Grapes of Envy (Blogophilia 5.11)
As the Dude leaves, the DQ stewardess arrives with a beverage cart. Humming "Always Look at the Bright Side of Life", she hands out cups to the class. The sound of gagging and retching soon fills the room. From the back of the room, "Is this my fate?" is repeated over and over again. Marty grins and takes a slug out of his cup. Even he couldn't keep from wincing.
"Dang. The grapes are sour tonight. Sorry about that."
Putting the cup down, he continued.
"Sour grapes is the theme for the next segment. Envy is one my personal specialites. What you just had was the wormwood/gall cocktail 3.16 got at the end of his program. It was all the bitterness and jealousy built up over the 150 years of the project. He ended up drinking it at the end. It was really the only time he wavered. If it had run few more hours, we might have suceeded in a full break, but overall we deemed the project a success."
"So far in this training we have taken you through identifying a mortal's flaws, using them to your advantage to crack them open, and finally leaving them completely bereft. You are ready to work on the finishing and polishing. This is where Envy comes in. Envy is wax. It brings out flaws in shocking detail."
A picture of an ancient man standing over his dead rival appears on the screen.
"Maker himself uses Envy and Jealousy. He is 'A jealous and wrathful God' after all. Just after Beezelbub's Eden project, Abel and Cain had their little debacle. One coveted what the other had, wondering if it meant his termination. Maker was NOT prepared for the result. The iron (or skull) was struck. Envy had always been there, but it was used here to divide and conquer in a way never before seen. It is easy to see why Maker put the admonition against wanting stuff in place. While DQ wasn't involved in this in as far as I know, we immediately added the technique to our toolkit."
"You're thinking, 'Isn't this the same as a Gluttony and Greed?' Not really. While those sins are an integral part, they involve tangible things Mortals can touch or feel. Envy goes much deeper."
A picture of a busy mall flashes on the screen, shopper scurrying like rats among the stacked treasures.
"Mortals are set up to love status and they will shuffle through the stores like zombies to get it. It's a game of who has more stuff and Sour Grapes is the score. I have no idea why the 'I'm better than you' script was created. What's the point? What can money buy? But it sure has been a boon to our business."
"Some of Maker's projects happen when he is worried about Mortals getting too organized. Occasionally, he fixes the problem himself, like with Nimrod's tower. More often, DQ gets the order. It might be as simple as excluding Esau, or as complicated as using Uriah and Bathsheba in a Lust cluster. The process is the same. Set one against another in a covetous way. Disruption kills organization. The reason we got the 3.16 project was our ability to manage multiple divisions."
A new picture of the example priest comes up. He is standing at the head of a grave saying prayers.
"Let's go back to Father Paul. During this training, we've seen him rise and fall. Even though he no longer has flock to manage, there are still responsibilities to Maker for Charities Maintenance, like the occasional funeral. Paul is happy to do it, even though it was someone from the group who set him out on his ear. As a Tempter, you will appeal to Paul's Pride to influence the eulogy, turning it into a screed of Schadenfreude and retribution. The result is the mourners are insulted and the break in the social group is complete. You have divided and conquered.It the most extreme cases, fights will ensue and Souls end up making the transition to our control more quickly."
"A question in the back...What if Paul resists the temptation to defame the dead? Then you work with the mourners. It doesn't matter who died. There will always be Deriders. Next question...Could you take Paul resistence and make it work against. Absolutely! And we'll get into that next."
Marty lifts his cup in a toast.
"Sour grapes for sour souls. Take a break and we'll finish up."
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Topic- Tyler Myrth
Pic guesses-Moon in hand. Moonlight madness, In his hands, Push, Golf ball.
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