The High Priestesses of Salukidom defame a Lollard

Photo by Jess Ruffner.

Most of the dog fancy exists in a kind of quasi-religious system in which different people become high priests  and priestesses and certain bromides and mythology become established dogma.

Dog culture is less concerned with evidence and objectivity than it is about conformity and obedience.

Those who question either the high priests or the dogma are either subjected to a severe inquisition or excommunicated.

In the case of Salukis, they print the heretic’s e-mail in one of their publications.

It is really nothing more than a petty vendetta. Someone who believes got into an internet war with a particularly ruthless (and well-informed and somewhat blunt) skeptic. The believer contacted another believer, and so they hatched a diabolical scheme to fix her wagon.

Print some quotes in our magazine.

And her e-mail.

Muhahahahahahahaha! Muhahahahahaha! Muhahaha! ( Magica De Spell style)

This is how the high church deals with heretics.

For Lollards soon turn into Luthers.

And the last thing these people want is some kind of Reformation in which things like “blood purity for blood purity’s sake” and the taboos against a certain striped coat pattern might be openly questioned using empirical methods.

Like all defenders of the faith, these high priestesses must defend the dogma.

But this is just pathetic.

All Jess is guilty of is asking these to questions:

“Why do we believe this? What is the evidence?”

And when they tried to answer using the dogma, the evidence was wanting in so many ways.

That’s what happens.

That’s the game that has been played ever since the registries were closed and the Great Schisms between fanciers led to the creation of a many Balkanized gene pools from what were once dynamic bloodlines that contained a wealth of genetic diversity.

But the values inherent in that game are being lost. Their currency doesn’t set will with a greater number of people every year. The institutions, the clergy, and the dogma no longer sound legitimate.

And at that level, change is coming.

It comes bit by bit.

Then there’s a great leap.

Then a setback.

And back to bit by bit.

But sooner or later, things will change.

These little games are but an amusing sign that these people are desperate.

Desperate for times in which what they said was accepted as the absolute truth.

For this is the system whose values they accepted and mature in. It is within that paradigm that their views of what is successful and what is correct are fundamentally shaped.

But what happens when that paradigm is fundamentally shaken?

The answer: Resort to cheap insults.

Maybe it will go away.

But it doesn’t change that the dogmas inherent in the various dog cultures are being openly questioned on so many levels.

New ideas are seeping into the belief systems. The internet allows all of us access to different perspectives on these issues.

We don’t have to believe because that’s the only thing out there.

We can question. We can innovate.

And that bugs the hell out of these people.

Here’s to more general Lollardy in the dog world!

John Wycliffe speaking to his fellow Lollards. Good thing they weren't in Salukis or their e-mail addresses would be published!