Larry Wall and Cults

Dear readers,

Did you know that throughout history there's this thing called cult? It is a very interesting phenomenon. I don't have time to expound and teach, but will try to brief you.

These cults, are often lead by a single person. They form a group as small as a dozen to multinational octopuses (such as Scientology). Their creeds vary from the mild in appearance (Dianetics) to appalling (flat earth, extraordinary life-after-death, impinging apocalypse scenarios, militant anti-government conspiracy, diabolism with human sacrifices …). Don't think that i'm citing from some arcane books buried in libraries. These are real, and not difficult to find in real life. Some of these cult leaders, are so able to totally wash their member's brain, as to have them autonomously swear and volunteer to die for the cause of the cult. Occasionally, you'll even see mass suicide.

You know, the world is not made completely of rubes. Somebody somewhere, will observe this phenomenon and study or report it as is. Big brother organizations, such as the FBI, is keen on these and very interested in benefiting from social psychology themselves. They are recorded in books too. Ever wonder why the library houses so many cold volumes of paper? This is one contributing reason. You might be interested to verify that sometimes.

These brain-washing phenomenon, are not limited to fanatical life-and-death or otherwise dire beliefs. You see it work in all manners of human thought in the general sense. From culture formation to fashion to commercialism. Surely you have heard of Adolf Hitler and his atrocities of genocide? I must alert you, that a single person couldn't commit such a crime. You see, even if you are superman, you can only kill few at a time. You see, it is the people, people like you and me, who commit the killings willingly, by Hitler's teaching. You may say: “no, i won't ever do such stupid thing”, well because you are very ignorant about social psychology. It is precisely innocent people like you and (not) me, who were lead by the radical leaders of supreme brain-washing abilities. The innocent mob were fervent in their leader's vision and beliefs to commit anything. You know the concept of war, right? We have two massive body of people committed to cut off other people's head or otherwise stick a knife in their bodies or bomb off a arm or leg. How did that happen? Well, it starts with patriotism for people like you and (not) me.

Now, back to topic. In the computing world, there're also bad seeds with colorful creeds taking innocent mobs forming cults. The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris. Yes?

How can we prevent heinous cults then? Stop bending truths. Education and rationalism. I'm starting my own cult to exterminate morons on this earth. Two things are on the top of my agenda: Unixism and Perl.