Monday, March 31, 2008

I'm Crazy. She's Crazy. You're Fucking Brilliant

"Define 'New Age Thinking'

Define 'Liberal'

Define 'Conservative'

'Those words mean whatever I want them to mean,' says the Crack Emcee."


-- Apparently another abused "anonymous" so-called science-y asshole of the Left, lost in an intellectual maze of his own construction, and thus, much more comfortable making enemies, with his assumptions and accusations, than learning. And all of this - his mindset, his anger, his lack of inquisitiveness - he blames on me, not NewAge, of course.

Here, let someone from your own side have a shot at it - a selection from Camille Paglia in 1998 - just to show you the similarities, since she and I are looking at the same "scene" (as a conservative, I disagree with her pro-NewAge conclusions). The difference is, having seen the future, I have the benefit of knowing I'm right. Also, if you read her whole column, there's even a bit where she says civilians who've never served their country don't know shit about protecting it - and might not be able to in the future - and I couldn't agree more with her, there, either. Unfortunately, like my accuser, above, Leftists seem incapable of shutting up, listening, and learning - it's all about them. Camille Paglia's wrong about a lot, but when it comes to thinking, she's tougher than the rest of you mental midgets combined:

Dear Camille:

After clandestinely watching the exiting crowd from the Dalai Lama's lecture here in oh-so-politically-correct Madison, Wisc., I am curious as to what your take is on such currently trendy cultural practices as eco-feminism, "natural living" and the broader New Age movement. I for one am paralyzed by the emphasis on "healing" -- are we all so hurt? -- the Mother Nature rhetoric, the narcissistic fetish for self-empowerment and the anti-urban, anti-sex ideology that seems to secretly lie at the heart of it all. What's the deal?

A gay male punk lost in the organic garden (save me ...)


Dear Lost Punk:

Insofar as the New Age movement follows directly from the visionary and prophetic side of the 1960s (which hailed a dawning "Age of Aquarius"), I approve of it.

As a college student, I became very interested in astrology, as well as esoteric folk-sciences like palmistry and Asian forms of divination like the I Ching. I loved the shift toward Asian theories of holistic medicine and Zen-based meditation practices, originating in California, with its rich heritage of Chinese and Japanese immigration. At its best, New Age trance music, which fuses Eastern and Western tonalities (in the Debussy manner), is gorgeous, though it has unfortunately degenerated into the monotonous banalities of Yanni and John Tesh.

We have the New Age movement to thank for the fact that Chinese acupuncture is increasingly an accepted therapy in orthopedic sports medicine and that nutrition is no longer confined to the female ghetto of "dieticians" but has been incorporated into the basic education of physicians. The back-to-nature element in the 1960s, while it had too much sentimental Rousseauism (which misses nature's destructive barbarism), also helped to sound the alert about toxic and carcinogenic pollutants in our air and water after the industrial revolution.

The complex mind-body continuum, which was neglected in Western medicine, with its Cartesian dualism, needs much more systematic investigation. Many apparently telepathic or occult phenomena -- another 1960s theme I have never surrendered -- can probably be explained in scientific ways, if a satisfactory experimental apparatus could be devised (as was attempted, with poor results, at Duke University).

What you find nauseating -- and I utterly agree with you -- is the grim, granola brigade in eco-feminism, with its rigid groupthink and hostile indifference to art. These are the sad-sack people who think the deadly earnest, message-mad Indigo Girls, with their ham-handed strumming, are great musicians. (Send for the vinegar and aspirin!)

The rise of the lipstick lesbians of the 1990s has certainly pushed that kind of separatist, political lesbianism to the periphery, but it still thrives, or should I say suppurates, in insular pockets like Madison or Northampton, Mass., which the tabloids like to call "Lesbianville, USA." Unfortunately, the lipsticks on the whole are so airheaded and have accomplished so little in artistic or intellectual terms that the fascist eco-feminists, with their outmoded communitarianism, still have the ideological advantage.

The worst aspect of this movement is, as you suggest, the obsession with "healing," which predicates modern life (where Western women are the freest of any in world history) as inherently destructive. At its origins, New Age was about expanding consciousness to cosmic range, integrating humanity with nature at its vastest and most awesome. Alas, today's New Age has shrunk down to pampering the wounded "inner child," yet another in the endless American parade of victims.

TMR speaking: Yea, I'd say she pretty much nails it - the 60's, the occult, obsolete feminism, Left-wing fascism, "alternative" medicine, radical environmentalism - all staples of TMR. How it keeps going (even in the science community) is a question you fools will have to answer for yourselves.

11 comments:

  1. Not angry at all, and certainly eager to learn - but the first step of any dialouge is to define terms.

    If you can't define terms then you are just making noise, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

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  2. Well, I hope this helps. I'll try to add links when I get the chance.

    Thanks for writing.

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  3. The point I was trying to make in my previous comment is illustrated by anonymous's comment here.

    Since I thought that athiesm (and correct me if I'm wrong) indicates a life lived in the absense of God,
    I have been suprised, as a logical person, by the large amount of bandwith you eat up typing about God.

    So, define your terms:
    Athiest = ?

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  4. Richter,

    Athiest = someone without the capacity, or desire, to believe in "God" or gods.

    But that doesn't mean my family doesn't believe - or my friends and co-workers; or my president (who I admire) or billions of other people who will do all kinds of crazy stuff with/because of belief. I mean, can you discuss Osama bin Laden without discussing Wahhabism? Iraq without the Shia and the Sunni? America without the Puritans? Europe and the Left without the occult? I'd find it difficult.

    I think the distinction you're having trouble with is my acute awareness of belief without being a believer myself. I'm not. Can't be. I was born without the capacity for such belief. I've just studied belief enough to know that when a large group of people will say something like "God is omnipotent", what they're actually telling you is they'll kill you, or do any other horrible (or silly) thing, to prove it.

    That kind of knowledge is, to say the least, healthy. Especially for an atheist. And so that's what I write about.

    Thanks for asking.

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  5. Well, thanks for answering. Polite of you, very polite.

    So, athiest = someone lacking the ability to believe in God. Is that what you are saying? You are characterizing yourself as someone who lacks the capacity to believe in God.

    Well then, as a logical person, I'm still wondering why you type so much about God on your damn blog. Seems that lacking the ability to believe in God would NOT go hand in hand with lacking the ability to shut up about God. There's a contradiction there, yes? Just asking.

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  6. Damn, Dude, you're pretty hot stuff. Why? It's not like you have to read it. What gives?

    And, no, being an atheist doesn't mean I have to "shut up about God." In case you've been in a cave, many atheists (Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, San Harris, etc.) have recently written some pretty good books on the subject, and also go on speaking tours, etc. Belief is probably the most interesting thing for an atheist to ponder - how does it happen? Why will people go so far for it? How does it shape society? Why is it that, when a Canadian pilot recently started "talking to God", everyone said he had went insane, but when preachers do it - or it's done before one's evening dinner - it's considered normal behavior? Why is a "spiritual connection" one of the top reasons given for acts of adultery? These are important questions, especially since it's 2008 and we're not the ignorant illiterates of the past.

    I don't know why any of this bothers you but, if it does, there's a simple way to solve it:

    Just don't read it.

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  7. Belief is probably the most interesting thing for an atheist to ponder -

    So riddle me this, if you lack the ability to believe, should you not lack the ability to ponder belief?

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  8. Richter, this is getting really old, really fast:

    Why would I care to stop pondering it? Almost everyone I know believes. Should I be ignorant to what's around me?

    And how can I stop pondering it? (A bullet to the brain is a possible option but, sorry, I've got other plans right now:) It's impossible to ignore.

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  9. Well, it's just that with all this pondering about God, that you are blathering all over creation, you are acting more undecided than incapable.

    It's impossible to ignore.

    Shouldn't be. That's all I'm saying.

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  10. Yea, like stupidity can be ignored as well:

    Stop talking, Richter. That'll be a start in the right direction.

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  11. I think the reason you have such a hard time on science blogs is that scientists based their judgements and reasoning on facts and empirical evidence wheras you are ranting emotionally from the gut and making sweeping generalizations based on your own personal feelings.

    There may occasionally be some point of agreement but thats strictly by accident - your style strikes me as more Rush Limbaugh than Richard Dawkins.

    Which is also fine - nobody expects social satirists to be logical or reasonable they expect them to let it rip and let the cards fall where they may.

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