#granfalloonery

Imagine you belong to a religion, let’s call it Granfalloonery. You didn’t choose your religion, you were raised in it, because your parents were both also Granfallooners, because their parents were, and so on. In fact, everyone you know is a Granfallooner, and everyone they know, and so on.

You don’t particularly like Granfalloonery. Every day you have to participate in repetitive rituals and donate to the temple, hoping that you’ll be recognized and elevated above your station as a lowly acolyte. Not that you'd enjoy being a priest, because then you’d have even more responsibilities to deal with, and you’d slowly realize that the prestige you gained didn’t make up for it at all, so you’d hope to be elevated again. Not that you’d enjoy being a high priest. And so on. Basically, no one is happy in your religion.

So why not just leave? Why doesn’t everyone leave? Well, the problem there is that Granfallooners are prohibited from being anything but Granfallooners. If someone decides to leave Granfalloonery, it is the obligation of their friends and family to immediately murder the infidel. If their friends and family decide to aid the infidel, they are automatically infidels as well, and it is the obligation of their friends and family to immediately murder them. And so on. So it isn’t in any particular Granfallooner’s best interests to leave the religion, as there is a very real danger of being killed for doing so.

So you stay a Granfallooner, even though you don’t want to be, because everyone else is a Granfallooner, even though they don’t want to be.