Piety and profit

In several TEFLONRABBIT articles we have covered the issue of calendar dates representing a key component in the evolution of modern civilisation. As a substantial amount of the Abrahamic faith system stems from Pagan rituals, it comes as no surprise to anyone that the holy days of ancient times have been quite ruthlessly co-opted. In a matter of a mere few millennia, festivals that were celebrated in honour of intangible 'natural' spirits have been re-orientated toward specific deities with a dictated personality. In terms of these holy days being ignored, the high priests of  preceding Pagan cultures didn't really care. If the people decided to observe the Solstice or the harvest festival that was their choice. If they chose to ignore it and spend the day working on their basket weaving or thatching skills, that too was entirely their choice. Most people did observe them because it was a rare chance to take a much anticipated break from such manual monotony. This was the norm across much of the ancient world and it wasn't until organised monotheism emerged from Egypt that things started to change.

The Dead Sea Scrolls mark a period in time when it was no longer considered enough to worship on selected days of the year. Instead, the average punter was required to give over an entire day once a week in observance of the 'one true god'. This is accepted as the beginning of the Sabbath concept and has survived broadly unchanged ever since. Judeo-Christian and other religious societies use the Gregorian or Julian calendars to observe Sunday as the sabbath whereas traditional Judaism is less specific about setting aside any particular day of the week. If a tailor or baker of either contemporary times or yester year decided to open both days at the weekend this presented no particular barriers to involvement in the rest of society. Many incoming ethno-religious groups take advantage of this in contemporary Christian society and have business hours which indigenous peoples are prohibited from following.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are, as mentioned in Sunday bloody Sunday, exceedingly emphatic when it comes to specifying how severe the penalties should be for those who do not observe the Sabbath. In addition they go to massive lengths to stipulate how these penalties should be extended to those who prevent anyone from observing the Sabbath. There is some quite extreme content in there as well. Apparently a woman who intercedes in a fight between her husband and another man on the Sabbath, by grabbing the other mans testicles, should be put to death. This is quite a challenging directive and it's not clear why this heinous punishment was necessary. Neither is it clear why it is so specific in regards to it being the grabbing of the testicles that contravenes the wishes of almighty God. The Scrolls do not go into details about hitting him over the head with ye olde rolling pin or a skillet. One must assume that this would have been acceptable and such an intercession by the good lady wife would not have overly angered the creator. Perhaps it was also considered acceptable for this quite unusual scenario to unfold on any other day than the Sabbath. It could be argued that any man getting a heavy duty kicking is not particularly drawn to the idea of his wife handling the genitalia of his attacker. As usual, early texts often inspire more questions than answers. 

Improper actions or behaviour denounced by the community and practiced on the Sabbath have long been subjects of debate and bitter disdain. In many observant communities today, certain menial duties are still considered highly controversial if they are performed on the assigned holy day. In Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides there was (and in some locations still is) a practice of chaining the swings in the local playpark together on a Sunday. This is not to prevent the local children from using the swings because they know better. It's intended to prevent any visiting tourists from enjoying the playpark amenities on the day of rest. This fundamentalism extends into the family home with the majority of the ardently Presbyterian community staying indoors after they have returned from Church services. Even watching television is considered disrespectful and wearing clothes other than the 'Sunday best' is frowned upon. Should the lady of the house hang out washing or have her husband mow the lawn, they can expect to be snubbed by long standing acquaintances in the local supermarket, post office, fishmongers or tweed shop the next day. This altogether reactionary attitude is something that the majority of Britons would associate with far away places where fanatical Muslims 'hate our freedom'. Yet there it is, being practiced by people who would rightly be considered as following Judeo-Christian customs from an age of greater religious observance.

The practices of lowlanders or 'Sassenachs' in regards to doing whatever they want on a Sunday, are considered by most members of the West Highland 'Wee Free Church' to be the work of the Devil. Such is their disdain that when visiting the lowlands they will still practice their own customs on the Sabbath. No visiting cinemas, theatres, race courses or heaven forfend public houses or anything that could ever be even remotely considered as frivolity or fornication. This type of fundamental extremism has come to define many cultures derived from the Abrahamic faith system. Where once existed among the populations a truly pious reverence for the celebration of living life in this remote outpost of humanity, is now blind ideology.

The reasoning behind the acutely prescriptive Sabbath enforcement in the Dead Sea Scrolls is more to do with economics than anything else. The reality of what was being directed is ingloriously simple. If the vast majority of the population are only working six days out of seven, anyone exempt from this practice will stand to benefit quite markedly on a material level. In addition, if the weekly day of rest is agreed upon by most, then those who have the ability to move their Sabbath can capitalise on the disparity. Those merchants who remain open on the holy days will be the only merchants in town where anyone can obtain that which they have not preemptively acquired. This clearly has nothing to do with spirituality, it is simply a co-opting of a concept which was forced on the masses. This avaricious economic nudge theory has come to define major policies throughout our subsequent history. Due to the extensive provenance gained through the co-opting of spirituality, it became unquestionable. Practices adopted by a population only need a single generation to be considered as just the way things are. In this way an exploitative ideology can become the default philosophy of a culture within the lifetime of the architects. 

To make matters worse, the contemporary ideology considers itself to have evolved beyond the shackles of such fanaticism. Now instead of communities condemning a failure to observe the day of rest, we have globalised communities condemning a failure to observe highly irrational medical ideology. Social media was (until recently) mostly condemned for the unbridled bigotry of a systemic race war. The racism hasn't gone away, but now it has had it's supremacy challenged by the mask mandate conflict and vaccination vendettas. In comparison to the illogical insistence on sabbath observation, the fallacy of the medical industrial propaganda is overwhelming. While monotheistic religious intolerance may have accounted for a great many deaths throughout the past few millennia, the recent plans for social division based on 'scientism' equate to far greater projected loss.

Perhaps in future, some wandering shepherd will discover a DVD-ROM detailing the goals of the Rockefeller Foundations 'Operation Lockstep'. If they do, the ridiculous concepts contained within it's digital archive may seem even more fantastic than the angry churchgoing wife with her hands full.