New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 72
Woke Theory, which is to say Woke Gnosticism, requires identification with the class. Marxist socialists must identify with the workers as a class; feminists must identify with women as a class; antiracists must identify with people of color as a class; and so on. This is because they’re Social Gnostics. Not only must they identify with their class, then; they do so willingly and as the “true” representatives of that class. This is not only a persistent and important feature of Social Gnosticism to understand; it is also indicative proof of their Gnosticism. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay breaks down this feature of Social Gnosticism (Woke) and helps you demystify some of their most important, confusing, manipulative, and perplexing tricks. Join him to learn how to handle it.
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8 comments
Sorry JL not JD.
James, I know this is serious, but I did like your new label LG tq+ 420. I think they could use some 420 sessions, maybe with a diverse group of individuals. Thanks.
I object to the anti-Gnostic message that James insists on.
Gnosticism, strictly speaking, is not the problem today. There are “gnostic” groups that allow anyone to join and try their luck (so to speak) at erasing the fog of forgetfullness and remember one’s personal truth.
The assertion that we are NOT spiritual beings is the most egregious assertion made by modern academics. It is a lie and it is at the heart of the criminal lie, even though the criminal may pretend to be “spiritual” in some way.
ANY approach to life can be hijacked by criminals and distorted for their own purposes.
Stop criticizing gnostic ideas, James! It is leading you down an incorrect path that will lead you to a dead end.
commenter wrote: “…criticizing gnostic ideas… is leading [James Lindsay] down an incorrect path that will lead [him] to a dead end.”
You could not be more wrong. This path has not lead to a “dead end” but to a Living Beginning for anyone who understands its critical importance and has eyes to see and ears to hear this breakthrough: A new exegesis of modern power Elite’s alchemical conjuration of ancient deadly ideas; and a new understanding of contemporary human nature and reality that may help us find a way out of this interminable global Gnostic/Marxian (“Woke”) catastrophe that is destroying the Western world.
“That [gnostic speculation] should flourish side by side with diabolism, the secret sectarian organization of intellectual life, and the falsification of the entire linguistic currency — that is the deplorable thing. Secrecy and power seem to be intertwined. [T]he very conditions of gnosis postulate secrecy, an Elite, and a vulgar (mass) who are to be swamped with lies. That the cynical contempt for the bulk of mankind should co-exist and even be expressed by fanatical assertions of universal benevolence, does not appear to [the Elite] as disturbing.”
Marshall McLuhan and Eric Voegelin letters, 1953
“Gnosticism is an extreme religious sensibility from the early Christian era that has influenced twentieth century thinkers in their understanding of the modern world. Having its origins in the second century A.D., Gnosticism has been adopted by conservative thinkers to diagnose and to criticize certain characteristics of… modernity [1]. Philosophers such as Eric Voegelin, Hans Jonas, and Thomas J. J. Altizer have compared the secularism and revolutionary messianism of modern intellectual and political movements with the fundamental features of ancient Gnosticism…
The Gnostics believed the created world was evil as a result of a divine catastrophe… The Gnostic believer’s attitude towards his body and the material universe therefore is one of hostility and resentment. Yet salvation from this evil material condition was possible. A divine spark remained in the human soul that sought to return to a transcendent good god. The remembrance of this divine spark required gnosis: a special type of knowledge of the divine mysteries of the world. This knowledge is reserved only for an elite.
Since the elite Gnostic possesses absolute knowledge of the mysteries of the world, he does not have to make compromises with the status quo in the pursuit of his dream of ultimate liberation from his body and the material universe. In this sense, ancient Gnosticism is both world-rejecting and subversive in its outlook towards the reality…
The initial discovery of the original Gnostic texts occurred when the twin canons of the western tradition – Christianity’s faith and Enlightenment’s reason – were coming under severe attack and became increasingly regarded as sterile and exhausted. Confronted with a dying tradition, cultural and intellectual elites began to look for alternative roots in their history to make sense of the modern world. The rediscovery of the Gnostic texts provided such narrative source to understand modernity and ultimately became the predominant paradigm of the twentieth century.”
Lee Trepanier (Chair and Professor of the Political Science Department at Samford University, Birmingham Alabama) 2016
voegelinview.com
[1] for example, see James Lindsay ‘Race Marxism’ 2022, etc.
Wrong.
James needs this gnostic story only as its all he can understand & its very stupid.
The logic of woke is all linked to post truth sociology / phenomenology and what is possible via A.I. algorithms and its not impossible full; stop. Fact is it will remain that most abuse of the world they’d have in mind can be done regardless by low tech / traditional force same as it always was. It just that the post truth era ( they’ve chosen ) brings with it an imperative need to use sociological warfare driven by A.i.
|Some of the cabalists don’t enter anywhere without a brook lamprey dangling from the left nipple. The trouble is James thinks this is the entire problem. But Gnostics worship arcane ways. While those messing the world up only worship WEALTH & POWER.
The arcane practices if present are just TOOLS same as they always are. James has been seduced by residue new atheist propaganda that indoctrinates people to believe that X really believe Y. For instance Dawkins does not even believe in anti religion. His models shut down christian by law just for the realism. But the true purpose of his thought crime model;s WAS NOT ANTI CHRISTIAN. For consider what his models are doing right NOW. Yes – after preventing christians from praying in public they moved on to shut down ALLK FREE SPEECH.
Just skeltons in your cupboard James. Look it wasn’t YOU but quite defending them. The only ‘club’ that are hurting the world are the rich and powerful who are
ATHEISTS.
During his salad days James was a new atheist and those people taught him every bad habit he has. One of the biggest drivers in all of this is an atheist assignment to condition learn people ( via sites YT et al ) – to reduce the level of their compassion for life / its people via ATHEISM. James IMHO is formulating his idea in avoidance of that fact & cannot trust himself.
You only have atheist values in marxist models – in fact the new atheists are Marxist & always were!.
In particular, JD’s talk, The Gnostic Temptation, is a powerful example of why talking in terms of gnosticism works.
You are dead-on about the “Elect” social gnostics, or whatever you want to call them, falsely claiming to represent their identity “class”. I’ve seen it in Unitarian Universalism, going back to the late 1990s: The “Peoples Institute” and “Crossroads Ministries” workshops proclaimed the racist dogmas that “all whites are racist” and “no blacks are racist”, while falsely claiming to represent all blacks. Black elders, such Rev. Dr. Finley Campbell, my mentor, who champions “multiracial unity”, were demonized and deplatformed when they challngeged the “neo-racism” of the black-elect. And their white allies get very huffy when this elitism is pointed out. In fact I had a run-in with a white ally on this very point and demanded an apology to the racial slur that followed, at which point she refused to respond.
The same thing happened on another occassion when I challenged a white male minister’s racist slander. Another time I went through channels to challenge a video slander attacking Finley’s resistance group: Our complaint was dismissed but the slanderer backed off. The key is to get your act together and challenge on all fronts.
In other words, their whole game was a pack of self-serving lies. Even now the UU leadership remains in a state of moral collapse after converting whole hog to this cult of wokism, becoming subservient to its fascist tactics (after falsely portraying the Trump victory of 2016 as due to “white supremacy” instead of the underlying cause – 40 years of escalating inequality).
Yes – though its nothing new is it ..
The well being of tribal persons of any distinction have always been vulnerable to someone they’ve trusted working as enemy within. They’ve then chopped each other up and someone has appropriated their land. Thats all that is happening here but its a global collaboration along with technology in the hands of ordinary people that delivers ‘Geobbels’ to everty home & hence is harder to decode than ever before.
But it is looting and pillaging like it always was regardless that its sets of red herring say its not more than ever before.
James id F ing out of order by trying to blame ‘Gnostics’ thus drawing fire away from the true orientation of this.