It Is Truly A Mad "Whirled" (When The Most Mainstream Skeptic Is Also The Most Radical)

"An anti-New-Wage blogger who had once been sort of an ally, but whose politics as well as his views on the evils of New-Wage culture are a bit too radical even for me, recently published a blog post about what a complete and utter hypocrite I am."

That's a quote from a post (partially) about me, from "Cosmic Connie" at Whirled Musings, and I thought, finally, it deserved a reply. I mean, she wrote it all the way back in December:

Dear Connie, I still consider you an ally, I just can't stand your,...your,...whatever he is.

(I am not going to mention him by name because I do not wish to rile the beast of Buddha,...)

Anyway, as long as you keep he and I apart, we're cool.

You're ditzy as fuck, but we're still cool.

As far as my "radical" politics goes, it seems to me, someone who supported Obama's election - as you, your Significant Other, and many of those who hang out at Steve Salerno's SHAMblog did - would be confused by what, at the time, was one lone black man taking a political position in opposition to, amongst other things, Oprah Winfrey's choice of "The One".

(Salerno himself even went so far as to suggest I might be an Uncle Tom for not voting for Obama, without a harsh word in PC protest from anyone, or ever an apology from Salerno for suggesting such a stupid thing. You see, I hurt his feelings as well, for telling him he'd gone delusional over soon-to-be-President Weirdo.)

Nowadays, of course, I'm obviously ahead of the curve.

And - considering it's the Tea Party Movement that, right now, best represents, politically, what I've been saying all along - that's hardly "radical".

It's just American.

Like I said:

It's easy to see how an Obama supporter would get confused.

And finally, about me and NewAge:

I helped bring down a killer quack - in France - while challenged constantly by those claiming to be on "my side" (including you and Captain Know-It-All.)

Meanwhile, in England, bloggers are dismantling, both, homeopathy and chiropractic practices.

But what have I found, mostly, from America?

Except for (my sister blog) Panda Bear, M.D. and Chris Locke's Mystic Bourgeoisie (probably the Crown Jewel of NewAge studies) I've mostly found your trademark snark and loads and loads of Orac's Respectful Insolence, but not much else.

My impression is you - who know the harm NewAge causes and know the harm it's caused me personally - have no serious intention of ever stopping NewAge, because you're liberals, and bloggers, and, Damn It All To Hell, it keeps you in material. It's just jokes.

At least, that's the best I can come up with.

So like, whatever, I'm not doing this to preach - I'm done.

I just needed to get that off my chest.

It's off now.

Goodnight.

Confession Time

"She always protested that she was not New Age. You've heard that one before, for sure. 'Who me? Oh, I'm not New Age!' We've all heard it. Only terminal cases ever admit to the proclivity. Maybe the last gasp of those people who recently died in James Arthur Ray's Sedona sweat lodge was 'Oh fuck, I guess I am New Age!' But of course, we'll never know if, even then, the denial was finally overcome. When you get right down to it, nobody wants to be seen as New Age because nobody wants to be seen as irreparably stupid.

Long story short, I took her at her word. Until after it was over, anyway, and I started asking myself what had happened, what had gone so terribly, irreparably wrong. 'I'm spiritual but not religious,' she once told me, and I was actually impressed. It sounded so smart. At the time. In the context. It's embarrassing to admit what a chump I was. But I was. A tool. A fool. An unwitting enabler of this grandiose self-absorbed bullshit. It wasn't until I encountered the book, Spiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America, that I -- suddenly, thunderstruck -- understood it was a context-free cultural meme, a buzzword, a badge of membership in some amorphous faux-community held together only by the vague belief of its members that they are 'not New Age.'"

Damn, he's GOOD!!!. That's Chris Locke (AKA "Rageboy") on the ass-backwards ways of the Mystic Bourgeoisie.

BTW, Chris calls our modern occult "New Age++", while Connie Schmidt (AKA "Cosmic Connie" of Whirled Musings) chooses to cover the "New Wage" beat. There's probably other variations as well.

I call it all "NewAge" because that's what James Randi called it ("rhymes with 'sewage'" he said) and, yea, if James Randi decided to jump off a cliff, well,...

"We moderns don’t usually take seriously the teachings of ancients who practiced ritual toddler sacrifice."

-- Alexander Zaitchik, on the movie, 2012 - I'd never considered how many bad movies NewAgers had to sit through, did you? - before Killing The Buddha.

Question:

What do Global Warming, Homeopathy, anti-vaccine (and 2010 apocaplyse) hysteria, and even say, Scientology - along with those sweatlodge deaths at the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed James Arthur Ray self-help "retreat" - all have in common?

Unless you're a regular reader, don't even try to answer that.

"The international 'Climategate' scandal is now moving into its third week. And reaction from folks on the scientific and political left -- or is that redundant? -- who treat global warming as a cult in which naysayers must be crushed has been depressing:

Total denial."

O.K., hands - who still "believes" in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth"? Anybody? Anybody? (Yes, this is a test.) O.K., who still "believes" in those "scientists" who blindly supported AGW? Yes, this is another test. Wise up, Henry Fonda: I'm re-indoctrinating you,...pulling out all the stops:


Zombie Reagan Raised From Grave To Lead GOP

Look, we know about the e-mails and other evidence, so I don't even want to deal with all that. I want to deal with the cultish thinking, the lack of critical thinking, and all the bad behavior NewAge actually hit us all with over time. Come on, this wasn't just going on in the halls of science.

Cars have been keyed / and friendships been broken; just following orders: the blind lead the blind. The t.v., it flickers / the message to "go green": we used to get the blues / when somebody lose their mind.

Sorry, I felt an ugly climate change comin' on to me in musical form,...

"Too many interested parties have too much invested in climate change alarmism to admit that the game is up just yet, but sooner or later their position is going to become untenable. And when it does, while acknowledging that many people embraced climate change alarmism for genuine reasons, we’ll have to decide what to do with those who knew or suspected their claims had no substance, but pressed on out of a desire to get rich or impose their ideologies on others.



Nuremberg-style trials anyone?"

-- Mike McNally, getting right to the point all the way back in May 2008 - yes: I said May 2008 - but, still, just wondering aloud (as Pajamas Media will do) about what's obviously needed to get us back on track:

The Macho Response.



Nuremberg trials. That's how serious it's been out there. The president even stupidly said he'd make the oceans go down. (Good luck with that one, Chumley,..). Intellectual upheaval or trillions of dollars, or both, hang in the balance for these people. They weren't going to let a little thing like the truth get in the way, so YOU had to recycle, and YOU had to start caring about the planet, and YOU had to buy your own supermarket bags (they got rid of the plastic ones, remember?) and all of a sudden YOU had to kow-tow to every damn thing THEY said, whether it cost you money or not, or whether it made sense or not. Listen:

"President Obama is headed for a global-warming parley in Copenhagen next week to discuss solutions to a problem that may not in fact exist."

Don't tell me I don't understand NewAge.

I am the New Age.

Thanks For Sharing

"Your conflicting thoughts remind me of a delightful agnostic lady I know (who shall, for chivalry's sake not be named!). Even in the throes of passion, she finds herself screaming, "Oh, God!" yet sometimes claims she is tempted to qualify the statement with 'if there is one.'"

-- Ron Kaye, the supremely hypocritical (and angrily arrogant) Buddhist - known as "Rev Ron" - who is partners with Whirled Musings' equally-hypocritical "Cosmic" Connie Schmidt (how can she put down spiritual "hustledorks" when she lives with - and, apparently, does other assorted things - with one?) laying down comment number 69 on Steve Salerno's SHAMblog.

I shit you not - comment #69 - I couldn't make that shit up if I tried.

"Cherie tells in eye-popping detail about how she and Tony consummated their relationship after a first date that began with drunken flirtation - 'I could feel a blush rise up from some uncharted part of me' - and moved on to seedy fumblings on the top deck of a bus, en route to bed.

"It was a double-decker and we went upstairs. .. by the time we got off we knew each other better than when we'd got on. And even better the next morning."

I hope she remembered her 'contraceptive equipment'.

Seedy? You bet. But then what should we expect of a woman who, when asked by Princess Margaret to explain what the gay minister Chris Smith's partner 'was for', replied 'for sex, Ma'am?'

It's as if Cherie has some warped fixation on biological matters."

-- Amanda Platell, commenting on Cherie Blair's new tell-all (but not quite "all") and proving there are more similarities between Buddhists and NewAgers than some want to admit, in The Daily Mail

How You Get To Be Like Me (Or Close)

"Many years ago I too was stiffed by a New-Wage entrepreneur. Granted, it was on a much, much smaller scale than seems to have been the case with the former Secret team members, and the business person in my case was a small-time magazine publisher. Nevertheless she talked a good game of spirituality and ethics and a new era for humanity, and – go ahead, laugh at me; I deserve it – I honestly thought at the time that I was going to be a part of something big and important. Unfortunately, her business dealings were anything but clean, and she ended up stiffing just about everyone who did any work for her. In her case, however, instead of suing those who tried to get payment from her (as seems to be the case with at least one of the lawsuits I mention in this post), she just disappeared into the crowd, and resurfaced a few years later with a new name.

For me, the incident with the publisher was a turning point on my road to cynicism about many of the things I'm blogging about today. This person was far from the only shady New-Wager I've encountered over the years. Had this been an isolated incident I would have shrugged it off. But her behavior seemed to be part of a larger pattern that became clearer to me as time went on. And it is remarkable, really, how many people in the metaphysical/selfish-help/pop-spirituality community use lofty spiritual concepts to either justify or detract from their sleazy dealings. To me that’s kind of like using a spritz of room spray to take care of the stench at a sewage plant.

The point is that I come by my cynicism honestly. And that’s why am willing to devote blog space to others who have apparently been wronged by New-Wage capitalists. Especially when they seem to have been wronged on a very grand scale."

- Cosmic Connie, who has been kind enough to promote this blog on hers (no matter how big of an ass I am)

The Flabby Liars Of The Aquarian Age

"About a thousand years ago, there was this brief period of about 11 or 12 minutes, that is now referred to as the sixties, a hated time, an intoxicating time. I enjoyed myself thoroughly for five or six minutes. It has become a kind of black hole in the sociological cosmos, a kind of Bermuda Triangle, into which all the noblest and worthwhile ideas disappeared forever. A seductive moment; however, being the gloomy chap that you know me to be, I was able to resist it. I think it was back in 1971 when it reached its most acute phase; it was then that I was inspired to write this mournful and bitter ditty in response to all the flabby liars of the Aquarian Age."

-- Leonard Cohen, in his introduction to the song, There Is A War

Thanks to Cosmic Connie for the heads up.