Through these concepts we create a world-view: a story we tell ourselves about ourselves and the world. The world-view is a story of association<\/span>; and through it we associate<\/span> events in our lives with elements of the story. A simple world-view might be one of good-gods and bad-gods: when the rains come in spring it makes sense to us because in our story<\/span> that is what the good-gods do for us. When the locusts come in August, however, we are devastated. But we invent bad-gods to explain it and then we are ok with it, the anxiety<\/span> subsides because we now understand<\/span> the event.<\/p>\n But our world-view breaks down: we do the rituals, we make our sacrifices, but the good-gods don\u2019t appear. Associations<\/span> (ritual \u2013> prosperity) we have created fail. Thus far I have nothing new \u2013 this seems to be the story of Western religion, from the Greeks to the Jews to the Christians, who have ingeniously put many of their associations <\/span>into the afterlife, securing them from any kind of breakdown (ritual \u2013> prosperity, [maybe not in this life though\u2026]).<\/p>\n Of course, putting off expectations until the afterlife is common amongst religions, and can come at a price; ritual takes time, time that I could spend doing other things. Ritual also may be perverted: drink the cool-aid<\/a>, burn the infidels<\/a>, etc. But such perversion can generally only be recognized from outside <\/span>the ritual participants, outside the community<\/span> of thought which generated them. This is true not only of perverted religious expression, but secular as well: totalitarian marxism<\/a> and (some might say equally totalitarian) consumerism<\/a> each can take people down the roads of their own demise.<\/p>\n (enough with the build-up)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/4804\/510\/400\/associations.jpg\")
<\/a>The meat of my theory is as follows: ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-112922686448066783?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\")
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