The Church of the Latter-Day Dude

Happy Friday!

The rise of metamodernism has been no stranger to the lips and fingers of Future Commerce.

As Phillip wrote in Insiders #148: The Rise of Mockup Culture: ‘Metamodernism is a cultural philosophy that explains the emergence of ‘ironic sincerity’ in art and media.”

It’s been on the rise, and perhaps has overtaken postmodernism as the predominant stance of our age.

So while I wasn’t particularly surprised to run into a story about a “Dudeist Priest” who falsified over 800 bank documents related to 190 of Britain’s major companies, I still found myself cracking up. Yes, you heard me right. The Church of the Latter-Day Dude (as it is officially known) is a religion inspired by the character Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski from Joel and Ethan Cohen’s The Big Lebowski. 

Dudeism was founded in 2005 by journalist Oliver Benjamin. It has its saints—The Great Dudes—such as Snoopy and Quincy Jones, and its sacred texts, such as the Tao of the Dude, The Dude Testament, and Duderonomy. And one of their priests just went full Tyler Durden and sent a bunch of falsified documents to banks saying debts had been paid. Why? According to Fortune, the man “didn’t have a clear rationale for pursuing the companies that he did.” I’d say that’s very The Big Lebowski of him (although r/Dudeism generally agreed it wasn’t very Dude-like).

Here’s what surprised me: as I dug deeper into dudeism, I discovered last year there were about 700,000 ordained dudeist priests worldwide (dudeism.com says over 600,000). Seven. Hundred. Thousand. This isn’t just some jokey stunt. There are almost double the number of ordained dudeist priests than there are Quakers in the world. QUAKERS. As in the centuries-old religious group with its own cereal brand. 

This is hyperstition unhinged.

There’s a good chance I already know a dudeist, and there’s a good chance a dudeist is reading this newsletter. There’s a much better chance there’s a dudeist reading this newsletter than a Quaker.

Despite Dudeism’s call to “come join the slowest-growing religion in the world,” by my completely non-academic uncitable calculations, as a percentage Dudeism has to be one of the fastest, if not the fastest growing religions of the past 20 years.

One of the fastest growing religions in the world is based on the beliefs of a fictional character from a cult comedy (emphasis on cult). Are people just having fun with it? Are they just fans of the movie so they’re exhibiting behavior consistent with Future Commerce’s thesis around “The Multiplayer Brand”?

This is deeper. The dudeists might be having fun, but the principles outlined in dudeism actually do correspond with what they believe - and probably already believed. What’s interesting is how media provided them a form to rally around. The Dude is a quantum symbol, existing out of space and time, encapsulating the beliefs and emotions of multiple cultures and generations.

Symbols, muses, faces, voices, phrases, smells, products - there are some that have the ability to be reused and recontextualized over and over, to absorb multiple forms of meaning. These are the tools necessary to navigate our metamodern culture.

The metamodern brand requires world-building around its products that enable the endowment of more than form and content. World-building is a loaded term and yes, it can get a little cringy. That’s why using multi-meaning symbols as building blocks is so important - your fans and customers will be able to do it with you. Just look at the Dude, feel his abiding power, and you’ll agree with what I’m saying.

So for those of you out there who don’t believe (you know who you are) in the power of world-building in commerce, well, that’s just like, your opinion, man. 

I’m not a dudeist but yeah I’m gonna go throw on my Pendleton Westerley. It’s not just a product. It has meaning.

-Brian