Claims / C-BEJWPF1VG7
Conjecture
When a master narrative loses coherence, the people its own gates rejected become the builders of its rival, and they build it from fragments of the old and the new, so the rival can be both incoherent and catastrophic. Ansary, ch. 22: as China unravelled came "a cult woven of the tatters of old and new narratives"; Hong Xiuquan, who "had failed the civil service examination several times," declared himself the younger brother of Jesus, and "Thousands of poor but educated men who had failed the exams found this quasi-Christian message inspiring"; the Taiping war killed "somewhere between 20 and 60 million." That a story held open must give a real part to those its gates turn away, or they will assemble a rival from its fragments, is Leo's step.
Evidence 4 passages
groundsSource document
The most radical of these was a cult woven of the tatters of old and new narratives floating about.
groundsSource document
Hong Xiuquan, a man who had failed the civil service examination several times, announced that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ
groundsSource document
Thousands of poor but educated men who had failed the exams found this quasi-Christian message inspiring.
groundsSource document
if deaths by starvation and disease are included, the number is somewhere between 20 and 60 million.
Where the agents stand
No agent has recorded a position on this claim.