Manna is sometimes heard as 'manna from heaven' and more commonly as 'pennies from heaven' with both arriving magically for no apparent reason. The word has been traced back to Exodus in Hebrew in the Torah but its origins go much earlier than that since the concept of manna is widespread in tribal cultures.
Every supernatural philosophy has to have something which provides some type of comfort when bad things happen but the really enterprising supernatural philosophy is highly responsive to good things as well. See, the magic made you a better hunter, sez Caveman Gronk the Preacher.
Caveman Gronk the Preacher first had to get them believing there is any magic in the world so he studies lightning. He watches and sees it mostly hits trees so he reasons, if I go out there then it will probably hit a tree instead of me and the Cave People will be so impressed.
If the Cave People see this and think they can do it too then they go running about at will in the lightning storm and they get whacked as quickly as God likes to fry golfers. Then they start to believe you have special powers or at least the ones who didn't get fried start believing that.
As Caveman Gronk the Preacher starts getting cocky about his powers, he tells the hunters he blesses them with his powers for good luck on the hunt. Since he was smart enough to study the lightning, he's also worked up a cop for when they don't catch anything because, see, you pissed off the Dirt God who told the Rabbit God and he told the Antelope God. Don't worry. I will talk to them and sacrifice a virgin or two. It will be fine for the next hunt.
There are two primary advantages to this approach since it means Caveman Gronk doesn't have to go hunting since they will bring stuff to him and it also means he will get a nonstop stream of virgins. The church works that way to this day.
The manna is the part of interest as we could have fun bashing the church all day but that gets boring and the church won't care anyway.
Manna is a primal concept since Caveman Glarp caught an antelope but Caveman Plurb didn't. We don't know for sure if Caveman Plurb didn't catch anything because there wasn't enough manna to cover him too or he just sucks as a hunter.
Unlimited manna means good things can come to anybody and an abundance for one doesn't preclude abundance for everyone ... we're sure you see already that goes straight to modern political philosophy.
The advantage of the idea of limited manna to Caveman Gronk is the Cave People will think he controls it and now they will bring him many virgins so he can ensure they get some of this rare thing as well or at least get a better shot at it.
Unlimited manna goes to hippiethink in which everything is everything ... om, om, om.
Often if we talk of magic it may have the touch of, well, this is fun for kids but, pfft, adults don't believe it. We believe it, tho. When Hot Daddy hits on a roulette wheel, he'll be praising Jesus, alright. People are odd like that since we seriously doubt Jesus would be all that supportive of him fuckin' with a roulette wheel in the first place.
The idea of manna intrigued me way back and it comes up in many, many things. Right now it may apply in terms of a Universal Income and the limited manna crew will likely react in horror while the unlimited manna lot likely think, well, what else will you do when there are no jobs. The economy will adapt and the manna will be there.
As to the need for a Universal Income, here's another about automation. (Red Orbit: Automation is coming: 60 percent of today’s students chase jobs that won’t exist in 10 years)
Likely you will be thinking of manna in a more immediate context sooner than later since this rot about automation isn't doom and gloom so long as people prepare for it.
Every supernatural philosophy has to have something which provides some type of comfort when bad things happen but the really enterprising supernatural philosophy is highly responsive to good things as well. See, the magic made you a better hunter, sez Caveman Gronk the Preacher.
Caveman Gronk the Preacher first had to get them believing there is any magic in the world so he studies lightning. He watches and sees it mostly hits trees so he reasons, if I go out there then it will probably hit a tree instead of me and the Cave People will be so impressed.
If the Cave People see this and think they can do it too then they go running about at will in the lightning storm and they get whacked as quickly as God likes to fry golfers. Then they start to believe you have special powers or at least the ones who didn't get fried start believing that.
As Caveman Gronk the Preacher starts getting cocky about his powers, he tells the hunters he blesses them with his powers for good luck on the hunt. Since he was smart enough to study the lightning, he's also worked up a cop for when they don't catch anything because, see, you pissed off the Dirt God who told the Rabbit God and he told the Antelope God. Don't worry. I will talk to them and sacrifice a virgin or two. It will be fine for the next hunt.
There are two primary advantages to this approach since it means Caveman Gronk doesn't have to go hunting since they will bring stuff to him and it also means he will get a nonstop stream of virgins. The church works that way to this day.
The manna is the part of interest as we could have fun bashing the church all day but that gets boring and the church won't care anyway.
Manna is a primal concept since Caveman Glarp caught an antelope but Caveman Plurb didn't. We don't know for sure if Caveman Plurb didn't catch anything because there wasn't enough manna to cover him too or he just sucks as a hunter.
Unlimited manna means good things can come to anybody and an abundance for one doesn't preclude abundance for everyone ... we're sure you see already that goes straight to modern political philosophy.
The advantage of the idea of limited manna to Caveman Gronk is the Cave People will think he controls it and now they will bring him many virgins so he can ensure they get some of this rare thing as well or at least get a better shot at it.
Unlimited manna goes to hippiethink in which everything is everything ... om, om, om.
Often if we talk of magic it may have the touch of, well, this is fun for kids but, pfft, adults don't believe it. We believe it, tho. When Hot Daddy hits on a roulette wheel, he'll be praising Jesus, alright. People are odd like that since we seriously doubt Jesus would be all that supportive of him fuckin' with a roulette wheel in the first place.
The idea of manna intrigued me way back and it comes up in many, many things. Right now it may apply in terms of a Universal Income and the limited manna crew will likely react in horror while the unlimited manna lot likely think, well, what else will you do when there are no jobs. The economy will adapt and the manna will be there.
As to the need for a Universal Income, here's another about automation. (Red Orbit: Automation is coming: 60 percent of today’s students chase jobs that won’t exist in 10 years)
Likely you will be thinking of manna in a more immediate context sooner than later since this rot about automation isn't doom and gloom so long as people prepare for it.
2 comments:
Hmmm. Methinks you have confused "Mana" which is a magical power source with "Manna" which is the bread-like hoarfrost that sustained the Israelites in the desert. The spellings and pronunciations are similar although the first is Polynesian and the second ancient Hebrew. The meanings are dramatically different.
Going back to the Word of the Day, they traced to 'man' in Hebrew. In my own studies, it went further back than that although not necessarily with the same word. The concept seems almost ubiquitous and the definition you have given is more concrete than the general view of magic but, to me, it still qualifies in terms of goodness which came for no particular reason.
It would take some deeper study to discover whether manna in the tribal context is the same as magic in terms of a volcano exploding or some such. The latter just doesn't fit so well for manna.
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