The Deafness of Ritual

WTF? Did you see THAT?!? Oh, no, you didn't. X took it down!

The Deafness of Ritual

We start off in a village of Deaf People. They are a regular village in all respects excepting that the people are genetically cursed with deafness. They are well adjusted, have no contact really with any larger, hearing world, and don't understand that they are deaf. It just does not enter their thinking. They communicate by very expressive, sophisticated sign language. It is rich and full of nuance.

One day a few hearing people stop by the village. They stay for a few days. The Visitors are fascinated by the Locals. The Visitors try to aid the locals by pointing out that they are deaf.

The Locals are amused by the Visitors, though they think them to be quite mad. These visitors keep opening and closing their mouths in strange rhythm with each other and performing the most amazing gestures. The visitors were quite stupid though and did not appear to understand a single word in the village sign language.

Six of the visitors put on an incredible demonstration of psychic powers on the day that the group departed the village. In the center of the village square where everyone met for lunch, one of the male visitors set up a wine glass, empty upon a central table , then they all ran around directing everyone's attention to it. The Locals were bemused, and some were befuddled, and others annoyed at the interruption of their lunch. But then the most amazing thing happened. Five of the visitors all pointed at the wine glass while the long haired women visitor made strange mouth motions at it while raising both arms in that direction. Then the wine glass shattered completely without being touched. Everyone freaked out!

The astonishment of the Locals was quite clear. A gentle hum floated through the village as they were involuntarily vocalizing over the wonderment of this demonstration. Never before had the Locals seen such psychic powers demonstrated. A flurry of sign language erupted as the Locals demanded to know WTF, eh?
It did not aid the Locals one bit as the visitors were ignorant toads when it came to actually conversing with their hands. They could barely get across the idea of what they wanted at the diner without actually going up and touching the menu. So the Locals were left puzzling about this ever so brief, ever so dramatic, and ever so puzzling, display.

Then the visitors departed.

In the following years, the demonstration was discussed ad nauseam by the Locals. Books were written about it. Arguments about it were begun that persisted for years.

A group constituted themselves as the Guardians of the Miracle of the Wine Glass. A whole religion sprang up. The group of the religious adherents decide to replicate the Miracle. So they set out systematizing the whole thing. They get it down to the gnat's ass. They have the day, the time, the placement of the people involved. They have many duplicate wine glasses from different manufacturers as the original had become shrouded in mystery over the years. The idea arose to duplicate the demonstration as an observance of the Miracle.

So they set out to do it. They gather information to recreate it, and then things in the village when into chaos. There were disputes between various religious groups that diverged over the details of the historical reports of the demonstration.

The demonstration dominated village life for decades. The Village of the Deaf, evolving into a Nation of the Deaf, recreates, annually, the Demonstration. Always it craps out. No effect. But they persist. Time passes and many in the community come to see this as a meaningful ritual in their religion, and not, really, an attempt to learn to use psychic powers. This continues.

By now we are talking about a whole empire of Deaf People. Their central driving ethos revolves around this mysterious demonstration of psychic power by these 6 visitors. The number 6 is emblematic throughout the Deaf Empire. Their empire's internal power structure is dominated by the ritual recreation of the Miracle. Always it fails. Always there is a debate about why. The anniversary date is wrong; a different calendar. The wine glass is too tall, too short, too thick, or unused. The people chosen to represent the Visitors from the priesthood are too tall, too fat, too thin, too bald. The woman chosen to represent the Female visitor is too busty, has too big of hips. It's always something within the metrics of the ritual that is put to blame for it not producing the psychic effect of shattering the wine glass.

Back in our 'real' world, we recognize what is happening here. Your experience of this Matterium, individually, and collectively, forms your assumptions, and those can blind you.

Our problem is not that we, the people are invested in a ritual, it is that our 'leaders' are both Deaf, and that Dumb, and that invested.