new gods

Before scripture existed, the entire human species domesticated itself in servitude to the Wheat god. We left our nomadic lives and sculpted our entire culture around agriculture. A form of worship that demands what we eat, where we can live, how we build our societies. Tithes to the new god.

Roads dictate where we can go, where we can’t go, where we can go quickly, where a neighborhood becomes divided. We worship roads with our cars, our commutes, our casualty statistics. Roads are never removed, only circumvented by newer roads. The price of a nonbeliever is being trapped on an island in a labyrinth.

Landlines are obsolete. The rollout of landlines predicts the rollout of cellular networks, broadband internet, and fiber lines. A dead god still decides who receives fast access to information. Even after a god dies, its shape is etched into the world. Generations inheriting the decisions of a god, regardless of what their world has become.

Nations are gods, enforcing drastic changes across many lives. But they are the gods that stop existing when people stop believing in them. These are fragile, violent gods. They enforce belief, making non-belief a crime.

We accumulate gods, calling it progress, and never considering the choices forever lost. We build them until their worship is mandatory, and then act like they are an inevitability. They outlive us, and we never question whether our descendants will worship our next new gods.