Ellis: "Why is this whole theory so successful and taken so seriously in the US when it hardly raises a ripple elsewhere?"
Remarkable isn't it?
There's a fairly new cult that's been introduced to Thailand. It has a large number of followers from the middle branches of the education tree - especially teachers. Rank and status is achieved by a kind of pyramid sales scheme - if you can recruit a number a people, then you are promoted. If your own recruits recruit yet more people, you are promoted further, and so on. If you achieve a certain rank, then you are allowed the privilege of having in your house a special shrine - which would otherwise be forbidden. This religion, supposedly based on Buddhism, is said to have been founded by a Japanese man who is now virtually deified.
Well, there's nothing of particular interest in all that. If there's one such cult then there are probably dozens. A point that is of outstanding interest is the location of the cult's headquarters. I predicted to an acquaintance, who happens to be a member, that they would find it to be California. When they found that to be true, they marvelled at my clairvoyance! Alas, clairvoyance had nothing to do with it.
______
Ellis: "I mean to say, the whole museum thing is very silly-- and we should not be making a big serious deal of it as it really doesn't warrant so much attention, does it?"
In other circumstances, it could be viewed as a quaint and picturesque symbol of harmless nuttiness. In todays USA, it appears to be far more than that. The fears expressed, in the posts above, are well founded.
