The Mech Touch

Though Ves felt reluctant to proceed with Gavin's daring proposal, he eventually decided to proceed with engaging with the religions that had long taken root within red humanity.

He initially thought that he would soon get overwhelmed by the need to negotiate with hundreds if not thousands of individual churches, denominations, cults, associations, brotherhoods, sisterhoods and other forms of gatherings.

However, Gavin quickly reassured him that it was not necessary to approach each and every individual religious group on an individual basis.

"There is no need for us to bother with the small fry at this stage." The personal assistant said. "We only need to summon a couple of dozen representatives of the largest organized religions in the new frontier. That should allow us to effectively open up a dialogue with groups that enjoy the backing of at least 50 percent if not more of every faithful believer in the Red Ocean."

"50 percent? Shouldn't it be more? As far as I know, the reach of those old-time churches should be much greater. New cults spring up like mushrooms every year, but their congregations rarely expand beyond a single village, province or planet."

"It depends on the definitions and criteria you use to determine whether a person is faithful and whether he abides by a specific denomination. It is very complicated. What makes it even worse is that churches regularly try to pad their membership numbers. They claim that they have 1 trillion followers at their beck and call, when in reality over 70 percent of them are categorized as such because they are too lazy to change their registration or are too lazy to show up for church services. There are many communities and subcommunities where converting to a faith is a mandatory social or cultural expectation. Just because those people participate in all of the obligatory rituals does not mean they have a god in their hearts."

This was clearly an extremely contentious subject that was better left to theologians and sociologists. There was no need for Ves to delve in the finer points of this issue.

"We don't need to engage these shallow believers, right?"

"Correct." Gavin nodded. "What we are truly after is to gain the active support of the churches as well as their more devoted and dedicated backing. There are enough people out there who are more than passive believers. These are the folks who donate more than the minimum contribution expected from them. They are the people who will gladly do volunteer work for their churches. They are the people who actively organize additional outings and start charities in the name of their faiths. These folk come from all walks of life. They can be found at the bottom as well as close to the top. You can find them among ordinary laborers, elite soldiers as well as wealthy industrialists. Faith touches every corner of our society because every human is susceptible to it. It is the one common element that binds them all together."

"It is not so easy to mobilize these faithful, though." Ves mentioned. "These folk may attend the same church services and so on, but other than that they are too diverse and different from each other. They already live their own lives. I think that their jobs and their families are more important to them than what gives them spiritual comfort. If a church suddenly demands that its flock must not only double their monetary contributions but also offer free labor in order to assist the Red Collective, I doubt that those people will be as pious as before."

"I don't think it will be as bad as you say, boss. The ordinary folk can be mobilized easily enough so long as we offer them wages. As for money, the financially strong churches and their wealthiest supporters should be more than enough to fund most of these endeavors. The key is to persuade all of these religious organizations to support the Red Collective and act on its behalf. We will likely have to bring them in and make them a part of our hierarchy. Only by bestowing them with actual power and authority will they be willing to put their resources and manpower at the Collective's disposal."

That sounded extremely difficult and complex. Ves could already imagine the nightmare that would ensue when people of many different beliefs began to work in the same organization.

As long as they opened their mouths and talked about anything related to their faith, they were bound to make enemies who held contradicting beliefs!

The infighting was bound to be terrible!

This was an extremely complex management problem that needed to be solved in order to make this plan work.

Fortunately, Ves did not have to do all of the work himself. He could throw almost all of this planning and calculation on Gavin and the growing number of staffers.

Ves and Gavin discussed what they needed to do in the following days. They needed to obtain results in time for the next session of the Interim Leadership Council.

"Time is short, but it should be fine as long as we have obtained the consent and support of at least 80 percent of the large religious organizations on the list." Gavin predicted. "That will give you a strong enough core of support to effectively act as their spokesperson during the council session. If you can't meet this threshold, then your voice won't be strong enough. The other councilors must be convinced that you can truly speak on behalf of every believer, even from the faiths that have not been approached."

"How does that work?"

"It is impractical for us to approach all of the smaller cults and churches, but we do not have to do all of the work ourselves. As long as we have gained the cooperation of the big players and reserve places for their people to become members of the Red Collective, the smaller players have little choice but to follow suit. They will not allow their larger and stronger competitors to take advantage of the Red Collective to the detriment of others."

"Fear of Missing Out." Ves remarked.

Fear of Missing Out described the phenomenon where people saw others take advantage of a benefit and followed suit before the window of opportunity had closed.

"Exactly, boss. We can use this effect to set an entirely new standard in our society. For the first time in many centuries, we can organize the power of many different religious organizations and give them a real voice at the top of the hierarchy. No longer will the leadership of red humanity be dominated by secularists. They will all have to respect the growing political power of all of those organized faiths."

The goal that they intended to strive for was to establish a new attitude towards religious organizations.

Right now, too many organized churches have been unable to leverage their wealth, power and influence to the fullest. The long-time suppression from the mechers and the fleeters as well as the ambiguous stances of the various states had left many churches feeling as if they were surrounded by hostility.

The lack of support and the intolerance of many secularists in leadership positions had made life difficult for all of these churches. The fact that no one at the top was willing to speak up for them and defend their interests had caused them to be completely excluded from the halls of power.

Gavin's proposal had the potential to change the entire status quo. As long as the largest religious organizations boarded the Red Collective, all of the smaller ones would follow suit.

As long as these steps took place, then the Red Collective could truly force other human powers to change their stances on religion!

The ultimate goal was to impose a new kind of institutional isomorphism where churches naturally gravitated towards the Red Collective, because it was the only superorganization that was willing and able to address their legitimate needs.

All of this sounded complicated and unrealistic, but it was actually a lot more reasonable. Ves and his staff just needed to set up the dominoes in just the right way. As long as they formed a solid plan and executed it well enough, then they only needed to make a few strategic moves at the start to produce a massive chain reaction that would ultimately result in a massive societal shift!

There was enough existing demand for change. The supporters just needed a catalyst in order to engage in collective action.

"I think I get what you are trying to accomplish with this plan." Ves said. "You want to make a permanent change to how our society interacts with religious groups. I… am not entirely sure whether it is a wise idea, but it is bound to be effective. I like it… so long as all of these churches are willing to be led by a sensible leader. We absolutely cannot let these powerful religious organizations surrender their power to a megalomaniac or a selfish profiteer."

Gavin nodded with a smile. "That is why only you can do this. Wielding so much power is tempting, but you have repeatedly expressed your reluctance and unwillingness to lead big organizations and engage in politicking. You are the very definition of a reluctant leader, and that is exactly the reason why you should be able to command their respect."

"Maybe. I do not think it will be easy to wrangle all of these churches, let alone bind them all so tightly that they can truly turn into a united political power bloc."

"We will not be able to find out if we do not try. This is a time where we must prioritize action over discussion. Just say the word, boss, and I will begin to send invitations to every major religious organization."

"Do it." Ves commanded. "We might as well give this a try and observe the initial response. If the pushback and objections are too great, then we should dump this plan and explore other options."

At this point, Ves no longer cared about the negative consequences of empowering religions.

If he was being honest, then he was actually in favor of the existing policies towards religion.

There was no need to insert unnecessary superstition and make beliefs in the government, workplace and other areas. People should be free to believe in whatever they wished in private or among like-minded individuals, but that should be the extent of their religious expression.

However, now that Ves was lacking a broad base of support, he was willing to violate his own stance towards religion in order to further his own interests.

If he had to stand up and serve as a voice for all of these crazy and irrational believers, then he would reluctantly do so as long as he could effectively gain their allegiance!

He intended to give them enough concessions to ensure their cooperation, but no more. The whole point of this exercise was to give him enough backing to establish a strong foundation within the Red Collective. It would be a lot easier for him to shape the policies of the new superorganization if he did not have to beg for support from other groups all of the time.

"You have made the right decision, Ves." Gavin grinned. "I know it is difficult for you to engage with religion after your mixed experiences with different faiths, but it is truly worth it to engage with them. You have always complained about lacking power. This is your chance to rectify that. Political power is not as nice as hard power, but it can serve as an adequate substitute in the years to come. In a time where war will continue to erode public support, it becomes all the more important to gather a large base of support. The Red Two and the first-rate superstates won't be able to make decisions on your behalf as casually as they did in the past. They know that if they do anything that offends you, they will also offend all of the believers behind you. This is a very frightening prospect to all of those bigshots."

This was the power of the masses!

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