The outsider has a special place in the cosmology of the Accepted.
Within any community, there are always tensions, a friction of association that threatens to tear apart the social order.
Of all social rituals among the most important are those that deal with defusing these tensions.
In this respect, an outsider is an important part of the community by not being a part of it. Simply being ‘outside’ implicitly puts others ‘inside.’
The simple existence of an outsider puts the whole social world in perspective.
The shunning and persecution of the outsider, the other is the most powerful of all Rituals of Unity.
To carry out this ritual is to place in that one person all of those amassed woes of society.
And once this living effigy is constructed to symbolically burn it upon the altar of unity.
But it can’t just be any source of otherness, it has to be something sufficiently foreign, hate-able, and threatening. One has to earn it and be worthy of it.
After all, what has become of the United States without a Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia to inspire fear, drive everyone together, and resolve internal disputes for the good of all? The substitute sacrifices that have been offered up since then have been rejected by the Gods.
Without a fitting sacrifice for the Ritual, the society cannot be properly purified of its ills. The people must drift apart and squabble.
If you have often been that one person who just can’t seem to fit in, it behooves you to understand just who you are.
You are a demon, Ahriman, Satan, St. George’s dragon, that snarling little dwarf permanently lodged beneath Shiva’s foot, Orwell’s Emmanuel Goldstein… the embodiment of everything that tempts people away from their proper social roles and undermines the Correct order.
It is in part for this reason that I identify all Subtle things with shadow, darkness, the night, the moon, the underworld, chaos…
Once you understand your place, just who you are in their universe, there is a certain delicious delight to be taken in it.
And many things in our lives that seemed mysterious stand suddenly explained.
3 Comments
You’ve just put a new perspective on my childhood memories.
I read somewhere that for people to feel unity, they need a common fear.
Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, most people found themselves without a common thing to fear. It seems there are more things to fear now, but there is disagreement in how serious this fear is. Global warming and Islam/Terrorism are good examples of modern fears.
Thanks for this. Brought me back to center.