the Interegnum, the Civil War period of Oliver Cromwell, many of the early sects were very keen on collecting portents and strange phenomena which they liked to interpret in political terms. All this was brought on by political turbulence.  They'd killed the King and everything was uncertain. Today people have less and less to believe in. Religion is in flux. Government is gray. Family is in chaos. The new millennium looms.  The old order doesn't work any more.  So people are looking for something new."

Such questions are for another time.  Right now, everybody is too busy laughing, even as the Fort-sort winds down, and the editors of FT prepare to shock the world once more. 

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