Hi all, Coincidentally, I just recently heard an interview with Vanity Fair writer, Jeff Sharlot, about the very topic of Gnosticism, relative to these concerns. I found it fairly convincing…
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/ancient-heresy-helps-us-understand-qanon-on-the-media Take care everyone, Ryan > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2020 23:23:08 +0000 > From: "Kurtz, Steven" <sjku...@buffalo.edu> > To: "nettim...@kein.org" <nettim...@kein.org> > Subject: Re: <nettime> Fw: Has the right gone full Alt_? > Message-ID: <1607296989119.10...@buffalo.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > 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 phenomen > on 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 und > erstand 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 t > hrough 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. > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > <http://mx.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/attachments/20201206/d08918e0/attachment-0001.html> # 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:
