(from my perspective as someone who studies and teaches social sciences...)
"Sitting on my left is Elder X of the Quorum of the 12. He will be presiding at todays meeting. Also on the stand are Elders Y and Z of the First Quorom of the 70, and Elder Wannabe who is an area 70..."
At every single meeting, the person conducting the meeting has to remind the unwashed masses that the Church has a dominance hierarchy, and furthermore always has to point out which person in the room is closest to the peak of that dominance hierarchy. As well as point out if there are any other notables who are the betters of the peanut gallery.
And it goes right down to local Branch meetings. If the branch president and first counsellor don't show up, then the 2nd counsellor on the branch presidency is "presiding" (as a missionary I was once assigned to a branch where both counsellors were inactives...)
So thanks for the weekly reminder that there is a pecking order, and we are nowhere near the top of it.
...not that far removed from a troupe of chimpanzees...
Approved Family Home Evening Meeting introduction.
"Sitting on my left is your father of the Quorum of the family. He will be presiding at today's family home evening. Also, here are Uncles Y and Z of the First Quorum of the extended family and Aunt Wannabe who is a family authority on protocol..."
WOW, that takes me back. FHE was torture when I was a kid, thanks to my ultra TBM father who basically used the church to suck the fun out of everything.....or maybe it was the church that put the "FU" in fun....I don't recall.
Anyway, after my parents died and my siblings and I sorted through all the stuff in the house, we found a box of FHE agendas that my dad had prepared for every FHE for years....back in the 50's and 60's.
They read like a church meeting agenda....who's presiding, who gives opening prayer, who gives the lesson, who does refreshments, who say's closing prayer...etc. Some of these FHE's went for hours and hours.
Nothing like being 5 years old trying to stay awake listening to church drivel for hours, and getting in trouble if not paying strict attention to the magnitude and importance of the lesson while being reverent. Uhg!
I remember sporadic family home evening meetings. Some Monday nights, Dad was out on his business, whatever that was. When we did have the meetings, they were real groaners. Dad would pray long and loud while we kneeled at the sofa. Our heads drooped, and we dropped our faces into the cushions that normally supported our butts. There was some godawful "lesson," and then we would play a Mormon board game. Bored game, more like.
Subtle, but constant reminders the state is everything and the citizens are nothing.
China does it, North Korea does it, USSR did it, Rome, Spain...all empires and dictators use this tactic. Erecting large monolithic structures like the conference center supplements the mindf**k.
It works for the most part. The difference is these mofos do it with a smile on their self-righteous faces.
Sitting on my right is Elder X of the back-door quorum, he prefers being on the top. Also on the stand are Elder Y who will be presiding on the bottom, and Elder Z who goes either way. Elder Wannabe will be officiating and jumping in when the need arises. The quorum of the 70 will be cheering and keeping score. Please have your numbered paddles ready. The audience is reminded that this is by invitation only.
The whole church hierarchy thing has always bugged me. One of my callings for a while was to do the ward bulletin, (I printed out the sacrament programs for every meeting.) When the Bishopric would give me the list of speakers, and the people saying the prayers, they would include 'President' before their name if they were say, the Relief Society president, or the Elders Quorum president. I never included the title 'President' when I typed the programs up. They claimed that every calling was equal and important, but yet they would never dream of putting 'Nursery Leader _______' will give us the invocation. The church is obsessed with titles and letting the peons know of their superior status.
Calling a man bishop after being a bishop is a bit much as well. But as Orson F. Whiteney use to say once a bishop always a bishop. The same can't be true for RS Pres. LOL!
It keeps men in the church aspiring for the attention leadership positions give them. When they reach the position they realize what a lot of free work they are doing and many times they are not qualified to do it. But the attention and power is hard to give up.
It has been over 10 years since I was released at bishop. I still get called bishop weekly at church. Last Sunday at a stake meeting, there was four current/former bishops greeting each other. "Bishop, how are you? Hi bishop, I'm doing fine, Bishop good to see you" It reminded me a an old M*A*S*H episode where a bunch of officers where introducing each other "Coronel, Major, Major, Coronel, General......."