There was a civilisation which grew very large with enormous wealth alongside equal poverty. Nevertheless, things were improving slowly for all.
Over the aeons, and all by itself, this civilisation formed an attractive cosy narrative, which allowed everyone, rich and poor, to dip into the wealth created by others, without the inevitable consequences of this activity becoming apparent to any of the people. A systemic 'race to the bottom', conveniently 'self hidden'.
The power of this narrative was that it was a hidden one. So that not even intelligent people could know about it clearly enough to understand it and see through it. And though no one could see or know all about it, much like a God, they gave it a name - 'rinten'.
Rinten as a whole was followed religiously by two sub-narratives, or tribes, which competed fiercely with each other for the spoils above, of free income without working for it. Wether that be benefit scrounging, tax theft or rent seeking. No one broke any law. It was all conveniently legalised. In fact it was mostly a peaceful and law abiding civilisation. There was very little explicit theft.
They created an all encompassing doctrine they called 'democracy' which was a catch all idea to help all corners escape from their own complicity in the systemic theft, which surprisingly proved especially useful for the poorest classes. This doctrine allowed both tribes to blame each others 'master' with a great deal of intellect.
Each tribe had its own mantra. One demanding freedom without ever defining what that really meant to them. The other wanting to be seen to be saving the world without really caring truly about the world, nor saving it in the least bit. What mattered was that the narrative prevailed, notwithstanding the otherwise quite reasonably sounding rationale of each tribe.
What was remarkable about this was the economy of the entire civilisation collapsed, without warning, every 20 years or so. Just about long enough for the current generation to have forgotten about how and why it happened last time. They would say "oh its different this time" and give it a new name, usually one which identified a close but false perpetrator this time round. The cause was always the same: people everywhere had snouts buried deep in the trough, and had made that activity, an unconscious one. The power in the narrative.
That the economy collapsed every so often would have surprised people more if the narrative were not so powerful. Obviously, when all people had taken out of the economy, more than they'd all put in, not just the wealthy and powerful, eventually the economy was under water and could no longer sustain itself. So productivity and credit, just stopped naturally. Then a few months or years later, once the systemic theft had abated just enough, or a new labour saving tech had increased productivity to new heights, the economy would kick off once again into the next cycle. It was not complicated. But it was hidden, buried very deep in the living mind of that civilisation. An objective fact, of the collective psyche. It was a very real thing, definitely happening, in a very big way. Yet no one, especially the intellectuals, celebrity and truth seekers, could see it.
The power of rinten hid all of it. This secular religion no longer took notice of anything apparently irrational or anything not yet measurable by scientific method. And the effect of this fiercely competing duality of two tribes, with two fake but powerful doctrines, was to totally hide the underlying structure and power of the main narrative, making the combined collective of both tribes, unconscious of it all.
To the democratic majority, the narrative was everything, but none of the great masse of people realised they were possessed by it. Evidently it is not so hard to fool entire nations. But who was doing the fooling? Wealth and power. Or natural forces inherent within social organisation?
Again, no powerful group or oligarchy planned this or rolled any of it out deliver. How could they? - a few evil men with supreme power over 8 billion citizens? That would make those men far more than men - they would be virtual God's. The entire structure of rinten just emerged by natural forces through the living mind of the entire great masse of people. No one deliberately planned any of it. This great masse simply were fully, yet unconsciously, right behind it, end to end.
Commanding the intellect and science of rinten where two higher order groups commonly known as the 'scribblers' and the 'fariseers'. The one made attempts to use scientific religiosity to help the people escape from complicity in the systemic theft. The other used ideological world view and conspiracy theory. Neither of these highly respected and followed groups had the wisdom to see through the narrative.
One day, a wise old man showed up who saw through the narrative and became famous for talking about a possible transformation of man. By revealing the narrative for what it was in actuality, much like 'curing a people of its blindness'. A thing that was written about in the apocrypha, known as a miracle.
For the first time in the history of that civilisation, both tribes closed ranks in perfect harmony as a well functioning partnership. To shut down the wise old man. Never before had both groups agreed on anything. Now, they were in total agreement. But it was not enough. His revelation was so compelling it overwhelmed rinten. The rinten narrative was finally faced by something much bigger. And a visible material world proxy came out of the shadows appearing very clearly to the people as a dark and monstrous Leviathan. The power behind the narrative finally had to make itself known in a way the people could grasp. No more mumbo jumbo.
Through fear, this shadow creature forced the people to make a choice. Between 1) a painful, risky, transformation which if lucky promised immediate entry into the eternal kingdom, but no guarantees. Or 2) an escape route from that gamble, to continue a cosy material life in denial, walking dead, followed finally by death.
Eventually, their decision was made democratically, driven by the terrible choice presented by the shadow creature. The people decided as they always do, even under tyranny.
And they had the wise old man executed, painfully and publicly on false grounds. The wealthy and powerful of the time washed their hands in astonishment. This time it was not their doing. The people had done their bidding, for free!
What was fascinating about future historians looking into it, was that neither tribe needed to be taught, nor required encouragement when devoting total energy in destroying this stranger and the meaning of his appearance. To this day, 2000 years later, the intellectuals still cannot see how it came about.
And so it goes...