Secure the Perimeter

An old truism.  Never a bad habit.  If your haven't bothered lately, now is a good time to restart.

But securing the perimeter is useful only in limited ways.  Camping, living in a inner city, etc, etc.

John Michael recently wrote an post over at Dreamwidth where he was forcefully reminded that there be some folks who want to shut down anything but their beliefs.   I kinda doubt that this is the first time that such a thing has crossed his desk, but apparently this one stung.

I am coming at it from the exact opposite end.  Dogma is the rule, not the exception.  Now that I am plowing through the "work toward magic" game, I am thinking that staying out of the clutches of the folks who are certain that they know the "right way" is going to take quite a bit of effort and slow down my progress toward the goal.

Dogma is required for a group/organization.  No other way around it.  Jim Jones was just an extreme example.  The Catholic Church's fifteen century run is primarily an outcome of a centralized enforcement of standards.

Head on over to the local Christian congregation and hang out.  What you will find is a uniformity of faith and not-too-subtle enforcement of norms.  A lot of this comes from the American habit of "congregation shopping", but as the person is assimilated into the collective, their already limited tolerance hardens into cant flavor pietism.

Well, all the "Alternative" folks have been looking at the formation of new religions. These alternative faiths (and that is what they are) like Wicca and Druid and Chaos and whatever are now just about old enough to start wearing fancy clothes, bossing the little people around, and setting up the 501(c)(3) Corporation.

I can understand John Michael's irritation at being branded an apostate. It would tend to peeve me as well. But the truth of the matter, when you are dealing with faith, there are folks out there who would be more than happy to tie people who disagree with them to a local fencepost and go out an fetch a bunch of 3-5 pound stones to bring to the party.

I kinda doubt that there are very many people out there who would agree with Krishnamurti when he gave his dissolution speech.