"Many have written on how “wokeness” is little more than a watered-down Christianity minus both Christ and forgiveness."
Then "Many" are confused and misguided!
"Woke" is a horrible term, failing to carry any truth about the attitude the term attempts to define.
"Politically Correct Progressivism" (PC-Prog) is a more descriptive, and true, term for the set of beliefs to which "Woke" people adhere.
Those beliefs have no connection, nor resemblance, to Christianity.
The PC-Prog belief system is simple and monolithic. It is based purely on hatred. There are 6 core justifications for their hatred of Normal-Americans:
PC Progs believe:
America is a:
1. Racist,
2. Sexist,
3. Homophobic,
4. Capitalist,
5. Imperialist,
6. Xenophobic...
...hellhole.
With the Action Corollary:
"And it must be changed."
Look at any PC-Prog ("Woke") position, and it will match one of the beliefs, or the corollary.
While there are martyrs, and saints, and devils galore in the PC-Prog belief system and in the implementation of the beliefs and corollary, which could, if you squint, look like Christianity; any comparison to Christianity is horribly strained.
PC-Prog beliefs are minus much, much more, compared to Christian beliefs, than Christ and forgiveness.
As a practicing Catholic I’ve often thought of the question of Christianity’s future in the West through the lens of St. Augustine’s North Africa. These were Christian lands until they simply weren’t. There’s nothing special about the West that makes it impossible for that to happen here. Some would argue it already has. There’s nothing Christian about mainstream Western culture. Christianity’s future probably lies in the global South and possibly in a reinvigorated Orthodox Russia.
There are flavors of Christianity in the West that seem to have life. Traditional Catholicism was attracting many disaffected souls and will continue to, in spite of the best efforts of Pope Francis and his henchmen. There are conservative Protestant churches that seem to produce big families. I know less about Orthodoxy in the West, but it seems to have the same draw that Trad Catholicism does, with its beautiful liturgy and tradition. I suppose the question is what can these nascent movements expect for the future? Persecution to the point of extinction? Society wide revival? Toleration as a minority in a society that is at least functional and healthy, if not exactly Christian?
One thing that the last few years has made clear is that religion isn’t going anywhere. The religious sense is strong in people. See the BLM “services” of June of 2020 complete with litanies and genuflections. Jonathan Pageau calls this the re-enchantment of society. “The world you were raised to survive in no longer exists.”
I found this series really great because it is a view/perspective from a time period that is foreign to many but instills the notion that humanity and societies, despite the latest trends and technologies, all share the same human nature (a thought often lost to many who want to believe that this time its different). Perhaps its ego protection or perhaps people don't want the specter of determinism clouding their concept of agency but some things that exist in the human genome are fundamental and do not eradicate with spoken words. Anyway, I think this was really captivating and I appreciate greatly the time and effort that you put into this as both the material and your own perspective provided valuable insight.
As for suggestions, I would say perhaps James Burnham or Bertrand de Jouvenel. These writers/thinkers are often overlooked in mainstream gov't programming but have recently been resuscitated in the current affairs because of their prescient predictability. It may be a little dry for those seeking an epic or some historical tale as their books are more analysis driven but if people want to forge a comprehensive understanding on what is going on and how power works both in the formal sense as well as the informal sense, I think it would provide some great utility. It would also be valuable to hear your take on the substance of their thesis and to what extent you may agree or disagree with their claims.
James Burnham - The Machiavellians (I think is the most important political analysis book I've ever written) and the Managerial Revolution (which puts to bed all the distinctions of liberalism, fascism, and communism which if one hasn't deduced from the title were all different forms of managerialism aka the total state)
Bertrand de Jouvenel - On Power
Oh and a final note for a pretty interesting and fun read that is not too long but offers some pretty good analysis from a man who is a comedian and not an academic, I would suggest Daylight Robbery by Dominic Frisby. It's a story about the history of taxation and he blends the background of taxes throughout history and their importance with understanding both religion (Christianity and the tale of Christ involved a tax story) as well as the taxation influence in the formation of the Magna Carta among other interesting anecdotes.
Yes, Christianity has been exhausting itself since at least the Enlightenment. And now, as you know, we have a new dispensation forming around the its carcass called "wokeness".
And you my dear, Niccolo, are among the neo-Pagans as are many of your readers.
Remember, religions don't need gods, but they do need devils.......
I guess we wouldn't be here if we hadn't been thinking about the new religion and its relationship to the old religion(s), so here's my 2 cents:
If religion is formed by 1) some shared conception of the Sacred, plus 2) a community that forms around this conception of the Sacred (I get this from Durkheim), in the Woke/New Left dispensation what is sacred is sexual and ethnic minorities, their "lived experiences" and shared struggles, the pain they've endured by feeling marginalized, their heroic fight against discrimination followed by their triumph to achieve the Real or Authentic Self (which in America is considered or at least sold as the Greatest Good, the purpose of the hero's journey).
So if this were Christianity, the ethnic or sexual minority aka Protected Victim is Jesus, who died for our sins yet will rise in glory, but because Social Justice is as much therapeutic as it is political, any and every sexual and ethnic minority gets their turn on the cross, which is why so many people fight to be crowned King/Queen of Victims.
In my neighborhood on one block is a hardware store and on the corner is a Starbucks. At the hardware store they have a big American flag, are mostly older white men, and I assume they're Christians by their jewelry: so these people worship the older, traditional, pre-60s gods; but the Starbucks is staffed by "young women of color", it is festooned with Pride flags, BLM pins, and other familiar Social Justice slogans: this is what speaks to these young women, what they consider sacred, the feelings of the Victim (which in itself is very Christian), and this is partly because they don't "see themselves" in the old Gods (Jesus Jefferson Washington etc), and in the modern world of constant screens with constant commentary "seeing yourself" provides meaning, succor, and the essential eternal needs for community and external validation.
So I don't know what this says about the future, but for this current generation, especially if they are urban and non-white or non-straight, these are sacred beliefs they will most likely hold for the rest of their lives.
The strength and content of popular religious belief in the LPG era would be next to impossible to gauge from textual sources, since those are derived from elite sources. Archaeologists would be able to guess, but only to a degree, by comparing the material evidence (shrines devoted to the cult of the lares, votive offerings with dedications to the gods etc). Yet even here it is difficult, because the poor leave fewer lasting traces of their cult practices.
The future of Christianity is vastly complex and fully worthy of careful consideration in future newsletters. The Church has been in decline ever since they lost the ability to punish dissenters (the mullahs are keenly aware of this). This has escalated because of the depthless demoralisation and confusion that began with World War 1.
The content of Christianity can and will change. The great liberalisation of Catholicism in the mid twentieth century was an effect of US global success. The Vatican has been a US ally/client much as it has previously been one for the Carolingians and the Hapsburgs. This liberalisation is in marked contrast to the continuity in the Orthodox world (preeminently Russia).
Now that the US is weakening, it remains to be seen where it will all go. The centre of gravity for global Christianity is in the developing countries, especially Africa where the faith is booming, despite the predations of jihadists. A Christian revival of some sorts may happen in the West as migrants (legal and illegal) replace the sub-fertile indigenes.
Religious changes (mass conversions) take place when traditional forms of life are no longer adaptative and the values/beliefs associated with those firms seem senseless. Such conditions are now obvious across the West. It is possible we will see a pluralistic, fragmented and complex picture, with forms of neo-Christianity emerging and competing with Western Buddhism, New Age and occult-derived traditions as well as Islam. The infotainment industry looks pretty comfortable with the current (and significant) craze for witchcraft which is so popular with women.
I'd expect that some of the powers that be will welcome/sponsor a Christian revival (suitably engineered) to integrate Latin American and African migrants into the Western populations. How successful this might be is unclear.
Perhaps this is too simplistic, but I don't think Christianity can thrive in affluent, prosperous societies, or at least where its practitioners enjoy easy living. But cheer up! Hard times are ahead! Maybe *very* hard times. And in desperate times, when all the material things that made life so easy and comfortable drop away, our thirst for God can no longer be suppressed. When our lives are hard and we rediscover that we need a community to survive, shared faith becomes vital again. The tricky part will be preventing the Faith from being captured by grifters and frauds who create institutions to vacuum money out of the believers. This is one thing that killed evangelicalism in the 90s-- the building of mega churches that consumed all the time and money of members and became just another Big Org to serve. Hard times will fix that too.
There doesn't seem to be much question that Woke is a pseudo-religion filling a void left by the retreat of Christianity. I'm skeptical that it will have staying power, however. One of the functions of religion is emulation: the great world religions all have founder figures, who present an example to their followers that they are expected to aspire to; if that example is one that leads to virtue, the society that adopts the religion prospers. Woke encourages adherents to self-sterilize; it creates and exploits societal rifts; and its followers tend to spiral into mental illness, mediocrity, and ill health. Worship of the Broken leads inevitably in this direction, when the broken is worshipped not because it fixed itself, but specifically because it is broken.
In comparison to late antiquity, Woke may be more akin to one of the many mystery cults that flourished during that era. Mithraism and the cult of Osiris were very popular amongst the elite; similarly, Woke has its most enthusiastic converts amongst our own degenerate elite. Amongst the masses, many conform to elite tastes, as always; but many also chafe under it and despise it.
I'll not pronounce the death of Christianity just yet, but I suspect that it may well be exhausted in the West, and that the rise of Woke is mainly the latter opportunistically moving into an empty psychic niche. A competitor that offers a more compelling holistic vision of reality, and which spurs its members towards emulation of ideal forms and pro-social activities, could displace it.
This book was a pretty great selection. In the same vein of history books with relevance for our time, I think the trilogy of Chinese history books authored by Frank Dikotter might make a good selection. "Mao's Great Famine" is incredible, "The Tragedy of Liberation" was quite good, and I haven't yet read the third volume on the Cultural Revolution, but it could be even more topical than the first two.
I also highly recommend Lee Kuan Yew's autobiography "From Third World To First." A chapter-by-chapter examination of how Lee built up Singapore, the challenges he faced, and how he dealt with them could serve as excellent fodder for a book club.
Again you’re pasting The fall of Rome onto a decline, admittedly an extremely popular sport.
The Eternal City is Eternally falling.
Would you do this for The French or Russian Revolutions? Because the Woke are much closer in effects to the Jacobins or Bolsheviks than to either the Christians or the Visigoths .
Can we have a Woke Emperor Constantine calling a Woke Nicean Council thus stabilizing Woke before we pronounce Christianity and the West dead?
Has Christianity fallen?
Well MEN have fallen in the West regardless of sect or beliefs, or unbeliefs. Also we’re in the Libertarian Hellscape of everyone for themselves (and “their children” - 💩 cope, you’d be the same man without kids).
We’re a Libertarian Matriarchy , Woke if it were real would be a step up if it were constant and stable, its anything but- most mouth words they don’t believe and the platitudes change faster than even Orwell predicted.
Also they’re antichildren and eating all the money and seed corn from the future.
The Pagans were replaced by Christianity , the Woke are our very own Sea Peoples.
We got through this one!
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"Many have written on how “wokeness” is little more than a watered-down Christianity minus both Christ and forgiveness."
Then "Many" are confused and misguided!
"Woke" is a horrible term, failing to carry any truth about the attitude the term attempts to define.
"Politically Correct Progressivism" (PC-Prog) is a more descriptive, and true, term for the set of beliefs to which "Woke" people adhere.
Those beliefs have no connection, nor resemblance, to Christianity.
The PC-Prog belief system is simple and monolithic. It is based purely on hatred. There are 6 core justifications for their hatred of Normal-Americans:
PC Progs believe:
America is a:
1. Racist,
2. Sexist,
3. Homophobic,
4. Capitalist,
5. Imperialist,
6. Xenophobic...
...hellhole.
With the Action Corollary:
"And it must be changed."
Look at any PC-Prog ("Woke") position, and it will match one of the beliefs, or the corollary.
While there are martyrs, and saints, and devils galore in the PC-Prog belief system and in the implementation of the beliefs and corollary, which could, if you squint, look like Christianity; any comparison to Christianity is horribly strained.
PC-Prog beliefs are minus much, much more, compared to Christian beliefs, than Christ and forgiveness.
I will now turn to new interviews after pausing them for several months.
As a practicing Catholic I’ve often thought of the question of Christianity’s future in the West through the lens of St. Augustine’s North Africa. These were Christian lands until they simply weren’t. There’s nothing special about the West that makes it impossible for that to happen here. Some would argue it already has. There’s nothing Christian about mainstream Western culture. Christianity’s future probably lies in the global South and possibly in a reinvigorated Orthodox Russia.
There are flavors of Christianity in the West that seem to have life. Traditional Catholicism was attracting many disaffected souls and will continue to, in spite of the best efforts of Pope Francis and his henchmen. There are conservative Protestant churches that seem to produce big families. I know less about Orthodoxy in the West, but it seems to have the same draw that Trad Catholicism does, with its beautiful liturgy and tradition. I suppose the question is what can these nascent movements expect for the future? Persecution to the point of extinction? Society wide revival? Toleration as a minority in a society that is at least functional and healthy, if not exactly Christian?
One thing that the last few years has made clear is that religion isn’t going anywhere. The religious sense is strong in people. See the BLM “services” of June of 2020 complete with litanies and genuflections. Jonathan Pageau calls this the re-enchantment of society. “The world you were raised to survive in no longer exists.”
I found this series really great because it is a view/perspective from a time period that is foreign to many but instills the notion that humanity and societies, despite the latest trends and technologies, all share the same human nature (a thought often lost to many who want to believe that this time its different). Perhaps its ego protection or perhaps people don't want the specter of determinism clouding their concept of agency but some things that exist in the human genome are fundamental and do not eradicate with spoken words. Anyway, I think this was really captivating and I appreciate greatly the time and effort that you put into this as both the material and your own perspective provided valuable insight.
As for suggestions, I would say perhaps James Burnham or Bertrand de Jouvenel. These writers/thinkers are often overlooked in mainstream gov't programming but have recently been resuscitated in the current affairs because of their prescient predictability. It may be a little dry for those seeking an epic or some historical tale as their books are more analysis driven but if people want to forge a comprehensive understanding on what is going on and how power works both in the formal sense as well as the informal sense, I think it would provide some great utility. It would also be valuable to hear your take on the substance of their thesis and to what extent you may agree or disagree with their claims.
James Burnham - The Machiavellians (I think is the most important political analysis book I've ever written) and the Managerial Revolution (which puts to bed all the distinctions of liberalism, fascism, and communism which if one hasn't deduced from the title were all different forms of managerialism aka the total state)
Bertrand de Jouvenel - On Power
Oh and a final note for a pretty interesting and fun read that is not too long but offers some pretty good analysis from a man who is a comedian and not an academic, I would suggest Daylight Robbery by Dominic Frisby. It's a story about the history of taxation and he blends the background of taxes throughout history and their importance with understanding both religion (Christianity and the tale of Christ involved a tax story) as well as the taxation influence in the formation of the Magna Carta among other interesting anecdotes.
Cheers!
Yes, Christianity has been exhausting itself since at least the Enlightenment. And now, as you know, we have a new dispensation forming around the its carcass called "wokeness".
And you my dear, Niccolo, are among the neo-Pagans as are many of your readers.
Remember, religions don't need gods, but they do need devils.......
I guess we wouldn't be here if we hadn't been thinking about the new religion and its relationship to the old religion(s), so here's my 2 cents:
If religion is formed by 1) some shared conception of the Sacred, plus 2) a community that forms around this conception of the Sacred (I get this from Durkheim), in the Woke/New Left dispensation what is sacred is sexual and ethnic minorities, their "lived experiences" and shared struggles, the pain they've endured by feeling marginalized, their heroic fight against discrimination followed by their triumph to achieve the Real or Authentic Self (which in America is considered or at least sold as the Greatest Good, the purpose of the hero's journey).
So if this were Christianity, the ethnic or sexual minority aka Protected Victim is Jesus, who died for our sins yet will rise in glory, but because Social Justice is as much therapeutic as it is political, any and every sexual and ethnic minority gets their turn on the cross, which is why so many people fight to be crowned King/Queen of Victims.
In my neighborhood on one block is a hardware store and on the corner is a Starbucks. At the hardware store they have a big American flag, are mostly older white men, and I assume they're Christians by their jewelry: so these people worship the older, traditional, pre-60s gods; but the Starbucks is staffed by "young women of color", it is festooned with Pride flags, BLM pins, and other familiar Social Justice slogans: this is what speaks to these young women, what they consider sacred, the feelings of the Victim (which in itself is very Christian), and this is partly because they don't "see themselves" in the old Gods (Jesus Jefferson Washington etc), and in the modern world of constant screens with constant commentary "seeing yourself" provides meaning, succor, and the essential eternal needs for community and external validation.
So I don't know what this says about the future, but for this current generation, especially if they are urban and non-white or non-straight, these are sacred beliefs they will most likely hold for the rest of their lives.
I came late to the party so I’m going to discourse on Roe v Wade instead.
The strength and content of popular religious belief in the LPG era would be next to impossible to gauge from textual sources, since those are derived from elite sources. Archaeologists would be able to guess, but only to a degree, by comparing the material evidence (shrines devoted to the cult of the lares, votive offerings with dedications to the gods etc). Yet even here it is difficult, because the poor leave fewer lasting traces of their cult practices.
The future of Christianity is vastly complex and fully worthy of careful consideration in future newsletters. The Church has been in decline ever since they lost the ability to punish dissenters (the mullahs are keenly aware of this). This has escalated because of the depthless demoralisation and confusion that began with World War 1.
The content of Christianity can and will change. The great liberalisation of Catholicism in the mid twentieth century was an effect of US global success. The Vatican has been a US ally/client much as it has previously been one for the Carolingians and the Hapsburgs. This liberalisation is in marked contrast to the continuity in the Orthodox world (preeminently Russia).
Now that the US is weakening, it remains to be seen where it will all go. The centre of gravity for global Christianity is in the developing countries, especially Africa where the faith is booming, despite the predations of jihadists. A Christian revival of some sorts may happen in the West as migrants (legal and illegal) replace the sub-fertile indigenes.
Religious changes (mass conversions) take place when traditional forms of life are no longer adaptative and the values/beliefs associated with those firms seem senseless. Such conditions are now obvious across the West. It is possible we will see a pluralistic, fragmented and complex picture, with forms of neo-Christianity emerging and competing with Western Buddhism, New Age and occult-derived traditions as well as Islam. The infotainment industry looks pretty comfortable with the current (and significant) craze for witchcraft which is so popular with women.
I'd expect that some of the powers that be will welcome/sponsor a Christian revival (suitably engineered) to integrate Latin American and African migrants into the Western populations. How successful this might be is unclear.
Perhaps this is too simplistic, but I don't think Christianity can thrive in affluent, prosperous societies, or at least where its practitioners enjoy easy living. But cheer up! Hard times are ahead! Maybe *very* hard times. And in desperate times, when all the material things that made life so easy and comfortable drop away, our thirst for God can no longer be suppressed. When our lives are hard and we rediscover that we need a community to survive, shared faith becomes vital again. The tricky part will be preventing the Faith from being captured by grifters and frauds who create institutions to vacuum money out of the believers. This is one thing that killed evangelicalism in the 90s-- the building of mega churches that consumed all the time and money of members and became just another Big Org to serve. Hard times will fix that too.
There doesn't seem to be much question that Woke is a pseudo-religion filling a void left by the retreat of Christianity. I'm skeptical that it will have staying power, however. One of the functions of religion is emulation: the great world religions all have founder figures, who present an example to their followers that they are expected to aspire to; if that example is one that leads to virtue, the society that adopts the religion prospers. Woke encourages adherents to self-sterilize; it creates and exploits societal rifts; and its followers tend to spiral into mental illness, mediocrity, and ill health. Worship of the Broken leads inevitably in this direction, when the broken is worshipped not because it fixed itself, but specifically because it is broken.
In comparison to late antiquity, Woke may be more akin to one of the many mystery cults that flourished during that era. Mithraism and the cult of Osiris were very popular amongst the elite; similarly, Woke has its most enthusiastic converts amongst our own degenerate elite. Amongst the masses, many conform to elite tastes, as always; but many also chafe under it and despise it.
I'll not pronounce the death of Christianity just yet, but I suspect that it may well be exhausted in the West, and that the rise of Woke is mainly the latter opportunistically moving into an empty psychic niche. A competitor that offers a more compelling holistic vision of reality, and which spurs its members towards emulation of ideal forms and pro-social activities, could displace it.
This book was a pretty great selection. In the same vein of history books with relevance for our time, I think the trilogy of Chinese history books authored by Frank Dikotter might make a good selection. "Mao's Great Famine" is incredible, "The Tragedy of Liberation" was quite good, and I haven't yet read the third volume on the Cultural Revolution, but it could be even more topical than the first two.
I also highly recommend Lee Kuan Yew's autobiography "From Third World To First." A chapter-by-chapter examination of how Lee built up Singapore, the challenges he faced, and how he dealt with them could serve as excellent fodder for a book club.
Unrelated but seems right of your alley. Caveat is that I haven’t read it yet. https://peacediplomacy.org/2022/06/27/woke-imperium-the-coming-confluence-between-social-justice-and-neoconservatism/
Again you’re pasting The fall of Rome onto a decline, admittedly an extremely popular sport.
The Eternal City is Eternally falling.
Would you do this for The French or Russian Revolutions? Because the Woke are much closer in effects to the Jacobins or Bolsheviks than to either the Christians or the Visigoths .
Can we have a Woke Emperor Constantine calling a Woke Nicean Council thus stabilizing Woke before we pronounce Christianity and the West dead?
Has Christianity fallen?
Well MEN have fallen in the West regardless of sect or beliefs, or unbeliefs. Also we’re in the Libertarian Hellscape of everyone for themselves (and “their children” - 💩 cope, you’d be the same man without kids).
We’re a Libertarian Matriarchy , Woke if it were real would be a step up if it were constant and stable, its anything but- most mouth words they don’t believe and the platitudes change faster than even Orwell predicted.
Also they’re antichildren and eating all the money and seed corn from the future.
The Pagans were replaced by Christianity , the Woke are our very own Sea Peoples.
There’s one extant religion I respect because they earned it :
Islam.
Sure, by ☠️🩸
But they are serious and the rest aren’t.
Our God is Money, and Ayn Rand is her Prophet.
And the money is GONE
BEHOLD $600 Trillion in CDOs
https://stats.bis.org/statx/srs/table/d5.1