finality*).
Logic: there is no contradiction between entering a mystical state and expressing compassion for people and also being able to order people to be locked in toilets or subject to sleep deprivation—in fact, you might have decided that all helps them on “the path of roses” and will awaken their rishi-consciousness. In short, you can be a love-filled person and also run a coercive cult—no contradiction; and, in fact, cult leaders will seem like very kind people (but people can be kind in one context and cruel in another).
2. It’s not a pyramid scheme, actually—it’s a distributed finance network, you can see from this chart how all the nodes benefit from an a-hierarchic networked financial utility management system…
Reality: just because you change the name it doesn’t change what it is—if I murder someone and call it “a premature termination of their life processes” it’s still a murder (“I didn’t do it, honest guv.”). It’s no good saying BLM isn’t a religion because it has some slight differences from Christianity—just like the “distributed finance network” is still a pyramid scheme in the way it functions. Sure, different pyramid schemes function in different ways in their particulars—just like different religions function differently in their particulars, but it doesn’t mean that you’re onto a “sure winner” this time…
3. What do you mean “she looks like a whore”?—you know, you could be happy for me because I’ve finally found someone to settle down with…we happen to be in love.
Reality: “How could I have been so stupid, I thought it was true love and it turns out she was just some treacherous hypocritical little whore—you should have seen what she’s done, I didn’t think it was possible for someone to be so cruel! How could she do this to me? *sob*.” “Yeah, mate…well, we did all say ‘what does he see in her?’”…“Why didn’t you tell me?”…“Well, we did try…but you wouldn’t listen…”. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say—one man’s plan for “the total redemption of humankind” is another man’s asinine and sentimental pipe dream…but try telling the first man that.
Still, people become invested in some person or scheme and then idealise it—and once they’re in love with an idea it’s hard to disillusion them with argument, they have to experience disillusion…“I don’t know how I could have fallen for that ‘path of roses’ nonsense, but at the time I hung on Sri Rishi-Rama-Kam’s every word…it seemed so true”.
4. Look at the way he holds that fluffy little puppy—and they dare call him “the butcher of Dnipro”. How could a man who loves animals so much be responsible for that video those propagandists are putting about?…No, I refuse to watch it…“twenty women and children zip-tied and executed in a shallow grave”…that’s the description these liars are giving it…
Reality: you can like fluffy dogs, be pictured cuddling the sweetest little puppy, and also order your men to execute twenty women and children. “But Hitler loved dogs, here’s a picture of him feeding a deer—how could such a gentle man hurt anyone ever…”. You can like Basset Hounds, Beagles, and babies and also be a killer—there have been many men like that in history. You can be both—no contradiction (I’ll leave it to your discretion whether you think “the butcher of Dnipro” is Ukrainian or Russian…).
It’s because people fall for these simple thought errors that you find people who say “BLM is not a religion”. They know better—but they convince themselves because it gratifies them, fulfils some psychological need. It’s wonderful to be in love, “money for nothing” is absolutely fantastic, it’s ecstatic to access “rishi consciousness”, and it exhilarates to adore “the angel of Dnipro” (total hero—what a guy). Deep down, I think people who say these things know it’s an act—they’ve just decided to lie to themselves and then to other people.