My High School Geography Teacher
was a member of
the Flat Earth Society.
He believed the Earth
was flat.
He was proud
of being part
of that small group
of believers.
He enjoyed
the comradeship of it
and it served his purposes.
It gave him an excuse
not to travel,
something he really
didn’t want to do.
“The disconnect
between
what’s out there
and
the emotions that lead us
to believe something
that isn’t real
can actually make
a community tighter.
Sometimes,
the disconnect
between belief and reality
is precisely the point.
When the disconnect gets
really large
and the community becomes
more insulated,
cults arise.”
Selling an opposing belief
into a group with cult-like devotion
is dang difficult.
I don’t bother,
for example,
trying to selling Romance Novels
to an exclusively literary crowd
dead set against reading them.
It is easier
to influence
the non-yet-exclusive literary readers,
the prospects not yet
committed to the competing belief.
It is tempting
to try to change the minds
of people with opposing beliefs.
It is far easier,
however,
to appeal to people
who don’t yet have set beliefs.