Cult Politics

The ease with which one's soul can be hijacked by a force or movement deemed greater than one's self was the subject of  MM (5/1/17)/Cults. One of our own club members described the vulnerability on the part of most anyone looking for some sense of purpose and belonging. The seduction can end with the physical, mental or an emotional breakdown of the subject.

Our focus article (Looking-Glass Politics) posits that the surge in anger that has gripped the democratic world is largely due to the way the web has thrust the once-private world of emotions into the public sphere. The starting point for the proposition is what we'd first discussed in Yuval Harari's book Sapiens (MM (9/23/19)/Sapiens) i.e. the critical threshold for the "circle of trust" that makes up one's authentic world is about 150. Here, on this "small stage" -- largely populated by family, friends, and co-workers --  individuals are able to experience real lives and have authentic human emotions.

Enter, then, the digital world. The focus shifts as personal feelings are torn loose from the private sphere and are launched into the distant world of events i.e. the "big stage." The virtual world has thereby insinuated itself into the personal domain. George Floyd, your idealized friend, now crosses the thin line between the virtual and the real in this referenced "looking-glass" universe.

We thereby become vulnerable to the seduction offered by the big stage -- one often characterized by rage and despair -- as each designer-identity seeks affiliation with something greater than one's perceived self. Up for discussion is the hypothesis that the source of the anger and despair is a form of an emotional breakdown that's part and parcel of cult affinity, whether to team blue or to team red (or to team make-it-up). No room for nuance. This goes beyond mere polarization. The search for the slightest tell-tale sign of the "other" transcends rational discourse i.e. if you're not one of us, you're evil, pistols at dawn.

The media obliges with an ongoing stream of visceral bait, of course. Then comes the anger, always the anger. The cults embrace those vulnerable, give them meaning, something greater than themselves. 

It's Descartes politics: I seethe, therefore I am.