Jim Chapin
>First, the level of
>"sophistication" of the cadre tends to increase in a way that makes its beliefs
>less accessible to outsiders. Second, the increasing lack of connection to
>outsiders tends to make internal debates more esoteric and less useful.
>
>Indeed, esoteria is one way that members of cadre organizations display their
>"status." That's why one gets cryptic references to things that very few
>understand, passing "insider" asides designed to show that the writer is really
>"in the loop," and many other things that are irritating and off-putting.
Yeah. Sociologically speaking, the Digest-tribe is close to being a bona
fide initiatory sect or NRM, centered around the teachings of a single
person, with a hierarchy based on the access to the writings of this
person. In the tongue of sociologists the Digest already is an "audience
cult". The jokes about the "Cult of Greg" weren't so far-fetched after all.
- -----------------
Michael Raaterova
<.sig omitted on legal advice>
End of Glorantha Digest V4 #166
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html