Community and the quest for the right path.

What would you think I was describing if I said I wanted to talk to you about a group with dietary restraints, garment adornments, public behavior traditions, and leader fidelity? Some may respond, ‘cult’ or ‘religion’ with a bit of disdain for those fools that allow themselves to fall into those traps. Cults exemplify an extreme form of the above features that usually start with a heavy dose of leader fidelity. However, I hope we all see that any community depends on the above features for communication and safety - Religions, governments, science, schools, families, political parties, societies, clubs, and gangs.

Any individual should be a member of more than one community and often participates in multiple communities daily. It is when these varied communities are collapsed into one hegemonic entity that danger lurks. When our government dictates our theophany, our political parties define who gets to express thought, gangs represent what we should wear, or science ignores its holes to stand over others in judgment.

How can we tell when our community culture is absorbed in toxicity instead of fostering truth and authentic relationships?

I am going to weave four recent articles together to provide some insight into this question.

• May 16th: Daniel Kahneman: ‘Clearly AI is going to win. How people are going to adjust is a fascinating problem’
• May 16th: The Mask Is an Outward Sign of Inward Things
• May 10th: Constantine’s Conversion to Christianity
• April 28th: Cancel culture looks a lot like old-fashioned church discipline

Hegemony

The term hegemony is today often used as shorthand to describe the relatively dominant position of a particular set of ideas and their associated tendency to become commonsensical and intuitive, thereby inhibiting the dissemination or even the articulation of alternative ideas. [refernce]

The word hegemony is often founded on dogmatism. It is dogmatism or the responsibility the crowd takes upon itself to force others that don’t align with the ‘commonsensical and intuitive’ position of the group to align. If we are members of multiple diverse communities, then dogmatism in one community is not as severe. However, when our communities collapse in on each other, we experience hegemony.

Cult personalities

I think many of us have heard of the first Council of Nicaea, and we often discuss it as the place where Christianity defined Jesus’ position in the Godhead as well as the structure of the Godhead. Interestingly, this Council was just as much about a leader trying to establish himself as it was about understanding the doctrine of God.

In A.D 325, the Roman empire collapsed polities and religion. Modern Christianity sees its roots in Constatine’s rule. No wonder our modern political system and Christian culture continue to seek power through each other. Nicaea did more than put Christ in the Godhead as an equal it put Constantine in that Godhead as well (emphasis mine).

[Constantine’s] next major challenge came in 325 CE. A presbyter in Alexandria, Arius, had been teaching that at some point, God had created Christ. Riots had broken out in several cities, and Constantine brought the bishops together at the city of Nicaea to resolve the issue. The Council of Nicaea resulted in the Christian doctrine known as the Trinity, which articulated the relationship between God and Christ. The Council voted to claim that Christ was of the identical essence of God, present at creation, and manifest (incarnated) on earth in Jesus of Nazareth. Until Christ returned, the now Christian emperor stands in for Christ, and so carries the identical power of God on earth as he rules. It was after this Council that Christian emperors began to be portrayed with halos over their heads, and the trappings of divine worship. [reference]

When our church leaders or political figures expect ‘halos over their heads’, we should worry. Fidelity at the cost of independent thought exiled Arius and Liz Cheney and lessened both communities in the process.

Cancel culture

Using our influence to shame and force others to get in line with the perceived ‘commonsensical and intuitive’ beliefs that everyone should have often starts with leaders that demand fidelity. However, the grander power comes from a broad community that enforces one type of reasoning or truth over all others. There is good in a community providing safety. But, that power to enforce safe thought often corrupts. Doctrine and Covenants 121:39 explains this truth applies to almost all groups.

We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.

In a recent article, Christopher Schelin described how early Baptists (which also aligns with early LDS practices) used church discipline.

From their origins in the 17th century through the late 19th century, Baptists in America – most especially in the South – vigorously engaged in the practice of church discipline. Believers who had allegedly sinned would be accused, tried and then convicted by their peers – the verdict was decided by democratic vote. While the repentant were restored to fellowship, the obstinate were excommunicated, or to borrow from today’s parlance, “canceled.” [reference]

Our faith has made the news with church discipline. We have fewer extreme events these days, but the story of the September Six is complex and challenging to digest¹. Our religions, political parties, and families have a right to expect a level of group cohesion and beliefs. I know there is a grey region where the acceptable boundary lies. The point is that all organizations apply this pressure - Not just Democrats, Trump faithful, or devout Baptists.

Head adornments and fidelity

Face-coverings and head-coverings have featured in the social and religious life of Muslims (hijabs and kufis), Christians (mantillas, wimples, zuchettos), Jews (tichels, kippahs), Hindus (ghoonghats), and many others for centuries. The head-covering and face-covering impulse is partly rooted in modesty (both sexual modesty and modesty before God), but it also has a community-building aspect. When the Sikh spiritual master Guru Gobind Singh ordered his male followers to forgo cutting their hair and to wear turbans, he did so in order that, as he put it, his “disciples will be recognized among millions.” Outward signs of community and solidarity inevitably take on, to some degree, a depersonalizing role, as with the military uniform, which makes soldiers exactly what the adjective promises. [reference]

Interestingly, the face-covering introduced for scientific reasons in the spring of 2020 somehow became a signal of tribal allegiance. Our ward allowed members to arrive at church without masks for the first time this Sunday. I found myself wondering why some elderly that I know had completed their vaccinations months ago were wearing masks. I also wondered for a moment what I was saying by not wearing a mask. I was making a decision based on the latest science, but I could feel more than science imposing on my perceptions at church today.

We have many practices that are meant to have us ‘recognized among the millions’ and signal that individuality is not as important as the community (our temple attire, how Deacon’s dress on Sunday, and the amount of hair on our faces).² These practices are helpful at times and can help send positive metaphorical signals. However, when the attire becomes a team uniform to signal sides in an upcoming battle, we should all be worried. I think beards no longer represent a social class and that our church is coming up to speed on the lack of relevance of that symbol³. Although, I worry that the scientific purpose for masks is becoming a tribal signal, as Kevin Williamson shared.

But those who understand the mask as a tribal identifier and a sign of righteousness are not going to give it up any more readily than Jews are going to start eating pork chops or Christians are going to start abandoning circumcision. That the medical evidence says what it says is beside the point. This isn’t a medical question anymore, and it never was that alone. [reference]

The noise becoming the signal

Even when we don’t have cult personalities, our social organizations can conform to actions that are not optimal when grabbing too many signals amongst the noise. We must find the ability to remove our affinity for consistency by holding on to noise as eternal truths. Sometimes we might need to let go of a few rods to be able to differentiate wood or cardboard rods from the rod of iron. It is the ability to choose among differentiated options that saves us, not our consistency.

Daniel Kahneman is doing the rounds for his recent book Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgmen. He did an interview with Tim Adams in The Guardian. I found two of his answers relevant to this conversation.

Could you define what you mean by “noise” in the book, in layman’s terms – how does it differ from things like subjectivity or error?

Our main subject is really system noise. System noise is not a phenomenon within the individual, it’s a phenomenon within an organisation or within a system that is supposed to come to decisions that are uniform. It’s really a very different thing from subjectivity or bias. You have to look statistically at a great number of cases. And then you see noise.

I was struck watching the American elections by just how often politicians of both sides appealed to God for guidance or help. You don’t talk about religion in the book, but does supernatural faith add to noise?

I think there is less difference between religion and other belief systems than we think. We all like to believe we’re in direct contact with truth. I will say that in some respects my belief in science is not very different from the belief other people have in religion. I mean, I believe in climate change, but I have no idea about it really. What I believe in is the institutions and methods of people who tell me there is climate change. We shouldn’t think that because we are not religious, that makes us so much cleverer than religious people. The arrogance of scientists is something I think about a lot.

Conclusion

We find truth in the community, especially in diverse communities that care more about relationships than hegemony. We need leaders to help us move forward. We need adornments to provide safe society signals, and we should chastise those that push community standards as if they were the arbitrators of truth or divine antagonists. Although, it is in our ’needs’ that we often arrive at the extremes discussed.

From science to religion to politics, all communities suffer and thrive on the management of these features. The ride is bumpy, but the destination is essential in whichever circle we find ourselves.

• general
• dogma
• truth