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The Reality War – It’s just Gnostics all the way down

69 points by Melchizedek 5y ago

sophrocyne 5y ago
This was a great read. There was a series focusing on the underlying problem driving people to seek these types of communities - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY The series touched on Gnosticism, and how it developed into future philosophies - even evolving into the foundation of the Nazi belief system. We’re at a point where, due to a wholesale rejection of religion, we’ve thrown the baby (practical wisdom traditions) out with the bath water (improbable metaphysical axioms) The author also touches on the notion of a metaverse, and I’ve been writing on the subject as well. This vision of a “metaverse”, as the author alludes to, is one that is not divorced from reality but perpendicular to it. It could be a great thing, or a digital hell. We live in weird times, and collectively are in dire need of wisdom.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  “ We’re at a point where, due to a wholesale rejection of religion, we’ve thrown the baby (practical wisdom traditions) out with the bath water (improbable metaphysical axioms) “ Might want to consider our bubble though, the percentage of non-religious in the world is actually decreasing (due to a number of demographic trends).
  - sophrocyne 5y ago
    It's a fair point - Especially when you consider that modern nationalism and political ideology is a religion unto itself.
joseph8th 5y ago
What a great read! Way to keep the reader engaged while building up the basis for a wide-ranging analysis. Hermeticism might be mentioned in this context, as well, and it's many offshoots over the centuries. If gnosticism has proved insidiously long-lived, it might be attributed to the close association with early Christianity. More likely it has roots in a much older archetypical dualism in which the material and spiritual were the original duality. One rooted in personal experience of "inside" and "outside" which is, kinda ironically, projected onto the outside world. "If all people have an inside and outside existence, then so does everything else, including Everything." It's pretty trippy thinking. And it follows both Christianity and Judaism down the centuries. First in sects and then heresies and then secret societies. Always initiatory, always exclusive, it's "the occult": that fervent desire in humans for the divine promethean magic. To be as gods. To will into existence that which we desire, without consequence. It persists! It's getting worse! Flat earthers are a THING. In 2022. It kinda makes sense that Gnosticism followed the religious through history. It's more surprising to me that Magic did. I see that as a bigger problem.
user249 5y ago
Seems like a long way of saying civilization was a mistake, which Yuval Noah Harari does in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Alternately, it could be read as a description of how mental illness in large groups engendered by civilzation continues to plague us to this day.
cosmiccatnap 5y ago
Seems to make the same simplistic flaws in thinking that it tried to pin on humans, as though the person writing this was some "other" Reality for all practical purposes is easily verifiable and if you can't live in a world where decisions are based on empirical data then who cares about a high minded theological debate. The reason the earth will soon not be sustainable is primarily because people are not worried about this life because they believe there will be a better one when they die. The honest reason for that is because it's an easier way to think than reality.
FooBarBizBazz 5y ago
Thank god someone else sees it. Here's another essay I felt similarly about: "Memetic Tribes": https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/memetic-tribes-and-culture-war-2-0-14705c43f6bb https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/memetic-tribes-and-cultu... This one's a little older, so it's interesting to read with some hindsight.
shiftoutbox 5y ago
GauntletWizard 5y ago
This is nutso bullshit, but it's worth a read. It's important to understand and pattern match this kind of sex cult early, before it becomes NXIVM
monkeydreams 5y ago
Perhaps I need to reread but it seems like this rejection of gnosticism sings and dances much like gnosticism itself.
turbojerry 5y ago
I think the Gnosticism of The Matrix comes at least in part from Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.
turbojerry 5y ago
I would call the anti-Gnostic reaction the Empiricist Jihad.

69 points by Melchizedek 5y ago

This was a great read. There was a series focusing on the underlying problem driving people to seek these types of communities - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY The series touched on Gnosticism, and how it developed into future philosophies - even evolving into the foundation of the Nazi belief system. We’re at a point where, due to a wholesale rejection of religion, we’ve thrown the baby (practical wisdom traditions) out with the bath water (improbable metaphysical axioms) The author also touches on the notion of a metaverse, and I’ve been writing on the subject as well. This vision of a “metaverse”, as the author alludes to, is one that is not divorced from reality but perpendicular to it. It could be a great thing, or a digital hell. We live in weird times, and collectively are in dire need of wisdom.

mensetmanusman 5y ago
“ We’re at a point where, due to a wholesale rejection of religion, we’ve thrown the baby (practical wisdom traditions) out with the bath water (improbable metaphysical axioms) “ Might want to consider our bubble though, the percentage of non-religious in the world is actually decreasing (due to a number of demographic trends).
- sophrocyne 5y ago
  It's a fair point - Especially when you consider that modern nationalism and political ideology is a religion unto itself.

joseph8th 5y ago

What a great read! Way to keep the reader engaged while building up the basis for a wide-ranging analysis. Hermeticism might be mentioned in this context, as well, and it's many offshoots over the centuries. If gnosticism has proved insidiously long-lived, it might be attributed to the close association with early Christianity. More likely it has roots in a much older archetypical dualism in which the material and spiritual were the original duality. One rooted in personal experience of "inside" and "outside" which is, kinda ironically, projected onto the outside world. "If all people have an inside and outside existence, then so does everything else, including Everything." It's pretty trippy thinking. And it follows both Christianity and Judaism down the centuries. First in sects and then heresies and then secret societies. Always initiatory, always exclusive, it's "the occult": that fervent desire in humans for the divine promethean magic. To be as gods. To will into existence that which we desire, without consequence. It persists! It's getting worse! Flat earthers are a THING. In 2022. It kinda makes sense that Gnosticism followed the religious through history. It's more surprising to me that Magic did. I see that as a bigger problem.

user249 5y ago

Seems like a long way of saying civilization was a mistake, which Yuval Noah Harari does in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Alternately, it could be read as a description of how mental illness in large groups engendered by civilzation continues to plague us to this day.

cosmiccatnap 5y ago

Seems to make the same simplistic flaws in thinking that it tried to pin on humans, as though the person writing this was some "other" Reality for all practical purposes is easily verifiable and if you can't live in a world where decisions are based on empirical data then who cares about a high minded theological debate. The reason the earth will soon not be sustainable is primarily because people are not worried about this life because they believe there will be a better one when they die. The honest reason for that is because it's an easier way to think than reality.

FooBarBizBazz 5y ago

Thank god someone else sees it. Here's another essay I felt similarly about: "Memetic Tribes": https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/memetic-tribes-and-culture-war-2-0-14705c43f6bb https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/memetic-tribes-and-cultu... This one's a little older, so it's interesting to read with some hindsight.

shiftoutbox 5y ago

GauntletWizard 5y ago

This is nutso bullshit, but it's worth a read. It's important to understand and pattern match this kind of sex cult early, before it becomes NXIVM

monkeydreams 5y ago

Perhaps I need to reread but it seems like this rejection of gnosticism sings and dances much like gnosticism itself.

turbojerry 5y ago

I think the Gnosticism of The Matrix comes at least in part from Grant Morrison's The Invisibles.

turbojerry 5y ago

I would call the anti-Gnostic reaction the Empiricist Jihad.