Carpe diem

"I hate him, Susan, I fuckin' hate him but I can't shake it off!" Kalina was shaking jumping from anger to tears, then anger again. She showered Susan with desperation. "He acted like a dick, but it's not his fault. It's that fricking family of his."

Susan's glare was cold and she remembered the words of advice she was about to tell her friend. The emotions must have been more vivid than she anticipated back then. She hugged her friend tightly and whispered something the words to her ear, before waking up from the keyboard. Exploit was purring softly on the laptop, holding his right paw in a facepalm position. "Funny, how the past is backed up in our minds in partially corrupted, partially intact memories," she pondered on the dream while waiting for the sun to rise.

The Carpe diem religion/cult is generally frowned upon and attempts are made so that their ideas do not spread into bigger corporations and the general public, since it creates a cybersecurity vulnerability.

Controversies

Carpe diem frequently clashes with 2 forces:

the Catholic church in Poland, which blames them for supporting loose morality and hedonism — the society does not listen to the Church as much as it did around 2020 as most of the 21st-century generations are declared atheistic or leaning towards the scientific discovery of God

the cybersecurity departments — frequently Red Teams find that those, who engage with Carpe Diem don't follow the rules of maintaining the storage safe; This is sometimes countered with arguments of the lack of necessity — Carpe diem followers "evangelize" others do not rely on stored information at all, rendering any backup meaningless; They, on the other hand, tend to lean toward complete control over the files, which borders on privacy breaching.

Structure

Carpe diem boasts having equal rights among its members and shows a fully democratic ruling... on the surface. This serves mostly to attract new believers and is slowly twisted into a strongly hierarchical structure, but bit by bit, to make the transition seamless. The more pronounced the role one plays, the less time they are allowed to spend with the new believers. The cult has many branches, each with slightly variant structures, with the oldest branch founded by a 20th-century chemist, Wiktor Halpowski:

1. Acuti (S-rank) — two positions
2. Principalem (P-rank) — six positions
3. Diffuse (D-rank) — ten positions
4. Fundamentalis (F-rank) — fourteen positions

Acuti — the Sword

The highest rank is referred to as The Sword and is shared by two individuals with equal rights to suggest new regulations, pass judgement onto and select members of the P-rank. Territory-wise they are responsible for the management at the country level.

In many branches of the cult these are separated between two individuals and named accordingly, e.g., The Night Sword and The Day Sword. In such cases, the lower ranks are split in half, with each bigger branch holding three, five and seven seats, accordingly. It is the most widely observed division, likely because it enables a clear decision when a vote is held among the ranks.

Principalem — the Heart

The second-most important rank is called The Heart and deals mostly with personal disputes among members of the D-rank, and member suggestion for the D-rank. Territory-wise, The Hearts are also responsible for the structures on voivodeship levels.

Diffuse - the Breath

The Breath is governing structures on the county level and is thought to hold the most influential position concerning the entire organization's structure. They are responsible for the selection of all 196 members of the F-rank (14 leading members and 182 supporting members) while being a connection to the higher Principal rank.

Fundamentalis — the Step

The rank, which shares the most members is the F-rank, more widely referred to as The Step. Fundamentalis members, along with their respective supporting members will manage affairs on the city level. Practice shows that often their moderation is best visible in the city they inhabit, a trait which was especially true for older members. With younger members, who grew up with the advanced tech, this is much less visible but happens in more orthodox circles.

Supporting members

A common rule is to handpick supporting members, who will help enforce the ruling over the territory. Such members must belong either to the lower rank or be retired members of the "picking rank", e.g., for P-rank each member would pick six D-rank members or be retired members of the P-rank. Supporting members share the responsibilities of the "picking rank" and can be potentially promoted to them, i.e., becoming one of the leaders of the "picking rank". A special case holds for the F-rank, where both, leading and supporting members are selected by the leader of the D-rank.

Culture

It is nearly impossible to plan your life goals one year, one month, and sometimes even ONE WEEK ahead! But if one becomes master of their coming minute or hour, one will undoubtedly achieve perfection. We live right now and should focus on it.

— Anonymous member

The motto of the organization refers to the words spoken by Faust in Part II: Act V of Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and serves as a memento for the members of the cult to focus on the reality at hand — it is the deciding moment of one's actions, not the past nor the future. Members of the Carpe diem hold that past memories are changed by the brain and so, they can't be trusted. Scientific researchers from Carpe diem cult focus on various theories of mindfulness. They also believe that if all people would introduce mindfulness to their everyday lives, they would reach a flow state on a daily basis and would be more productive. They argue that in consequence Carpe diem serves society by making everyone enjoy their lives to the fullest and releasing their full creative potential.

The church is based upon the thought that everything that happens now, should be done now. It is not worth boiling down the past; nothing good ever comes from it. They believe that technology should not be fully trusted and that all should be left in the hands of the person handling it. As a consequence much debate is given to the retention of data, be it a diary, a notebook or a hard drive with digital files. The older believers, born in the late 20th century don't use storage other than physical hard drives, and some more dedicated followers don't store their data at all, purging it right after it served its purpose. The younger generation is not that strict and will often use at least physical backups (hard drives, phones, etc.) and often even some form of cloud storage, e.g. Wildlands, prepared for their specific needs. However, using automatic backups and using the cloud with resources that are not handled manually are often frowned upon at best and ostracized at worst.

"Now I savour it, that highest moment."

by MidJourney

Alternative Names

Eternal Noon (often ridiculed to Eternal Loon)

Demonym

Dieists, Faustists

Accused of hedonism

Faustists are often labeled as hedonists, since their obvious connetions through the name of the church. In most cases this is actually not true! Most followers come from an older generation, who looked for a way to deal with warped work-life balance in corpo environment. And so, concerned with their mental health, they often turned to meditation, flow, looked for ways to achieve mindfullness. In a way Carpe diem was all they were looking for and more. With the younger generation the ways of the Carpe diem cult take a darker turn. They are often pretty relaxed about "living the moment" with respect to their colleagues. Combining that with the "don't look back" approach makes for an explosive combination. According to an urban legend, a teenage boy connected to the Carpe diem cult had all his digital life erased, which left him mentally scarred for long years.

Ban the tradition!

Another popular misbelief retold by the right wing of the society is that by focusing solely on the present Carpe diem wants to attack the foundation of Polish society — the long-lasting traditions, including: religion, language, and many tangible cultural heritage. But every story holds a grain of truth — some more strict and eager believers would gladly see more power in their hands. After all, the powerful will have everything at hand, right here, right now — bypassing the need to plan ahead or think. That is often seen as the way the wealthy had lived hundreds of years ago and is sometimes a cause of outrage. Nevertheless, they still try.

by MidJourney