Sectarian Tactics
[yes, true believers -- the Stitch-Faced American Sweetheart lives on, but the third part is stretching my head and will appear as soon as it achieves manageable shape]
THE FRENCH in their logomania developed an axis for classifying alchemical writers according to whether they used strict or loose encryption. Strict alchemists are called "grudging" because you really have to fight their texts to crack the code and get the treasure out; in contrast, there are also "generous" alchemists who hide their secrets in what appears to be plain sight. Further complicating the matter is the fact that "generous" attention to "grudging" texts renders them "generous," whereas "grudging" attention to an overtly "generous" text delivers "grudging" results.
This axis can also be applied to initiatic groups in terms of both the freedom with which they disseminate information and the demands they make on members. Some of these demands are financial in nature. If you belong to a group, is it "generous" or "grudging?" Does it expect its members to be "generous" or "grudging," and how do those members comply to this standard?
I. Among initiatic groups originating in English, some make a concerted effort to diversify their linguistic base in their first century of life and others do not. This is a fundamental investment tactic. The Theosophists, for example, are basically irrelevant in English today but are still relatively huge in Marathi and Hindi. AMORC is a joke up here but they take it very seriously in South America. Parallel cases of groups not originating in English include gelugpa buddhism (big in Cali) and Christianity (huge in Rome), and the Martinists are world-famous in the Caribbean. Is your gold alone among metals sterile, or does it propagate?
II. A sectarian group can acquire economic leverage through its members most efficiently by capturing the membership's biggest expenses first. The early Christians, for example, developed traction by providing funeral insurance, since burial in style was a necessary expense for everyone in Roman society and the overriding financial worry at the time. The early Mormons famously built the ZCMI chain of frontier stores, capturing the more scattered everyday transactions of LDS membership.
IIb. The primary financial worry for middle-class members of sectarian groups today is retirement, followed by educating the kids and more distantly by housing. Healthcare may be coming up. Logically, a group could efficiently capture a deep slice of its membership's lifetime assets by instituting an internal retirement strategy, which would divert member funds from outside institutions and capture the various fees and custodial advantages for the group. Obviously, this would have to be fiduciarily sound and offer a competitive quality of life compared to "secular" retirement models. Groups too poor to reasonably fund profess houses of this type should consider educational alternatives -- alternatives that can be accredited competitors to the public system, teaching exoteric subjects like algebra as well as subjects of internal interest. Groups too poor to fund an educational model should look to the biggest need they can meet, and meet that. Licensing for burials is stringent but a group with say 1,500 members would capture a million dollars minimum right there, and many initiatic groups already have some undertaker types spinning their wheels. Leisure is always an option. Solve et coagula.
THE FRENCH in their logomania developed an axis for classifying alchemical writers according to whether they used strict or loose encryption. Strict alchemists are called "grudging" because you really have to fight their texts to crack the code and get the treasure out; in contrast, there are also "generous" alchemists who hide their secrets in what appears to be plain sight. Further complicating the matter is the fact that "generous" attention to "grudging" texts renders them "generous," whereas "grudging" attention to an overtly "generous" text delivers "grudging" results.
This axis can also be applied to initiatic groups in terms of both the freedom with which they disseminate information and the demands they make on members. Some of these demands are financial in nature. If you belong to a group, is it "generous" or "grudging?" Does it expect its members to be "generous" or "grudging," and how do those members comply to this standard?
I. Among initiatic groups originating in English, some make a concerted effort to diversify their linguistic base in their first century of life and others do not. This is a fundamental investment tactic. The Theosophists, for example, are basically irrelevant in English today but are still relatively huge in Marathi and Hindi. AMORC is a joke up here but they take it very seriously in South America. Parallel cases of groups not originating in English include gelugpa buddhism (big in Cali) and Christianity (huge in Rome), and the Martinists are world-famous in the Caribbean. Is your gold alone among metals sterile, or does it propagate?
II. A sectarian group can acquire economic leverage through its members most efficiently by capturing the membership's biggest expenses first. The early Christians, for example, developed traction by providing funeral insurance, since burial in style was a necessary expense for everyone in Roman society and the overriding financial worry at the time. The early Mormons famously built the ZCMI chain of frontier stores, capturing the more scattered everyday transactions of LDS membership.
IIb. The primary financial worry for middle-class members of sectarian groups today is retirement, followed by educating the kids and more distantly by housing. Healthcare may be coming up. Logically, a group could efficiently capture a deep slice of its membership's lifetime assets by instituting an internal retirement strategy, which would divert member funds from outside institutions and capture the various fees and custodial advantages for the group. Obviously, this would have to be fiduciarily sound and offer a competitive quality of life compared to "secular" retirement models. Groups too poor to reasonably fund profess houses of this type should consider educational alternatives -- alternatives that can be accredited competitors to the public system, teaching exoteric subjects like algebra as well as subjects of internal interest. Groups too poor to fund an educational model should look to the biggest need they can meet, and meet that. Licensing for burials is stringent but a group with say 1,500 members would capture a million dollars minimum right there, and many initiatic groups already have some undertaker types spinning their wheels. Leisure is always an option. Solve et coagula.