This statement sounds sensible at first glance. But I don’t think it actually is supported by anything.
Crafting rituals from scratch is hard (the next article is about that), and its easier to craft rituals if you have more history and source material to work with. But I think Less Wrong already has an array of powerful, interesting ideas to support songs and stories. I don’t think there’s any special amount of time you need to wait before you’re suddenly allowed to have ceremonies.
Was there another reason why writing songs and stuff should wait till later?
A possible argument: rituals will help build a cohesive tribe, but harm recruiting efforts. LW is more valuable for its articles than for its community, so tribe-building is not that valuable. But there are lots of people who are not yet aware of LW’s ideas/community who would be turned off by cultishness.
(I don’t feel qualified to have a position on this issue myself.)
A possible argument: rituals will help build a cohesive tribe, but harm recruiting efforts. LW is more valuable for its articles than for its community, so tribe-building is not that valuable.
Cohesiveness generally helps recruiting more than it hurts it, so I find this unlikely.
I am reminded of an essay by the Anthropologist Edmund Leach, ‘Once a Knight is Quite Enough’ (p. 194ff in The Essential Edmund Leach Volume I 2000 Yale U. Press) where he details the parallels between his initiation into British knighthood by Q. Elizabeth II and a Borneo headhunter ceremony which he saw at the end of WWII. Headhunting was illegal at that time in Sarawak, but they got special permission as the two victims were Japanese soldiers. Anyway the idea was if you watched a silent movie of the two ceremonies and ignored the costumes, the two rituals were nearly indistinguishable. He also mentioned that the Sarawak ceremonial grounds were laid out like a typical English village church.
This statement sounds sensible at first glance. But I don’t think it actually is supported by anything.
Crafting rituals from scratch is hard (the next article is about that), and its easier to craft rituals if you have more history and source material to work with. But I think Less Wrong already has an array of powerful, interesting ideas to support songs and stories. I don’t think there’s any special amount of time you need to wait before you’re suddenly allowed to have ceremonies.
Was there another reason why writing songs and stuff should wait till later?
A possible argument: rituals will help build a cohesive tribe, but harm recruiting efforts. LW is more valuable for its articles than for its community, so tribe-building is not that valuable. But there are lots of people who are not yet aware of LW’s ideas/community who would be turned off by cultishness.
(I don’t feel qualified to have a position on this issue myself.)
Cohesiveness generally helps recruiting more than it hurts it, so I find this unlikely.
I am reminded of an essay by the Anthropologist Edmund Leach, ‘Once a Knight is Quite Enough’ (p. 194ff in The Essential Edmund Leach Volume I 2000 Yale U. Press) where he details the parallels between his initiation into British knighthood by Q. Elizabeth II and a Borneo headhunter ceremony which he saw at the end of WWII. Headhunting was illegal at that time in Sarawak, but they got special permission as the two victims were Japanese soldiers. Anyway the idea was if you watched a silent movie of the two ceremonies and ignored the costumes, the two rituals were nearly indistinguishable. He also mentioned that the Sarawak ceremonial grounds were laid out like a typical English village church.
Here is a link to the headhunters ritual map from google books
Funny you should mention that.