“It’s a weird thing to contemplate, but governments are essentially the skeletal suggestions of religions, are understood similarly , and have similar effects on people. Additionally, people ‘belong’ to them in an analogous fashion, with the exception that governments can, at whim, assume complete control of or dispose of any person or group largely as it sees fit. This is true of religions as well, but is more true of older incarnations than of those that remain. Additionally, it isn’t universal. Some governments are less like religions — but most of them are trying to replace them, and the relational status for many ‘constituents’ is disturbingly similar.”

— an anonymous informant