There comes a point where a switch flips in your head and a cop becomes just Some Guy With a Gun — as opposed to a special symbol of authority that commands obedience (beyond a basic sense of self-preservation in the presence of a dangerous person).
The spell is broken. When you’re the only person who feels this way, it’s isolating and kinda dangerous. But when you’re part of a crowd that feels this way, you’re powerful. When enough people break the spell, well, it’s all over for the cops.
It’s all just spells though, right? Recognizing property, borders, and money as “real” things, rather than obviously fake things that you have to pretend to believe in, just so you won’t get murdered by one of those armed people in the uniforms.
Rationalists say that magic isn’t real. I’d ask, “if magic isn’t real then why have people, for most of our existence, believed in ‘magical’ things?” Well, says the rationalist, those were just shared delusions. “Fine... but then what do you call all of this?”
mycorrhiza