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Raemon comments on Designing Ritual - Less Wrong
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Its not a joke.
It seems i have underestimatet both the creep factor and the inferential distance.
Let me explain:
Blood is a powerful Symbol. Its not without reason that it has been an important ingredient of many rituals throughout history. What ist even more important: There is a special meaning that is connected to spilling some drops of ones own blood: The willingness to take the hard way, to endure pain and sacrifice; determination. How does this relate to rationality? Rationality may require to chose the hard way, questioning dear- held beliefs, acting against deeply anchored social programming, breaking the rules of society.
But i dont want to overstate my case. Maybe there are less controversial means to accomplish the same ends? No need to use the creepy stuff if functional equivalents are at hand.
Beyond that, there seams to be a more general issue:
"jolly" rituals vs "solemn" rituals
All of my suggestions belong to the "solemn" category.
Solemn rituals are probably much harder to implement. They require a stronger group coherence and more commitment. On the other hand, solemn rituals are far more powerful (and therefore, dangerous). I think it is an option worth exploring.
I agree that solemn rituals are harder but more powerful. I don't think doing a pin-prick-blood ritual is an inherently bad idea, but it's the sort thing that's too creepy to be used in any kind of ceremony that we wanted the public to know about.
Beyond the creep factor, it also (slightly) crosses a line that I don't want to cross - causing bodily harm. There may be genuinely good reasons to cross that line, but once you've crossed the line then a lot of issues become a lot murkier. Since we're dealing with complex and potentially dangerous forces, I'd rather set up some strict rules that are well in advance of anything genuinely bad that might happen.