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Entry The First

What’s this all about?

The Hierophant is the “displayer of holy things” in ancient Greek religion.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/hierophant

Society is a noisy place, a “marketplace of ideas” if you will, and no matter what they might think everyone has an agenda even though they may not be aware of it as such. Being human, they tend to focus their views and their opinions through the lens of that agenda, often discarding fact and context in order to “prove a point.”

I hope to cut through that noise, at least to some degree.

No, it’s not possible for anyone to create completely unbiased information. We are all conditioned by our upbringing, our social milieu, our educational level, and any number of other factors. However it is possible to bring more of a historical context to bear on current events; this is that all-important context that’s often missing from stories about current events. Thus, this blog will be an attempt (we’ll see how successful it is) to add that context where possible in order to help readers understand how we (“we” being the world, a given nation, a given society, etc. depending on the topic) got to where we are.

Thus the name The Hierophant: the displayer of holy things. The name has nothing at all to do with the Tarot, with mysticism (except as something else to expose), or religion. In Greek religion, the Hierophant had the authority to banish anyone he felt was unclean from the ceremonies. We hope to expose many, many “unclean” things here. We hope to drag sacred cows, idols, icons, and other allegedly holy things into the light so they can be seen for what they really are…for better or worse.

Reality Therapy is probably as reasonable a term as any.

Those who “want to believe” and dislike the use of evidence will not be happy here, most likely. Nothing will be sacred.

Yes, it’s ambitious. It might actually be a lot of fun, though.

Building the content will take time. There may be fits and starts as we get things organized and set the tone. But come along for the ride, and we’ll see how the destination changes.

Who Is This?

The name of the author (or perhaps that should be plural?) is immaterial. The salient features of the “staff” at The Hierophant is that they are in possession of a background in history, political science, sociology, folklore, and several other related topics, as well as several of the hard sciences.

Dunning-Kruger has no place here. The authors are aware of their limits, and will make great efforts to avoid crossing the line from writing about factual matters into pontification. The objective of this blog is to discuss topics in a very forthright, non-dogmatic way while avoiding hyperbole or outright speculation. When we do engage in speculation, we’ll be sure to note that this is the case in order to keep things clear.

Nothing written here is intended to be the last word on a given subject, and we hope readers will participate in the discussion.

That said, some ground rules.

First, you will be polite and will adhere to the basic tenets of reasoned debate. No name calling.

Second, you will cite sources for any claims you make about historical or other factual events. They will be quality sources, too — if you cite <rightwingblog.com> or <leftwingblog.com> as supporting material, your claim will not be taken seriously. We’re not being academic here, but this is not some generic website where standards aren’t enforced. Historians or other academics should obviously provide primary source references where available. If you can’t take that heat, stay well away from the kitchen.

Third, if you have questions or you think something is unclear, ask. If you think something in a post is factually wrong, say so (noting rules one and two) so we can work on a correction.

Fourth, you agree that if you violate any of these rules you may be introduced to a place known as “the airlock.” In other words, you’ll be ejected and blocked from returning. Again, this isn’t going to be a free-for-all; we have enough sewers on the Internet presently, thank you very much.