Greer Keeps Criticizing Intellects Who Insist Occultism Is "Primitive"
And the Enchantment series continues at Ecosophia: www.ecosophia.net/
I've been following along as J.M. Greer looks at the haughty and fragile insistence by modern and post-modern intellects that belief in magick and occultism is "obviously" primitive and backwards. These individuals were often frustrated with the modern world, but thought it was better than what came before, and-- like many in the Cult of Progress so ubiquitous in our times-- pushed an insistent belief that yet better modes of thought were surely on their way. A new age of enlightened culture and mass belief and behavior will save us from our current reality and challenges, right? RIGHT!?
The weird beliefs in such things went from being a fringe topic created by white boy theorists of the mid-20th century to a near-global attitude about the present and future. However, as Greer say in the comments:
"The linear pseudo-history of the myth of progress is an ideological construct, meant to privilege European civilization as the supposed best thing ever (and therefore to justify the last five centuries of Europe’s plundering the rest of the planet, and continuing moves in that direction). Real history is much more complex, much more interesting, and much less comforting to those who like to think that those who are currently at the top of the heap will stay there forever."
And while these great minds declare that of course we're past all that myth and magick nonsense, in fact "it’s all mythology with the serial numbers filed off. That’s always the case with the products of each civilization’s age of reason, because the rational mind can’t create - it can only rehash and revise."
Indeed.
One of the reasons I don't dwell overly much on detractors who insist I can't possibly have a past life or be abducted by aliens or interact with fae and gods is that I know they're stuck in a rigidly limited paradigm that doesn't even allow for the possibility of such things. I pity them, but I also get where they're coming from. I grew up in this pathetic and coldly materialistic culture myself, even as wave after wave of supposedly impossible things have come along and smashed the prevalent paradigm right out of me!
Yet we can see that their beliefs for the future, no matter how technological, are just the same-old B.S. The whole concept of the Singularity for example, "It’s warmed-over fundamentalist Christianity, with technology as Christ and the immortal robot bodies of the ubergeek in place of the glorified resurrection bodies of the elect, so it’s not as though it’s unfamiliar."
Proving anything in a cultural context that won't even allow for genuine curiosity by the mainstream scientific and cultural leaders is an impossible task, let alone with caveats like, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." Says who?
In any event, I'm not looking to change minds, only share my own personal journey along the way. Believe or don't. Agree or disagree. *shrug* I'm not invested in changing minds at this stage of my life. Fuck that. I'm just putting my experiences and the thoughts and feelings that arise from those experiences into writing for anyone who wants to check it out. Mostly for other people who have been taken, kicking and screaming (sometimes literally!) into the liminal worlds of weird where one isn't given a choice to ignore myths and magick. I write for us.
I've been following along as J.M. Greer looks at the haughty and fragile insistence by modern and post-modern intellects that belief in magick and occultism is "obviously" primitive and backwards. These individuals were often frustrated with the modern world, but thought it was better than what came before, and-- like many in the Cult of Progress so ubiquitous in our times-- pushed an insistent belief that yet better modes of thought were surely on their way. A new age of enlightened culture and mass belief and behavior will save us from our current reality and challenges, right? RIGHT!?
The weird beliefs in such things went from being a fringe topic created by white boy theorists of the mid-20th century to a near-global attitude about the present and future. However, as Greer say in the comments:
"The linear pseudo-history of the myth of progress is an ideological construct, meant to privilege European civilization as the supposed best thing ever (and therefore to justify the last five centuries of Europe’s plundering the rest of the planet, and continuing moves in that direction). Real history is much more complex, much more interesting, and much less comforting to those who like to think that those who are currently at the top of the heap will stay there forever."
And while these great minds declare that of course we're past all that myth and magick nonsense, in fact "it’s all mythology with the serial numbers filed off. That’s always the case with the products of each civilization’s age of reason, because the rational mind can’t create - it can only rehash and revise."
Indeed.
One of the reasons I don't dwell overly much on detractors who insist I can't possibly have a past life or be abducted by aliens or interact with fae and gods is that I know they're stuck in a rigidly limited paradigm that doesn't even allow for the possibility of such things. I pity them, but I also get where they're coming from. I grew up in this pathetic and coldly materialistic culture myself, even as wave after wave of supposedly impossible things have come along and smashed the prevalent paradigm right out of me!
Yet we can see that their beliefs for the future, no matter how technological, are just the same-old B.S. The whole concept of the Singularity for example, "It’s warmed-over fundamentalist Christianity, with technology as Christ and the immortal robot bodies of the ubergeek in place of the glorified resurrection bodies of the elect, so it’s not as though it’s unfamiliar."
Proving anything in a cultural context that won't even allow for genuine curiosity by the mainstream scientific and cultural leaders is an impossible task, let alone with caveats like, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof." Says who?
In any event, I'm not looking to change minds, only share my own personal journey along the way. Believe or don't. Agree or disagree. *shrug* I'm not invested in changing minds at this stage of my life. Fuck that. I'm just putting my experiences and the thoughts and feelings that arise from those experiences into writing for anyone who wants to check it out. Mostly for other people who have been taken, kicking and screaming (sometimes literally!) into the liminal worlds of weird where one isn't given a choice to ignore myths and magick. I write for us.