It's everywhere. On the left, on the right. I'm talking about wanting to belong to a pack of people and loving being there just to be there. Once that get's established you can throw all the truth you want at people and they will ignore it. Sometimes at their peril.

I've seen groups of people point out that another group is being played for suckers failing to see they too are being played for suckers. I see this all the time in religion, politics and other areas. It's an old game. It's called divide and conquer.

So my warning is don't think you are smarter than the people you are making fun of. You might be an idiot as well.

“I’m the one doing the right thing, for the right reasons, with the right people!”

--Everyone posting on social media

Yes. Everyone is master of the universe on social media. I don't need the Mormon program to become a god. I'm already one on social media.

Bingo!
That's my conclusion seventeen years after I left Mormonism.
Community is another name for Wanting to belong to a pack of people and it explains why the Mormon church is successful where there is community for them where they interact on a daily basis.

Ever since I left the church, I have helped dozens of people leave the church, including my family and relatives. Many of them were interested to find out the truth about the church's claims, but at the same time they were disaffected by the Mormon community that they belonged in.

Leaving the Mormon church is like drug rehab. You can't make anyone quit. You can hit them with all the facts you have but unless they themselves choose to do it, it's not happening.

You would be hard pressed to find a more expensive habit. Mormonism is spiritual crack.

I defer to your greater knowledge, Tom, but my suspicion is that 10% of your income can buy a much better high than Mormonism.

Some Mormons are so addicted to the church it’s like heroine. They have to have their fix or they lose it.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's everywhere. On the left, on the right. I'm
> talking about wanting to belong to a pack of
> people and loving being there just to be there.
> Once that get's established you can throw all the
> truth you want at people and they will ignore it.
> Sometimes at their peril.
>
> I've seen groups of people point out that another
> group is being played for suckers failing to see
> they too are being played for suckers. I see this
> all the time in religion, politics and other
> areas. It's an old game. It's called divide and
> conquer.
>
> So my warning is don't think you are smarter than
> the people you are making fun of. You might be an
> idiot as well.

Your above statements are very true. The reason they are true is that human beings are social animals--the need to belong is buried deep within our psyches. There were good reasons for this given early human history, but this need has the propensity to destroy us as well as to save us.

Trouble is that the current church does not provide the strong social bond it once did. More people now feel they're not part of the pack even though they're doing all the right things.

This very well maybe true, people today all tend to be doing their own thing, less community involvement, the boy scours are gone which was set up to teach masculinity and conformity, service to community, also people are working less hours they are valuing their time over being busy all the time like in the past, sex is at an all time low, marriage is being delayed until people start their careers and have saved $100,000 for a down payment for the stater home that was a fraction of the cost 20 years ago. Families are smaller than the 1960s, and hypergammy is in full swing which means 80% of the girls are going after the 20% Chad's. Girls want some form of polygamy it looks to me like .

"More people now feel they're not part of the pack"

They've even stopped marking their territory.

I think this is true of all churches. I have watched congregations walk into church. I can see on their faces that it's a farce. Why are so many people disconnected from spirit? It may be true that the leaders are failing the church, but they provide a space. Maybe that's enough. On Sunday, you are there assuming you are TBM. Someday you will be gone. All of that will be gone, but it is here now. So do you treat now as a blessing? Do you teach others to? Or is now a curse to be escaped from? Many go to church and zone out. They do not understand. Who will teach them?

Great comment. People are addicted to guidance and other people to make living easier. The church feels this need as well as providing a connection to meta understandings like God, there universe, and everything.

It is a very boring drug if that is your truth. It is a very abusive and restrictive group of people if that is your thing.

"It's everywhere. On the left, on the right. I'm talking about wanting to belong to a pack of people and loving being there just to be there. Once that gets established you can throw all the truth you want at people and they will ignore it . . .

COMMENT: Are you talking about RfM? That's been my experience too! :)

Henry Bemis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> COMMENT: Are you talking about RfM? That's been
> my experience too! :)

:^)

-Heh. Henry, at least they don’t censor you.

I didn't see that when you're part of the church in Utah and it's not an us against them. Everyone you know and interact with is involved. It was more of a way of life than a strong social pack.

Rubicon Wrote:
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> . . . you can throw all the
> truth you want at people and they will ignore it.
> Sometimes at their peril.
===============================

Not only ignore, actively "I-ain't-watchin'-no-witch-hunt-hearings" rejecting.
Cultured studied determined willful ignorance.

Question is why.

Uncertainty makes life scary, can "solve" that with "we have all the answers" Belief.
Create a pretend-world where all is known, everything makes sense.
But it's tenuous because reality is always butting in and threatening the pretend-world.
So have to actively avoid realities, a determined willful not-seeing-what-is.
Tenuous nature of Belief is why they're always threatening to kill truth-tellers: it's the only solution.
It's the seed of paranoid siege-mentality. Doomsday preppers.
It's why these gather in like-believing herds for a sense of shared security.
It's why "fake news" and conspiracy-beliefs (these are not theories: these are beliefs).
It's why excommunications of those leaving the herd are so vehemently vindictive.
It's why the Crusades, Thirty Years' War

But the cultured determined not-seeing of the external realities unavoidably extends also to the inner world of self.
It's why these end up with a pretend-self.
This is why hypocrisy - they don't even see what they are actually doing; the pretend-self is not hypocritical.
It's why these have no idea who they really are.
At the end of life they don't know what it was all about.

It's why the predominant emotional tone is paranoia, fear, anxiety, rage, and a sense of ropes-end desperation.


> It's everywhere. On the left, on the right.
===============================
Because both extremes have this same structure.