Our Two Cults; The Cult of the Body, and the Cult of Smallness

I have, and have always had, a number of problems with the modern world, but as I studied those problems, I began to realize that they all stem from a single source; or rather, two sources that intertwine in many key areas; two cults that modern, secular society (and unfortunately, many people in religious circles) obey without question.

So, after spending a while thinking this over, I decided to try to put it into words.  Putting it simply, the pagan cults that the modern world sets up are "the Cult of the Body," and "the Cult of Smallness."  When I say "cult," I mean, of course, a group of people who follow a dogma which, while it may have some good ideas, is false when you get down to it.  These cults express themselves in every aspect of our lives (which is how we know they're cults, rather than just predispositions or preferences,) so I will, in this post, be going over a few of the ways in which these cults effect us, starting with the least damaging, and moving on to the most.

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1. With Regard to the Human Body

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body views the human body as the absolute center of the universe.  It worships the human body, and in particular, the health, appearance and physical wellbeing of the human body, often refusing to acknowledge that any other kind of wellbeing even exists.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness insists that human bodies should be as small as possible.  Sometimes even to the extent of damaging the person's health, though usually in a way that most people don't notice.  The reason the cult of smallness doesn't want people to notice any negative consequences that they're having on bodily health is simple; they don't want an open war with the cult of the body.  As long as they manage to keep the unhealthy results of "over-smallness" out of the public eye, war is averted between these two cults.

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2. With Regard to Dress and Appearance

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body insists that however one dresses, it should not disguise the body.  This means that nothing (or at least very little) should be left to the imagination, and that's why they refer to immodest dress as "proud of my body."  The cult of the body views the exposure of the human body, under any circumstances whatsoever, as a sacrament, and protects this "sacrament" through the use of lawsuits against those who rightfully hate debauchery.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness agrees with the cult of the body that the body should be revealed, but for different reasons.  It -despises- large outfits with long sleeves, skirts and pant-legs, and it -especially- despises dresses, since these are larger than the legs that they cover by more than an inch or two.  The cult of smallness hates, in reality, any form of fashion that's large and noticeable, using the word "gaudy" to describe it, and trying to discourage people from wearing it by seeking to convince them that no one else does or wants to.  This is why celebrities and television shows, in spite of their wealth, seem to focus so much on wearing shorter dresses and lower-cut tops, rather than actually using their money on fabric.

It should also be noted that this is not exclusive to the upper class.  Poor people, a hundred years ago, generally wore long garments in layers, which simply isn't done as often; even by the middle class.

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3. With Regard to Art and Expression

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body wants all art and expression to be about the human body exclusively.  They fund "art" that depicts excessive nudity, generally in poses, and they love pornography as though it were a sacred right.  However, the moment that art depicts physical imperfections or weaknesses in a body, they will put it to scorn, because the body is sacred to them.

B. The Cult of Smallness

Yes, there is the insistence on depicting only small bodies, but more importantly, the cult of smallness encourages a very small artistic spirit, and cooperates with the cult of the body on this.  It teaches people to mistake "I can draw whatever I wantity" for artistic spirit.  Real artistic spirit, of course, is drawing dynamic and important things, which touch us spiritually and emotionally, and nothing in modern art is capable of this, because both cults have cooperated to exclude religion from art.  The cult of smallness hates religion because it's not small, and the cult of the body hates it because it encourages worship of something other than the body.  Yet, refusal to depict religion has drained all the life out of art.  Just ask yourself this question; are you spiritually or emotionally touched by anything in modern or recent art, or is it just offensive for the sake of offending, or odd for the sake of being odd?

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4. With Regard to Knowledge and Understanding

A. The Cult of the Body

You might think that the cult of the body would encourage knowledge of the body, but in fact, it does not, since that knowledge might discourage one from worshiping it.  Instead, the cult of the body spreads misinformation about the body, the importance of the body, and how it works, seeking to mislead people into joining their cult.  After all, what possible harm could misinformation do to the body?

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness regards the possessing of information as something of a handicap in people.  It tells them that it's harder to be happy if you know lots of things, and discourages learning through social pressures and the popularizing of the word "whatever."  It also fills the world with mindless, shiny distractions, in a deliberate effort to keep people from learning, because the moment people fill their heads with knowledge, they begin to realize just how wrong-headed both of these cults are.

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5. With Regard to Hopes, Dreams and Aspirations

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body seeks to crush any hopes that imply there is something in life other than the body (such as God and eternal life.)  It makes up excuses for why we can't dream of anything non-physical (and thus non-bodily,) and perhaps most damagingly, it tells people that it's arrogant to have any aspirations except for the health of their bodies and the bodies of others.  You see, people have a lot of hopes, dreams and aspirations in their lives.  Some want to make money.  Some want to become carpenters.  Some want to visit Rome, etc...  However, none of these dreams or hopes are proper to the body -as such.-  Therefore, the cult of the body seeks to discourage them.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness discourages all the same things that the cult of the body does in this area, but for a different reason.  Namely, it discourages large hopes, big dreams and massive aspirations, -simply because they're large, big and massive.-  The cult of smallness hates things that are large, and that includes dreams and hopes.  So, like the cult of the body, it will tell people that they're arrogant and foolish to even consider such things.

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6. With Regard to Passions

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body seeks to reduce all passions to something that the body can do, or to natural urges that the body has.  In other words, it seeks to explain all passions as a desire for some form of food, drink, sleep, sex, etc, because these are all natural urges that the body has, which do NOT imply the existence of the human mind or soul.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness insists that all passions be small.  It does this through a false philosophy; relativism.  The fact of the matter is; you -cannot- be a relativist, and also have strong passions.  The moment your passions become strong enough to take some form of action, your relativism would say "no.  Who am I to judge?  Their way is just as valid as my way."  Then, you'd stomp on your passions until they were nearly or completely extinguished.  This method of diminishing the passions of mankind en masse has proven quite effective, and the cult of smallness uses it to this day.

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7. With Regard to Self-Image

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body obsesses over the "perfection" and "health" of the body, and because of this, will put to scorn anyone whose self-image doesn't depend on physical "health" or "perfection," particularly if that person seems to be allowing their body to slide into "unhealthiness" or "imperfection."  If your self-image is not, in this sense, based on your body, the cult of the body is displeased.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness agrees with the cult of the body in that self-image should be mainly body-based, since that's the smallest kind of self-image that one could possibly have.  However, in addition, it denounces every form of self-image that sees the self as special, or particularly good in some way as being arrogant and evil.  This leads inevitably to the next problem.

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8. With Regard to Origins & Destiny

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body is only concerned with the origins and destiny of -the body,- and will put to scorn anyone who has any concern for the origins or destiny of anything else about man, since after all, the soul, the mind, the spirit; those things aren't the body, and we -must- worship the body if we belong to the cult of the body.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness actually goes further than the cult of the body in this.  Not only does it reject the origins/destiny of any human dimension other than the body, it insists that those origins, and that destiny be as minimal and unimpressive as possible.  For example, insisting that human beings are the sons of primates, and destined to be eaten by worms and go out of existence.

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9. With Regard to Human Value

A. The Cult of the Body

In the cult of the body, you simply -are- your body, so you have no value unless your body has value, and any value you -do- have is -solely- the value of your body.  Because of this, the cult of the body strongly encourages lust and sex-mindedness, since these things focus the attention on the body, and on its value alone.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness is mainly concerned with diminishing the value of human beings as much as possible; to convince us that we're all animals, and we have no rights, or responsibilities, or values beyond those that an animal would have.  They even try to claim that certain types of people (like the unborn,) have no value at all, and as long as that type of person doesn't resemble a perfect body, this doesn't generally get them into trouble with the cult of the body.

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10. With Regard to Loyalty and Honesty

A. The Cult of the Body

Loyalty and honesty have no basis in the body alone, except -very- indirectly, as a means to keep others from stabbing -you- in the back too, and thus -sort of- promoting your continued good health.  Still, that kind of thinking and planning ahead requires something other than just a body, so the cult of the body tends to discourage, or at least downplay the importance of these things.

B. The Cult of Smallness

Loyalty and honesty make it possible for people to unite into large groups, over issues important to them.  The cult of smallness sees the word "large" in that sentence and has a knee-jerk reaction against it as a result.  In addition to this, they tend to react badly to anything that would threaten to extend the dimensions of the human person beyond their bare minimum, and that includes social obligations like being loyal or honest.

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11. With Regard to Self-Discipline

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body believes in self-discipline, but only selectively.  One may, in their view, practice it for the purpose of promoting the health and appearance of one's body, but not for anything that builds character, since "character" implies something is there, other than the body.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness doesn't really believe in self-discipline, seeing it as a means of increasing human nature beyond its bare minimum, and therefore an unwelcome thing.  However, they generally don't say that out loud, because they don't want to get into a complicated fight with the cult of the body.

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12. With Regard to Moral Character

A. The Cult of the Body

The cult of the body has a code of honor which it follows -very- rigidly.  Anything which harms the body in any way, or prevents the body from being "perfect," is evil and must never be done.  Anything which helps the body to live longer/more perfectly/in better health/more "pretty," is not only a good thing, but a -necessary- thing, which we're -obligated- to do.  They then -call- this "morality."  If you disagree, the cult of the body will oppose you.

Interestingly, there are areas in which the cult of the body has been forced to develop strange dogmas on this score, which the cult of smallness simply ignores.  For example, when a homosexual person has sex with someone of the same gender, and contracts an STD because of it, they don't generally view this as immoral, even though it harms the body.  I believe this is because it forces them to choose between two factors; the bodies of two people participating in a revealing, bodily act, which this cult adores, and the causing of harm to a human body, which they don't adore.  In this kind of situation, it's often easier to just ignore the connection between these two things than to make a tough choice like this one (requiring non-bodily thinking,) so that's precisely what the cult of the body does for these allegedly tough issues.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness views all morals and ethics, and indeed, all sense of these things, as a means of increasing human nature beyond its bare minimum, and therefore, as unpleasant and unwelcome.  This is the principle difference between these two cults, as neither is willing to accommodate the other.  Yet, for some reason, even people belonging to -both- don't seem to realize this, or feel conflicted.  They just flit schizophrenically from one view to the other, and back again.

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13. With Regard to Faith

A. The Cult of the Body

Not only does the cult of the body deny matters of faith, as they're outside of the body, and thus forbidden, it actually denies, in some instances, that we can have faith at all.  Faith, after all, is not a function of bodies.  However, they tend to get more worked up over this than they would otherwise, because of the fact that it's a bur in the saddle of the cult of smallness.

B. The Cult of Smallness

The cult of smallness -despises- faith, and in particular, religion, because these things add -tons- of dimensions to the human person, and are -intensely- complex.  Theology, in particular, is more complex, in some ways, than -any- other field of study, because it pertains to, and requires knowledge of all the others.  Because of this, the cult of smallness will oppose religion and faith, doing everything in their power to tear it down, weaken it, wear away at it; just stop it somehow every chance they get.

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Given that these two cults are doing their utmost to diminish and impoverish every aspect of human life, I think it behooves us to ask ourselves; are we part of these secularist regimes?  Do we ever participate in these cults?