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Comment by afandian | Hacker News Reader

They only have consequences because enough people imbue the symbol with significance.

He's a CEO of an organization with more than 400 000 people in middle management (priests) alone (and they have to listen to his orders or lose their status or even be sued before a special court).

He can make state decisions (small state, but still).

Not comparable to strictly ceremonial function of Japan's emperor.

Things like state decisions are direct but limited.

But decisions like the Roman Catholic Church's policy on contraception has only devastated as many lives as it has because those people choose to believe in the symbol.

But, all power is, at its root, symbolic. Stalin only slaughtered as many as he did because people believed in the symbolic power of the state and in him as having some right to lead such an abstract entity with total authority.

Not all power. The Pope, Stalin and the Emperor have the symbolic power to a greater or lesser extent.

The soldier aiming a gun at you or healthcare professional denying you access to contraception on the say-so of one of the above does have real power.

Excellent point. I suppose I was speaking to power structures, specifically, rather than power in the sense of personal ability. In the end, however, if you want to have power on the scale of civilizations, some, if not most of that power must be symbolic in nature. There's no way to hold a knife to a nation's throat for the long haul without at least a little loyal help.

It's not that small if you think of all the property they own around the world. In San Francisco we have quite a few old churches that are basically shuttered.

I'd love to see these sold. Their blemishes on a city that could use them for things like housing for our homeless/low income issues.

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