Narrative Warfare: The Praxis of Religion

A while back Dragon award winner and multiple time nominee Brian Niemeier wrote a series of posts on the cults afflicting Western Civilization: The Pop Cult, the Death Cult, the Fap Cult, and most recently the Mammon Mob. Using the former two as examples, Brian would explain how a cult works as a religious system.

First, let's define our terms. To qualify as a religion, a group must have three elements:

• Cult: a consistent body of rituals for public worship
• Code: a set of moral rules
• Creed: a canon of shared myths that defines a shared identity

I'll add a further criterion introduced by reader D.J. Schreffler. A religion offers adherents explanations for their past, present, and future.

• The origin story--this is part of the creed.
• Ritual laws for the here and now--see cult and creed above.
• Eschatology--the final chapter of the creed.

To which I will add this: when put into practice, a religion's praxis translates its tenants into a holistic system of governance. A viable religion is one that is self-enforcing and self-sustaining, requiring no external entity for either requirement. It is the cornerstone upon which all institutions of Civilization emerge upon, and without which such institutions hollow-out and collapse.

The Pop Cult fails because it is neither. The Death Cult fails to sustain itself; it is nothing more than a parasite. The Fap Cult and Mammon Mob also fail these tests; Fap mirrors Pop and Mammon mirrors Death.

The reason for these conclusions is simple, and that reason is this: when the cult tenants are imagined to be implemented in an environment where no external pressure exists (ie. a fantasy world), and then external pressures are introduced, they collapse under pressure every single time. The Pop Cult cannot defend itself against any aggressors, the Death Cult cannot sustain losses, the Fap Cult folds faster than Superman on laundry day, and the Mob rolls over like a kicked dog.

The real-world proof is the hostility these cults show towards actual, viable religions. They know they're inferior parasitic cults and resent real religions accordingly, nevermind the true faith, and this hatred seethes out of every institution they've hollowed out and wear as a decomposing skinsuit. It should be no surprise that civilizational collapse comes as a consequence of the presence of such cults and the degeneracy they promote.

And for those in the back, it is exactly this sort of practice--born of decades of being a a tabletop RPG GM and the world-building one routinely engages in--that slowly brought me back from the mire of irreligion.