Dear Steven, Thanks for your analysis. I've a question about one sentence:
"...if it is not accompanied by a massive intervention campaigns into the Gnostic networks of alternative reality": How, according to you, might we do that? - Do you mean, like, forbidding a certain number of communication/technological uses, i.e. using censorship? As far I understand, in the US reality - altereality? - it will be very difficult (more possible to do that in France for instance); - or intervening in participating and trying to trigger dialogues with the Gnosticists? But is it not precisely this dialogue that is impossible, I mean: it is a suppression that is at the root of what you call Gnosticism (in the way you use this term), a cleavage/Spaltung preventing a real dialogue from happening (if there was, for the e-Gnosticists, an alterity different from the monster that QAnon conjures up, then there will be no e-Gnosticism, correct?) -unless we think that the technological *bêtise* - to borrow from Bernard Stiegler - might be treated in the University, hence the function of education. I totally believe in education's role, but are US universities still trying to form/inform a middle class, or, said differently, are US universities able to access/speak to those who endorse the hellish religion of the anti-world? (strange religion that has replaced the Other world by a world without others). My best, Frédéric Neyrat __________________________________ ________________ On Sun, Dec 6, 2020 at 5:24 PM Kurtz, Steven <sjku...@buffalo.edu> wrote: > Hey Brian, welcome to the wilderness my friend. I have been yelling about > this for many years, but basically talking to myself. All the knowledge in > the world about surveillance capitalism, postfordism, and neoliberalism > doesn’t help much (a little with concepts of alienation and its other treks > into psychology) when the question is best answered by the history of > religion and comparative religion. My education was certainly deficient in > these topics, although I have been trying to remedy this situation. Even > while I witnessed the rise of the religious right at closing decades of the > last century, I never thought it to be more than a political problem. Now > it’s clear that the “political problem” is much more than that as we > witness religious illiberalism taking over nations all over the globe, and > unfortunately, the left doesn’t have the categories to understand this at > the grass roots level, let alone act against it in any reasonable manner. > We do well at understanding this phenomenon in terms of power > constellations at the top of the hierarchy (our traditional comfort zone), > but as to the rest of it the critique seems to consist of “Why are people > acting crazy?” > > > > I am the first to admit I have no systematic analysis of this “crazy,” but > I do have a few scattered thoughts that I am trying to order. First, we > have seen this crazy before, and have seen it for centuries. I believe what > we are witnessing (particularly in the US) is a Gnostic revival. It’s just > not in a form we are used to, or we wouldn’t see it as crazy at all, but > just as another religious faith. The devoted are out fighting the > demiurge—the experts, the deep state, scientists, and others rulers of the > false real in an effort to get beyond the flawed knowledge of authority to > that of deep esoteric knowledge derived from personal transcendental > experience and shared in fellowship among those who know (those who have > been red-pilled). > > > > Many outlets for this way of being are readily available. It’s best if > it’s able to survive virtually as social media platforms will help with > expanding the fellowship over vast territories and with its separation from > the forces of the demiurge. Gnostic groups do not require a messiah, > although it’s fine if there is one. The cult of Trump is evidence of that. > But they can also be decentralized groups such as in the yoga and wellness > community* where an aristocracy of influencers lead the flock, or a > distributed network like Qanon, which is fundamentally leaderless. All of > these groups, and we must include the Evangelicals, LDS, and conservative > Catholics, are concerned most with the elimination of ignorance even more > than the elimination of sin. In fact, in this century sin has become > much more tolerable than ignorance. (I should note that this list of groups > is very intersectional and probably should also include the virtual > social justice warriors cancelling people who don’t understand the > difference between sexual orientation and sexual preference. Just not > woke—the left’s equivalent of the red pill.) The reason knowledge is so > important is that it can function as a virtual glue to build community and > a way for many members to say I may not be educated like the members of the > demiurge, but I am more intelligent and better informed, but most > importantly, the goal is transformation—to be a part of a constellation > that gives you the power to transcend the limits of a false given. Take the > red pill and emerge anew. I don’t want to play down the former two > reasons for becoming a part of the Gnostic front. They are significant. For > Evangelicals and other conservative Christians the breaking of the > spiritual consensus in the West in the 60s was traumatic, and the erosion > of a national spiritual life has continued ever since. From their > perspective, Gnostic revelation could bring back the consensus. The fact > that yoga and wellness can commune with evangelicals through Qanon or > anti-vax seems to be an indication of this possibility from a Gnostic point > of view. For the greater Trump cult, being viewed as ignorant rubes by > their educational superiors (now more than ever as Trump continues to loot > and grift this class) has been a source of aggravation. Gnosticism proves > their greater intelligence and their superior knowledge that in turn acts > as a real power lift to their pride and well-being. The elite of the > Republican Party understand this desire and are taking advantage of it. In > part, this is why the Republican Party is becoming the working class party > in the US. > > > > We do need a new ecological aesthetic (CAE just did a book on that), and > we do need a new political theology. I can’t help but think of the anti-vax > motto—“You have data, but we have stories.” But none of that does any good > if it is not accompanied by a massive intervention campaigns into the > Gnostic networks of alternative reality. This is such a significant site in > the lives of millions, and we ignore it at our own peril. > > > > *I want to make clear that with the exceptions of Qanon and anti-vax I am > not indicting every person who participates in these various groups—only a > variable subsection is a part of the Gnostic front. Membership tends to > happen in spiritually-oriented groups since they are most of the way there > already. > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* nettime-l-boun...@mail.kein.org <nettime-l-boun...@mail.kein.org> > on behalf of Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldr...@gmail.com> > *Sent:* Friday, December 4, 2020 8:29 PM > *To:* Max Herman; a moderated mailing list for net criticism > *Subject:* Re: <nettime> Fw: Has the right gone full Alt_? > > >> The new aesthetic for the conservative base can be reasonably >> well-understood as a cooptation of the alt_ or insurgent aesthetic. It >> offers something like the liberating euphoria which progressives felt about >> 20 years ago. Conservatives can like, tweet, dox, spam, hack, and >> everything else which formerly were chiefly the playground of the other >> side. The surge of dopamine delivered by these aesthetic behaviors can be >> understood as a delayed version of the 1996 internet, specially branded and >> targeted at those who were not part of the earlier phase and resent both >> its participants and their value system. >> >> > This is totally true for the alt_right, and the survivors of those heavily > dopamined days of the 90s should know it better than anyone else (unless > they're still doped out on Intel, or just stuck wherever they landed). In > my case I felt this turnaround with all the bitterness of the culturally > displaced, starting four years ago. > > You're right Max, this kind of thing always happens and one has to move > on, that's the personal lesson. > > However, the alt-right is only a hipster suburb of ultra-conservatism, and > I think its aesthetics are a detail. Just as the big mistake of the > dopamine binge was to think that everyone was about to join your wild high > (precarious cognitarians as the leading edge of class consciousness!), so > in our day, the alt-right is just another bunch of nerds with attitude. It > looks big when you stumble into one of their chat rooms, or cafés if they > actually have such things (maybe in the Milwaukee suburbs?). It's not > really so big though, just as the counter-globalization movement wasn't. > > I've moved on to different questions. > > Here's one of them. It turns out that on closer examination, what has > really metastasized over the past 20 years is the corporate capitalist grip > on the sprawling, palpitating world of religious communitarianism. This is > the cancer you can see in Mitch McConnel's eyes, this is what Amy Coney > Barret embodies to extremes of smug pathology, and this is the only > explanation for the kinds of insanities that have come out of Donald > Trump's mouth over the last few days in particular. Only people who judge > their daily lives by what some pastor tells them concerning God and the > Devil could possibly accept the concocted drivel of pro-life, pro-gun, > leader-cult nationalism that is now served up, to overwhelming effect, by > the cynical pols of the so-called evangelical movement. It's not really a > movement, though, but an exactingly constructed motivational machine, by > far the most dangerous political technology in the world. White supremacy, > neonazism, extreme libertarianism and the alt_right are just feeder streams > that swell this foaming current and give it the complexity and power to > dominate a declining imperial order, which it is still doing in the US > despite Joe Biden's win. I think the old liberal/progressive hegemony has > been all but overwhelmed by religious nationalism. We better fight for our > worlds, folks, because if not we are going to lose them all. > > On the left, we have always wanted to believe that the rapaciousness of > monopoly capital would drive the workers and peasants to our side. "The > real enemy is the Koch brothers and their dark money," we'd say, "and the > rest of the confusion will disappear once that becomes clear." Now it's > urgent to identify, not just the leaders and their aims, but the entire > cultural/political complex that is giving the present its twisted and > disheartening character. Because as conditions get worse, the veil doesn't > fall. No, the religious fervor grows. Katherine Stewart has written what > seems to be the best book on this stuff, and she puts the growth dynamic in > a nutshell: > > "That’s the way inequality works. On the one hand, it creates > concentrations of wealth whose beneficiaries are determined to manipulate > the political process to hold on to and enhance their privileges. On the > other hand, it generates a sense of instability and anxiety among broad > sectors of the wider public, which is then ripe for conversion to a > religion that promises authority and order." > > That's Karl Polanyi's double movement. The alienation of globalized > capitalism grows by leaps but bounds - but the powers that emerge to stop > it prove much worse than the disease they were supposed to cure. > > On that basis, a gang of monopoly capitalists have created a national > popular religion, and right now they hold the Senate, the Supreme Court and > the Presidency of the United States. These folks have global reach, and > anyone who was justifiably worried about Opus Dei a few years ago, has not > seen anything yet. The cosmological battle is already three-quarters won, > and we hyper-educated godless anarchists from the cities have barely even > noticed it was happening. To fight back, we need something a lot more > powerful than another tech-driven euphoria. Without a transcendent sense of > cross-racial, multigendered community to match the horrid archaisms of the > right - and without some new version of the Messiah, I'd say - we are > cooked. > > Walter Benjamin understood this kind of thing very well, but his > categories are far too out of date to help us. It's time for the > contemporary left to develop, not just a new ecological aesthetics, but > even more, an updated version of political theology. > > > --> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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