Thank you for saying all this. Sadly, I've had the same experience with some of my "spiritual" friends—it's even created a distance between us, much to my dismay. Unfortunately there is something about embarking on the spiritual path as it is laid out in modern, Western terms that results in a decrease in discernment. I can't tell you how many friends will show me a random Instagram post or YouTube video that confirms their uninformed opinion where the post is clearly bunk, and easily refuted with just one minute of research.
It's ironic because discernment is one of the most important aspects of traditional spirituality.
Yes, we must go to the mat. Everybody must do everything they can.
The natural state of catatonia we are experiencing due to being brain-blasted for years with info/images x the paralysis of grief x panic x the perverse desire to "see it all burn down" must end now.
It's not like we're going to get a do-over. The expansion of consciousness which we have achieved as life itself will start to go down. Things won't end in some fun knocking down a house of cards, it'll be ugly decline, things just getting worse and worse; when we're old it will be all we can do to talk about anything other than how things used to be better. There used to be animals. There used to be national parks. People around us will suffer more and more. The news will get worse and worse, the images we see of things happening tele-visually will get uglier and uglier. Babies ... we'll see terrible things. Until we turn it off. And stay in our bubble. Those of us who can. And we'll get more and more absurd, trying to make our skin look like glass or buying mutliple pairs of $900 pants. Some of us will live better and better lives, thinking we're the rightful beneficiaries of a democratic meritocracy. We'll train our bodies to perfection, exercise multiple times a week, drink healthy smoothies made of things from the farmers market. We'll study classical music. Our children will learn Latin. We all think we're going to be one of the lucky ones... that's the thing about a democratic system. It makes you think anyone can be King.
And so we all hope, that could be me. I could be the one with glass skin and trips to Oaxaca. I could collect art. And have time to do everything I enjoy. I deserve it. Because I am more talented and better than those huddled masses . I won. And it was fair. I am rich. Because I am smarter. Not because my family is a noble family. I am not a nobleman. I am a deserving rich person. And I don't have any obligation to be cultured. Earning money the fair way, the American way, means I can do no wrong and I don't have to do any right. There is no noblesse oblige for the rich. They are not upper class. They are just rich. And if you are good and honest, if you are a noble person.....there is very very little chance you will be one of them.
That's the truth. Americans should not aspire to be rich. It should be cool to be normal. The libraries should be good. The post office. The shared things.
One thing I'd be interested in hearing you about would be Communism. Socialism and Communism. In the US. The ... the roots of the current political factor of the idea of communism. Uh, I mean, like why it's such a scare word. How we can dissociate the idea of EVERYBODY GETTING SOMETHING AWESOME, from some weird creepy evil force ie socialism. It seems the pinnacle of stupification that we don't want what is good for us. Like lovely parks to share. And schools that are good enough for all. The fear of "dirty stinking red jewish oriented creepy mushroom eating russian commies " seems awfully abstract for today's voters. Isn't it? Why are USA people scared of sharing stuff and can't there just be another word for it. Like people who have Common Sense.
We need to tune into our common sense. Like we all know that it would be cool to have nice shared stuff. And also that life isn't just about us. It's a torch we're carrying. Our job , it's pretty clear to anyone who is mature, is to pass it on. We don't have to have kids ourselves but we have to pass it on... we need to care about life beyond ourselves. We need to care about the next generation.
Materialism seems fear based. And maybe that can be counteracted by a fear of tackiness. Because honestly, it is tacky to be ostentatious. We should find it unattractive because the way people get rich is to sell out the people of tomorrow.
It's gross to be mega rich. It is like putting out a cigarette in someone's dinner. Why ruin it for the future generations? Hopefully it will start to seem tacky soon.
Anyway, I'm absolutely thrilled you did this and put this all down. Reading it was like being a page in a coloring book and having all the color fill you in. LIke, yeah right. I knew that. At one point I said Dang out loud.
If I was an actor or an influencer I would record myself reading this out loud and put the recording on youtube. If I were a genius animator who had extra time on my hands. .. or a student animator looking for a dope project.... I would animate sections of this.
I believe we are truly brain-blasted in the sense that it's hard for us to absorb facts through langage sometimes. If I was an animator, or if I created cool visual sequences that people would watch. If I was Mr. Beast. I'd put this ##@ on youtube so people could watch it section by section.
So much in here that I am grateful to have at my fingertips. I will print it out. And send it to my parents and a few friends.
what a great f-ing comment. You did your part in spreading the word about this piece! Your comment = brilliant. "That's the truth. Americans should not aspire to be rich. It should be cool to be normal. The libraries should be good. The post office. The shared things." I LOVE the idea of equating mega-wealth with tackiness. Having grown up in Potomac, MD (which I seem to be talking about a lot all of the sudden), I am no stranger to gross displays of wealth. I remember back in high school (88-92), it was cool to go to a party at a house with an elevator in it. One of my first days of school (I'd moved from a more rural, working class neighborhood - better schools, etc, which is true), a girl said, during sharing time ,"Sometimes I get lost in my house because it's so big." I was in 4th grade and never forgot it (her house, it turns out, really was very, very big.)
Having lived in such places and seen their ABSOLUTE limitations, I sometimes wonder if I don't have a responsibility to share how much it's not all it's cracked up to be. I always hesitate, b/c then I sound like an ungrateful brat (and my life has had many special privileges, and also many hardships, and I am not a brat, and I am very grateful for what I have experienced). But at this point, and in this community of ideas, I am wondering what you all think about that: commentary from someone who has lived in places that anyone would call "privileged" and sees all the cracks up in there.) The middle class life, with its library books, biking with friends after school, home-cooked dinners, hunting crayfish in the creek behind our houses... that's where joy lives, at least in my experience. More stuff = more shit to manage.
Do you remember the Jon Benet Ramsey case? Their house was so huge some sex fiend murderer was able to kidnap her from her bedroom, take her into the basement, rape and murder her and exit the house without anyone hearing. No one could hear what was happening because of how spacious the house was. The crime would have been impossible to pull off in a smaller home.
I hope we have some kind of compassionate, meaningful economy in the future. And, like you say, aspiring to be rich should be looked at as a failure of character. Wanting all the 'best things' regarded as tacky. I like the idea of communism, reconfigured for the modern age. It could be done. If it can be imagined, it can be done.
I think I forgot to write my original comment. This is a generative area for sure.
My original comment was. MAYBE BEING A DEMOCRAT DOES MEAN SOMETHING. Maybe the leadership now isn't ideal. but maybe as you outline here, being a democrat, a member of the democratic party, can still mean what it used to mean.
Or rather voting democrat. I'd like to think more about FDR
100% all of this, combined with the obsession for keeping the electorate in a state of doubt and fear so the candidates can boast about their ability to protect! As Susan Faludi wrote in her NYT guest essay, a lot of the threats on women’s rights are a push to making them need protections that they are now able to provide for themselves without sacrificing their freedom.
Thanks Daniel, reading this is deeply satisfying. Just finished your Future of Consciousness seminar which was hopeful. However this particular essay scratches an endless itch I have to speak my frustration with spiritual bypassing and new age escapism. I am a psychedelic practitioner/scientist and have been steeped in meditation/breathwork/psychedelics/consciousness research for decades. I am constantly clamouring for real world change, action and collaboration versus more navel gazing and self indulgent utopian revelry. We need to wake up from our narcissistic obsession with personal healing and self-optimization and get busy discerning and facing hard truths in the collective, real world. AI and the advent of ASI is radically challenging our ability to discern reality. Now more than ever we need un-edited sharing and exchange to stay the course. Being rich and having money doesn't help. It appears to insulate and allow for ignorance. Interestingly, disenfranchised and impoverished communities don't have the luxury of our Western world self-centered new age practices. They must collaborate to survive. Perhaps we should pay more attention and learn from them rather than focussing on the shiny, rich gurus with perfect bodies and beguiling off and online displays. We are experiencing food shortages/prohibitive costs and extreme weather events everywhere. Many of my spiritual friends believe they will ascend into a 5D reality, others are in complete denial of the Eisenstein/Kennedy/Brand debacle and many are utterly immersed in magic thinking. I can no longer be in conversation with them. Thankfully, the Psychedelic Renaissance has simmered down and hopefully cooler heads and safer, more pragmatic practices will prevail. Too many naive psychedelic utopians, start-up junkies and culty new age psychopaths have co-opted the space for too long. I will continue to support psychedelic exploration in its capacity to alleviate suffering and elicit deep, transformational states of awe and wonder but as a means to an end only. In order to have impact we must translate our ecstatic awe into realtime, real world actions and pattern interrupts. We must be brave and act differently. Otherwise it is all just beautiful dreaming. Let's continue dialogues like these using the awesome power of technology and the internet. Keep up the great work Daniel!
Beautiful. Very VERY well done. Good for you sir. So many compliments. Have you see Bandy Lee? She talks in this region. She has many dialogues with Anthony Davis on Five Minute News (YouTube).
One of my favorite quotes is from Mike Tyson, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." So yeah, for the Ayahuasca-yoga-galaxy brain beautiful people, tell me again how spiritually above it all and enlightened you are when Orwell's figurative boot is stomping on your face forever. This whole thing is an entitled, bourgeois pose. Trump support is just another mechanism that allows this demographic to affect an "I'm actually more special than you" posture.
Excellent article! I just read this after taking a break in my writing 200 postcards to swing state voters through the Progressive Turnout Project.
Perhaps if we all do a little to help Harris win we can tackle the bigger, systemic issues with our socio-economic-political system that we must tackle I'd we're to achieve a civilization in balance with the Earth.
Daniel, your writings have been a life raft for me throughout this election cycle as the stormy seas of internet misinformation have tossed a number of my spiritual friends to and fro, disarranging their political views into hodge podges of confused conspiritualities. I find their digital literacy to be lacking, a disheartening phenomenon at a time when our sensemaking needs to be at its best, considering the make-or-break stakes we face planetarily.
I will admit that I myself fell for some of RFK’s grift, somewhat naively. Your incisive skepticism of his campaign kept me from throwing my full support behind him and was ultimately borne out when he made the deal with the devil, so to speak, of joining forces with Trump. I have enormously appreciated your tracking of this bizarre trend as two of my previous intellectual influences, Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand, have followed a similar trajectory. I’m afraid their movement to the right is reflective of a wider trend.
Since I live in the swing state of Nevada, I would like to share some of your recent writings. I just discovered that some of them are available on Facebook, so I will be sure to do so on that platform, along with some personal reflections. Thank you for your tireless work.
You can share whatever you want - you should have all the emails with the full pieces. I may try to transfer the whole batch to Medium. Please let me know how I can help as Nevada is a pivotal state. We can have a zoom call with them if you want.
Oh that’s right, I didn’t think of the emails containing the full pieces. I love your idea of a Zoom call, Daniel. I’m very busy this week but next week I’ll reach out to you about convening a Zoom call for my spiritual friends who are politically jaded or leaning MAHA. I think I could drum up a nice turnout. Would email be the best way to correspond about this?
Independents will NOT vote for Harris until she changes her Middle East policy. This is absolutely key. She has one month to change her position or she loses.
The pressure should be on her, not Independents who would love to vote for her, if she changed that policy. They can't get past genocide and aren't persuaded that it will be worse if Trump is elected.
I've seen many hard core Dems argue that those who I've just described are 'single issue voters.,' which is pretty atrocious.
Otherwise, I agree with every one of your sentiments here, Daniel!🙏
The Jewish vote is divided though. Many are independents. They're not all Zionists. But I get your point. AIPAC controls both houses through donations and , imo, threats, so there's that. Bad things that don't appear to even be connected to Zionists, seem to happen to those who run afoul of them.
As a life-long Democrat, Daniel makes an excellent point here: the Democrats could win in a landslide if they simply adopted some immensely popular positions--like universal healthcare. Slam dunk. Yet everyone is sitting here biting their fingers off because they simply won't. In other words, the Democrats will do the absolute minimum to win this 'most important election in history', this 'election that will determine whether we have fascism or democracy', etc. etc. I see so many friends and family who are literally sick with worry over this election, and the Democrats are perfectly fine with scaring the living shit out of them rather than giving them something that could win the election easily--and make their lives better.
Yet here's this existential anxiety for Democracy from the same party that refused to allow us to have a primary in the Democratic party despite the fact that Biden had promised not to run again, and he was clearly going to lose this 'most important of all elections'. Yet he was fawned over by the Democratic press for years (though back in 2022 75% of Democrats said he was too old to run) until the curtain was pulled back for a debate moment and it was no longer possible to hide that he was a demented fool, and so he was replaced by someone with exactly the same positions without a single vote being cast. This is the same Democratic party that legally hounded every candidate who tried to run against them, either with novel lawsuits against Trump (something that you would normally see in a third world country), or legal challenges against a legacy family candidate like RFK. Remember this was all done instead of actually giving the voters something that they might really WANT, in order to win the election. Like Universal Health Care.
It's a weird thing that's happening here in this whole conversation. There is somehow this notion that it's no longer necessary to earn one's vote, even in the slightest. All you have to say is: Oh, But Democracy! It's the lesser of two evil arguments taken to its natural conclusion: we'll offer you absolutely nothing other than to point out that the other guy is Hitler, and we'll have the Times, our inhouse organ, offer seven articles a day for the next eight years to hammer it home.
But increasingly Democrats look like Stalin, and that becomes the choice, a Sophie's Choice, and that's where many of us find ourselves, who will vote for neither Trump nor Harris. Stalin, you say? How absurd and outrageous!--I read the NY TImes daily and everything I believe is aligned with their positions--and they're a LIBERAL newspaper! We're good people!
Sorry, but Liberalism in it present form--when you step outside the blue bubble--is positively terrifying. And believe me, it's horrifying for many of us to see our friends and family so intolerant that they wind up arguing--angrily, religiously--for many of the positions that used to be foundational beliefs in the right wing: rampant war, censorship, and an abiding belief in the correctness of institutional power, generously brandished against people we don't like.
What do the Democrats stand for right now? They stand for Israel's continuing genocidal, suicidal campaign against everyone they can reach with a fighter bomber. They stand for the war in Ukraine where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have died on the altar of NATO expansion. They stand for confronting China militarily, another project that's certain to turn out well. They stand openly for the massive expansion of state censorship, as John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and others call for the dismantling of First Amendments protections, while more quietly the infrastructure of vast censorship is already in place. If you haven't heard about it from the Times for some reason, try reading Matt Taibbi, whose fear and distrust of Democrats is well earned and isn't the result of 'spiritual bypass' or 'fear of becoming irrelevant' or some other nonsense.
The Democrats also stand for the normalization of Covid 'as a little cold'. Except that the science is clear that it's actually quite unhealthy to keep getting it--even if your symptoms are mild. And every time you get it, you get that much closer to getting Long Covid, which will positively ruin your life, as it has for millions. Yes, unfortunately, that's the SCIENCE, believe it or not, despite the fact that Biden health officials won't say it--because they already 'beat it'. No, normalization wasn't enough for Biden; he had to literally dismantle the entire infrastructure that had been put in place (yes, by that fucking asshole Trump, who I agree by the way, is an asshole) for treatment, Medicaid access, research monies, infection tracking, etc. in order to achieve the empty 'mission accomplished' moment where he could claim that the pandemic was no longer with us. Now people and their kids just get sick all the time. And don't even have any idea that there's any danger in it. Why? Because Democrats TRUST the Democrats and the Democratic organs, because we're the smart ones, we're the good ones, we're the ones you can't really fool--unlike those idiot Trump supporters.
Ok, Covid is admittedly a pet peeve, but it's indicative of an administration that has been able sell their constituency on virtually any bullshit reality they've thrown out there. The only place they've hit a bump is Israel, because genocide is a tougher sell in the world of TIK TOK and Twitter. But Harris is clear that she's all in, and we give her a pass because, well, because it's politically...... 'complicated'. Oh.
In short, I think when you step outside of the blue bubble, it suddenly becomes horrifyingly clear how effective the belief system is that the Democrats have fashioned for us. And they found that they could offer us absolutely nothing by using the oldest cudgel ever: primal fear. And it works. Too well. (Even Lina Khan--the most exciting, important, powerful regulator in the last forty years for chrissakes--is going to be tossed overboard by the transparently fraudulent Harris, according to several billionaires she's already told. Oh, but there's so much 'joy'!)
And I know Daniel's response is: But Climate Change! The Democrats are demonstrably better! Yep, they're better but we'll still be a mile underwater when it's done because it's barely enough, and besides, in a world of constant war, it will be impossible to generate the international cooperation necessary to address the real climate change challenges. I still think that Daniel's most important contribution to our joint futures is his ongoing, brilliant campaign against the materialist paradigm and it's malevolent lockhold on the minds of modern humanity. It's the belief system that denies our capacity for true happiness and connection and interior beauty, and without that, we'll always be at war with ourselves, as well as each other.
But on his increasingly strident political dogmatism, not so much.......
well I disagree with you in a number of areas, including Ukraine. Yes the Democrats are playing this terrible game. But still I would rather see an effort to make a green new deal, I would rather women have abortions, I don't want persecution of minorities and poor illegal immigrants, I don't want more tax cuts on the wealthy, I don't want more lies. Etc.
It’s more than one or ten actions that determine the nature of outcomes, effects, or a final result . Karmas are complex. All the pluses and minuses to whatever candidate or one party may be persuasive but only if those factors alone are all that are considered or matter most . I would argue that it doesn’t actually matter who is running against the incumbent administration if people , based on their own experiences are unhappy with it or have any doubts about it. A vote for or against an incumbent administration is most specifically a vote of either confidence or lack of confidence, based not on words but actions and results.
Working class people in general will not base those assessments on abstract statistics, which is more than frustrating and maddening for the educated class, who cannot get into their heads . So they stupidly try harder to “educate “ these lower classes all the while feeling their own superiority in intelligence and morality.
What I’m trying to say is if Trump wins it will be because the “rabble” the ignorant “unwashed masses” will have spoken back. However I trust karma and will accept whatever happens. As they say in the south: “you get what you get so don’t throw a fit”
The way you are reading the signs no doubt dictatorship sounds feasible, I personally think this is fantastical and not possible Though I think it is a potent political device/ scenario being used to whip up anxiety, distract attention and solidify votes. How it the world would any president declare dictatorship without the backing of the military. This could only happen under marshal law or a military coup. We know that the joint chiefs and national security state do not support Trump. Though they do support Harris. So again if any suspension of democratic processes occur this election it will come from the Harris - Biden administration. I hope you can see there is no means for Trump to do any of the above you fear.
KG, Trump WILL have the backing of the largely Christian Zionist grunts. And, unless he's kidding around, here are his plans for the future, according to this article.
"When Donald Trump boasted to Fox News in June that he’d fire U.S. military leaders he deemed “woke,” it was not an isolated comment. On the contrary, the Republican repeated the commitment in July and then again in August."
I suspect that Paul Levy is in as much shock as I am at the level of propaganda and reversal of values we have been exposed to since at least 2016 . I bet he noticed a massive escalation of totalitarian ideologies , systematic indoctrination and media induced psychosis in 2020.( arising from the supposed good guys)
Some applicable Wetiko insight from Paul Levy:
“Humanity has a long history of falling into mass collective delusions.”
….”due to humanity’s unconsciousness combined with its suggestibility, a widespread dogmatic belief is more likely to be wrong or riddled with unseen errors. Strongly held ideas and opinions have killed many more people than the epidemics of bubonic plague or smallpox combined.”
“If we are unconsciously in the grip of an unreflected upon (and limiting) idea, like puppets on a string, we—without even realizing it—become the idea’s instruments for reproducing itself into the world and other people’s minds. The idea then “infects” not just our thinking, but everyone else who has likewise installed it into their minds.”
“It behooves us to not become entrenched in an immovable viewpoint (which limits our freedom to creatively respond to everchanging circumstances).”
“if we become dogmatically entrenched in our perspective, we close ourselves off to whatever the world might be disclosing to us. …. in psychologist Erich Neumann’s words, an “occlusion to revelation”
In the extremely possible if not probable event of a Trump electoral college victory (NC GA and FL are red after the absolute travesty of the Biden/Harris neglect and mismanagement of these disasters), what comes next?
I remember you felt this way in 2016 — but outside of one semi-useful omnibus bill being passed during Biden’s term, I fail to see how the past four years haven’t been worse for the world than the previous four years of Trump.
The stakes to me are tremendously high for different reasons than the ones you share above. In a portion of Harris’ 60 Minutes interview Sunday that was cut from the main show, she intimated her desire to provoke a war with Iran. The Dems are driving us straight towards World War III. We are nearly there.
Trump is a cartoonish scam artist and puppet of major criminal enterprises. But he credibly pursues a policy of detente.
If he gets in, my gut tells me the odds of a nuclear Holocaust go down.
And then once he’s in, perhaps the actual people of the nation can break the hypnosis of the two party system and fight for an alternative that actually gives a fuck about them.
As a NY voter, I’ll be proud to vote for Jill Stein since my vote essentially doesn’t count for the electoral college. If she gets 5% nationally, the Greens will receive mandated federal funding.
Not saying he is — but Harris, with her repeated gloating about the “lethal” fighting force of the US military, is clearly the war candidate. So confusing to me how people don’t make the link between climate disaster and destabilization and the USMIC death machine.
Thank you for saying all this. Sadly, I've had the same experience with some of my "spiritual" friends—it's even created a distance between us, much to my dismay. Unfortunately there is something about embarking on the spiritual path as it is laid out in modern, Western terms that results in a decrease in discernment. I can't tell you how many friends will show me a random Instagram post or YouTube video that confirms their uninformed opinion where the post is clearly bunk, and easily refuted with just one minute of research.
It's ironic because discernment is one of the most important aspects of traditional spirituality.
Yes, we need a renaissance of discernment.
Bravo, good, exactly,
Yes, we must go to the mat. Everybody must do everything they can.
The natural state of catatonia we are experiencing due to being brain-blasted for years with info/images x the paralysis of grief x panic x the perverse desire to "see it all burn down" must end now.
It's not like we're going to get a do-over. The expansion of consciousness which we have achieved as life itself will start to go down. Things won't end in some fun knocking down a house of cards, it'll be ugly decline, things just getting worse and worse; when we're old it will be all we can do to talk about anything other than how things used to be better. There used to be animals. There used to be national parks. People around us will suffer more and more. The news will get worse and worse, the images we see of things happening tele-visually will get uglier and uglier. Babies ... we'll see terrible things. Until we turn it off. And stay in our bubble. Those of us who can. And we'll get more and more absurd, trying to make our skin look like glass or buying mutliple pairs of $900 pants. Some of us will live better and better lives, thinking we're the rightful beneficiaries of a democratic meritocracy. We'll train our bodies to perfection, exercise multiple times a week, drink healthy smoothies made of things from the farmers market. We'll study classical music. Our children will learn Latin. We all think we're going to be one of the lucky ones... that's the thing about a democratic system. It makes you think anyone can be King.
And so we all hope, that could be me. I could be the one with glass skin and trips to Oaxaca. I could collect art. And have time to do everything I enjoy. I deserve it. Because I am more talented and better than those huddled masses . I won. And it was fair. I am rich. Because I am smarter. Not because my family is a noble family. I am not a nobleman. I am a deserving rich person. And I don't have any obligation to be cultured. Earning money the fair way, the American way, means I can do no wrong and I don't have to do any right. There is no noblesse oblige for the rich. They are not upper class. They are just rich. And if you are good and honest, if you are a noble person.....there is very very little chance you will be one of them.
That's the truth. Americans should not aspire to be rich. It should be cool to be normal. The libraries should be good. The post office. The shared things.
One thing I'd be interested in hearing you about would be Communism. Socialism and Communism. In the US. The ... the roots of the current political factor of the idea of communism. Uh, I mean, like why it's such a scare word. How we can dissociate the idea of EVERYBODY GETTING SOMETHING AWESOME, from some weird creepy evil force ie socialism. It seems the pinnacle of stupification that we don't want what is good for us. Like lovely parks to share. And schools that are good enough for all. The fear of "dirty stinking red jewish oriented creepy mushroom eating russian commies " seems awfully abstract for today's voters. Isn't it? Why are USA people scared of sharing stuff and can't there just be another word for it. Like people who have Common Sense.
We need to tune into our common sense. Like we all know that it would be cool to have nice shared stuff. And also that life isn't just about us. It's a torch we're carrying. Our job , it's pretty clear to anyone who is mature, is to pass it on. We don't have to have kids ourselves but we have to pass it on... we need to care about life beyond ourselves. We need to care about the next generation.
Materialism seems fear based. And maybe that can be counteracted by a fear of tackiness. Because honestly, it is tacky to be ostentatious. We should find it unattractive because the way people get rich is to sell out the people of tomorrow.
It's gross to be mega rich. It is like putting out a cigarette in someone's dinner. Why ruin it for the future generations? Hopefully it will start to seem tacky soon.
Anyway, I'm absolutely thrilled you did this and put this all down. Reading it was like being a page in a coloring book and having all the color fill you in. LIke, yeah right. I knew that. At one point I said Dang out loud.
If I was an actor or an influencer I would record myself reading this out loud and put the recording on youtube. If I were a genius animator who had extra time on my hands. .. or a student animator looking for a dope project.... I would animate sections of this.
I believe we are truly brain-blasted in the sense that it's hard for us to absorb facts through langage sometimes. If I was an animator, or if I created cool visual sequences that people would watch. If I was Mr. Beast. I'd put this ##@ on youtube so people could watch it section by section.
So much in here that I am grateful to have at my fingertips. I will print it out. And send it to my parents and a few friends.
Keep going Daniel Pinchbeck!
what a great f-ing comment. You did your part in spreading the word about this piece! Your comment = brilliant. "That's the truth. Americans should not aspire to be rich. It should be cool to be normal. The libraries should be good. The post office. The shared things." I LOVE the idea of equating mega-wealth with tackiness. Having grown up in Potomac, MD (which I seem to be talking about a lot all of the sudden), I am no stranger to gross displays of wealth. I remember back in high school (88-92), it was cool to go to a party at a house with an elevator in it. One of my first days of school (I'd moved from a more rural, working class neighborhood - better schools, etc, which is true), a girl said, during sharing time ,"Sometimes I get lost in my house because it's so big." I was in 4th grade and never forgot it (her house, it turns out, really was very, very big.)
Having lived in such places and seen their ABSOLUTE limitations, I sometimes wonder if I don't have a responsibility to share how much it's not all it's cracked up to be. I always hesitate, b/c then I sound like an ungrateful brat (and my life has had many special privileges, and also many hardships, and I am not a brat, and I am very grateful for what I have experienced). But at this point, and in this community of ideas, I am wondering what you all think about that: commentary from someone who has lived in places that anyone would call "privileged" and sees all the cracks up in there.) The middle class life, with its library books, biking with friends after school, home-cooked dinners, hunting crayfish in the creek behind our houses... that's where joy lives, at least in my experience. More stuff = more shit to manage.
Do you remember the Jon Benet Ramsey case? Their house was so huge some sex fiend murderer was able to kidnap her from her bedroom, take her into the basement, rape and murder her and exit the house without anyone hearing. No one could hear what was happening because of how spacious the house was. The crime would have been impossible to pull off in a smaller home.
Socialism has been relentlessly denigrated by design by those who stand to lose from it.
I hope we have some kind of compassionate, meaningful economy in the future. And, like you say, aspiring to be rich should be looked at as a failure of character. Wanting all the 'best things' regarded as tacky. I like the idea of communism, reconfigured for the modern age. It could be done. If it can be imagined, it can be done.
I think I forgot to write my original comment. This is a generative area for sure.
My original comment was. MAYBE BEING A DEMOCRAT DOES MEAN SOMETHING. Maybe the leadership now isn't ideal. but maybe as you outline here, being a democrat, a member of the democratic party, can still mean what it used to mean.
Or rather voting democrat. I'd like to think more about FDR
Materialism is the worldview of communism- very anti-spiritual. Communism- good for a family, bad for a nation
100% all of this, combined with the obsession for keeping the electorate in a state of doubt and fear so the candidates can boast about their ability to protect! As Susan Faludi wrote in her NYT guest essay, a lot of the threats on women’s rights are a push to making them need protections that they are now able to provide for themselves without sacrificing their freedom.
Thanks Daniel, reading this is deeply satisfying. Just finished your Future of Consciousness seminar which was hopeful. However this particular essay scratches an endless itch I have to speak my frustration with spiritual bypassing and new age escapism. I am a psychedelic practitioner/scientist and have been steeped in meditation/breathwork/psychedelics/consciousness research for decades. I am constantly clamouring for real world change, action and collaboration versus more navel gazing and self indulgent utopian revelry. We need to wake up from our narcissistic obsession with personal healing and self-optimization and get busy discerning and facing hard truths in the collective, real world. AI and the advent of ASI is radically challenging our ability to discern reality. Now more than ever we need un-edited sharing and exchange to stay the course. Being rich and having money doesn't help. It appears to insulate and allow for ignorance. Interestingly, disenfranchised and impoverished communities don't have the luxury of our Western world self-centered new age practices. They must collaborate to survive. Perhaps we should pay more attention and learn from them rather than focussing on the shiny, rich gurus with perfect bodies and beguiling off and online displays. We are experiencing food shortages/prohibitive costs and extreme weather events everywhere. Many of my spiritual friends believe they will ascend into a 5D reality, others are in complete denial of the Eisenstein/Kennedy/Brand debacle and many are utterly immersed in magic thinking. I can no longer be in conversation with them. Thankfully, the Psychedelic Renaissance has simmered down and hopefully cooler heads and safer, more pragmatic practices will prevail. Too many naive psychedelic utopians, start-up junkies and culty new age psychopaths have co-opted the space for too long. I will continue to support psychedelic exploration in its capacity to alleviate suffering and elicit deep, transformational states of awe and wonder but as a means to an end only. In order to have impact we must translate our ecstatic awe into realtime, real world actions and pattern interrupts. We must be brave and act differently. Otherwise it is all just beautiful dreaming. Let's continue dialogues like these using the awesome power of technology and the internet. Keep up the great work Daniel!
Beautiful. Very VERY well done. Good for you sir. So many compliments. Have you see Bandy Lee? She talks in this region. She has many dialogues with Anthony Davis on Five Minute News (YouTube).
Will check her out. Thank you
I figured something out about the hypnotic style -- you're referenced here!
https://www.patreon.com/timothymorton?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator
do you want to give us free access to the post perhaps in another comment here?
Bandy Lee deals with psychopaths on Rikers Island who have wrapped the guards and other inmates around their little fingers.
Wonderful Daniel.
One of my favorite quotes is from Mike Tyson, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." So yeah, for the Ayahuasca-yoga-galaxy brain beautiful people, tell me again how spiritually above it all and enlightened you are when Orwell's figurative boot is stomping on your face forever. This whole thing is an entitled, bourgeois pose. Trump support is just another mechanism that allows this demographic to affect an "I'm actually more special than you" posture.
Excellent article! I just read this after taking a break in my writing 200 postcards to swing state voters through the Progressive Turnout Project.
Perhaps if we all do a little to help Harris win we can tackle the bigger, systemic issues with our socio-economic-political system that we must tackle I'd we're to achieve a civilization in balance with the Earth.
Daniel, your writings have been a life raft for me throughout this election cycle as the stormy seas of internet misinformation have tossed a number of my spiritual friends to and fro, disarranging their political views into hodge podges of confused conspiritualities. I find their digital literacy to be lacking, a disheartening phenomenon at a time when our sensemaking needs to be at its best, considering the make-or-break stakes we face planetarily.
I will admit that I myself fell for some of RFK’s grift, somewhat naively. Your incisive skepticism of his campaign kept me from throwing my full support behind him and was ultimately borne out when he made the deal with the devil, so to speak, of joining forces with Trump. I have enormously appreciated your tracking of this bizarre trend as two of my previous intellectual influences, Charles Eisenstein and Russell Brand, have followed a similar trajectory. I’m afraid their movement to the right is reflective of a wider trend.
Since I live in the swing state of Nevada, I would like to share some of your recent writings. I just discovered that some of them are available on Facebook, so I will be sure to do so on that platform, along with some personal reflections. Thank you for your tireless work.
You can share whatever you want - you should have all the emails with the full pieces. I may try to transfer the whole batch to Medium. Please let me know how I can help as Nevada is a pivotal state. We can have a zoom call with them if you want.
Oh that’s right, I didn’t think of the emails containing the full pieces. I love your idea of a Zoom call, Daniel. I’m very busy this week but next week I’ll reach out to you about convening a Zoom call for my spiritual friends who are politically jaded or leaning MAHA. I think I could drum up a nice turnout. Would email be the best way to correspond about this?
Yes- daniel.pinchbeck@gmail.com
Couldn't agree more. And Heather Cox Richardson rocks.
Agreed! HCR and Daniel are my top 2 reads every week.
Independents will NOT vote for Harris until she changes her Middle East policy. This is absolutely key. She has one month to change her position or she loses.
The pressure should be on her, not Independents who would love to vote for her, if she changed that policy. They can't get past genocide and aren't persuaded that it will be worse if Trump is elected.
I've seen many hard core Dems argue that those who I've just described are 'single issue voters.,' which is pretty atrocious.
Otherwise, I agree with every one of your sentiments here, Daniel!🙏
My guess is that she's afriad of losing the probably much larger Jewish vote and my hope is she'll change once elected
The Jewish vote is divided though. Many are independents. They're not all Zionists. But I get your point. AIPAC controls both houses through donations and , imo, threats, so there's that. Bad things that don't appear to even be connected to Zionists, seem to happen to those who run afoul of them.
As a life-long Democrat, Daniel makes an excellent point here: the Democrats could win in a landslide if they simply adopted some immensely popular positions--like universal healthcare. Slam dunk. Yet everyone is sitting here biting their fingers off because they simply won't. In other words, the Democrats will do the absolute minimum to win this 'most important election in history', this 'election that will determine whether we have fascism or democracy', etc. etc. I see so many friends and family who are literally sick with worry over this election, and the Democrats are perfectly fine with scaring the living shit out of them rather than giving them something that could win the election easily--and make their lives better.
Yet here's this existential anxiety for Democracy from the same party that refused to allow us to have a primary in the Democratic party despite the fact that Biden had promised not to run again, and he was clearly going to lose this 'most important of all elections'. Yet he was fawned over by the Democratic press for years (though back in 2022 75% of Democrats said he was too old to run) until the curtain was pulled back for a debate moment and it was no longer possible to hide that he was a demented fool, and so he was replaced by someone with exactly the same positions without a single vote being cast. This is the same Democratic party that legally hounded every candidate who tried to run against them, either with novel lawsuits against Trump (something that you would normally see in a third world country), or legal challenges against a legacy family candidate like RFK. Remember this was all done instead of actually giving the voters something that they might really WANT, in order to win the election. Like Universal Health Care.
It's a weird thing that's happening here in this whole conversation. There is somehow this notion that it's no longer necessary to earn one's vote, even in the slightest. All you have to say is: Oh, But Democracy! It's the lesser of two evil arguments taken to its natural conclusion: we'll offer you absolutely nothing other than to point out that the other guy is Hitler, and we'll have the Times, our inhouse organ, offer seven articles a day for the next eight years to hammer it home.
But increasingly Democrats look like Stalin, and that becomes the choice, a Sophie's Choice, and that's where many of us find ourselves, who will vote for neither Trump nor Harris. Stalin, you say? How absurd and outrageous!--I read the NY TImes daily and everything I believe is aligned with their positions--and they're a LIBERAL newspaper! We're good people!
Sorry, but Liberalism in it present form--when you step outside the blue bubble--is positively terrifying. And believe me, it's horrifying for many of us to see our friends and family so intolerant that they wind up arguing--angrily, religiously--for many of the positions that used to be foundational beliefs in the right wing: rampant war, censorship, and an abiding belief in the correctness of institutional power, generously brandished against people we don't like.
What do the Democrats stand for right now? They stand for Israel's continuing genocidal, suicidal campaign against everyone they can reach with a fighter bomber. They stand for the war in Ukraine where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have died on the altar of NATO expansion. They stand for confronting China militarily, another project that's certain to turn out well. They stand openly for the massive expansion of state censorship, as John Kerry, Hillary Clinton and others call for the dismantling of First Amendments protections, while more quietly the infrastructure of vast censorship is already in place. If you haven't heard about it from the Times for some reason, try reading Matt Taibbi, whose fear and distrust of Democrats is well earned and isn't the result of 'spiritual bypass' or 'fear of becoming irrelevant' or some other nonsense.
The Democrats also stand for the normalization of Covid 'as a little cold'. Except that the science is clear that it's actually quite unhealthy to keep getting it--even if your symptoms are mild. And every time you get it, you get that much closer to getting Long Covid, which will positively ruin your life, as it has for millions. Yes, unfortunately, that's the SCIENCE, believe it or not, despite the fact that Biden health officials won't say it--because they already 'beat it'. No, normalization wasn't enough for Biden; he had to literally dismantle the entire infrastructure that had been put in place (yes, by that fucking asshole Trump, who I agree by the way, is an asshole) for treatment, Medicaid access, research monies, infection tracking, etc. in order to achieve the empty 'mission accomplished' moment where he could claim that the pandemic was no longer with us. Now people and their kids just get sick all the time. And don't even have any idea that there's any danger in it. Why? Because Democrats TRUST the Democrats and the Democratic organs, because we're the smart ones, we're the good ones, we're the ones you can't really fool--unlike those idiot Trump supporters.
Ok, Covid is admittedly a pet peeve, but it's indicative of an administration that has been able sell their constituency on virtually any bullshit reality they've thrown out there. The only place they've hit a bump is Israel, because genocide is a tougher sell in the world of TIK TOK and Twitter. But Harris is clear that she's all in, and we give her a pass because, well, because it's politically...... 'complicated'. Oh.
In short, I think when you step outside of the blue bubble, it suddenly becomes horrifyingly clear how effective the belief system is that the Democrats have fashioned for us. And they found that they could offer us absolutely nothing by using the oldest cudgel ever: primal fear. And it works. Too well. (Even Lina Khan--the most exciting, important, powerful regulator in the last forty years for chrissakes--is going to be tossed overboard by the transparently fraudulent Harris, according to several billionaires she's already told. Oh, but there's so much 'joy'!)
And I know Daniel's response is: But Climate Change! The Democrats are demonstrably better! Yep, they're better but we'll still be a mile underwater when it's done because it's barely enough, and besides, in a world of constant war, it will be impossible to generate the international cooperation necessary to address the real climate change challenges. I still think that Daniel's most important contribution to our joint futures is his ongoing, brilliant campaign against the materialist paradigm and it's malevolent lockhold on the minds of modern humanity. It's the belief system that denies our capacity for true happiness and connection and interior beauty, and without that, we'll always be at war with ourselves, as well as each other.
But on his increasingly strident political dogmatism, not so much.......
well I disagree with you in a number of areas, including Ukraine. Yes the Democrats are playing this terrible game. But still I would rather see an effort to make a green new deal, I would rather women have abortions, I don't want persecution of minorities and poor illegal immigrants, I don't want more tax cuts on the wealthy, I don't want more lies. Etc.
It’s more than one or ten actions that determine the nature of outcomes, effects, or a final result . Karmas are complex. All the pluses and minuses to whatever candidate or one party may be persuasive but only if those factors alone are all that are considered or matter most . I would argue that it doesn’t actually matter who is running against the incumbent administration if people , based on their own experiences are unhappy with it or have any doubts about it. A vote for or against an incumbent administration is most specifically a vote of either confidence or lack of confidence, based not on words but actions and results.
Working class people in general will not base those assessments on abstract statistics, which is more than frustrating and maddening for the educated class, who cannot get into their heads . So they stupidly try harder to “educate “ these lower classes all the while feeling their own superiority in intelligence and morality.
What I’m trying to say is if Trump wins it will be because the “rabble” the ignorant “unwashed masses” will have spoken back. However I trust karma and will accept whatever happens. As they say in the south: “you get what you get so don’t throw a fit”
yes and then you get fascism, dictatorship, and it lasts for decades and lays waste everything decent
The way you are reading the signs no doubt dictatorship sounds feasible, I personally think this is fantastical and not possible Though I think it is a potent political device/ scenario being used to whip up anxiety, distract attention and solidify votes. How it the world would any president declare dictatorship without the backing of the military. This could only happen under marshal law or a military coup. We know that the joint chiefs and national security state do not support Trump. Though they do support Harris. So again if any suspension of democratic processes occur this election it will come from the Harris - Biden administration. I hope you can see there is no means for Trump to do any of the above you fear.
KG, Trump WILL have the backing of the largely Christian Zionist grunts. And, unless he's kidding around, here are his plans for the future, according to this article.
"When Donald Trump boasted to Fox News in June that he’d fire U.S. military leaders he deemed “woke,” it was not an isolated comment. On the contrary, the Republican repeated the commitment in July and then again in August."
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/group-retired-generals-admirals-announce-support-harris-rcna170439
this is fantastic.
I suspect that Paul Levy is in as much shock as I am at the level of propaganda and reversal of values we have been exposed to since at least 2016 . I bet he noticed a massive escalation of totalitarian ideologies , systematic indoctrination and media induced psychosis in 2020.( arising from the supposed good guys)
Some applicable Wetiko insight from Paul Levy:
“Humanity has a long history of falling into mass collective delusions.”
….”due to humanity’s unconsciousness combined with its suggestibility, a widespread dogmatic belief is more likely to be wrong or riddled with unseen errors. Strongly held ideas and opinions have killed many more people than the epidemics of bubonic plague or smallpox combined.”
“If we are unconsciously in the grip of an unreflected upon (and limiting) idea, like puppets on a string, we—without even realizing it—become the idea’s instruments for reproducing itself into the world and other people’s minds. The idea then “infects” not just our thinking, but everyone else who has likewise installed it into their minds.”
“It behooves us to not become entrenched in an immovable viewpoint (which limits our freedom to creatively respond to everchanging circumstances).”
“if we become dogmatically entrenched in our perspective, we close ourselves off to whatever the world might be disclosing to us. …. in psychologist Erich Neumann’s words, an “occlusion to revelation”
In the extremely possible if not probable event of a Trump electoral college victory (NC GA and FL are red after the absolute travesty of the Biden/Harris neglect and mismanagement of these disasters), what comes next?
I remember you felt this way in 2016 — but outside of one semi-useful omnibus bill being passed during Biden’s term, I fail to see how the past four years haven’t been worse for the world than the previous four years of Trump.
The stakes to me are tremendously high for different reasons than the ones you share above. In a portion of Harris’ 60 Minutes interview Sunday that was cut from the main show, she intimated her desire to provoke a war with Iran. The Dems are driving us straight towards World War III. We are nearly there.
Trump is a cartoonish scam artist and puppet of major criminal enterprises. But he credibly pursues a policy of detente.
If he gets in, my gut tells me the odds of a nuclear Holocaust go down.
And then once he’s in, perhaps the actual people of the nation can break the hypnosis of the two party system and fight for an alternative that actually gives a fuck about them.
As a NY voter, I’ll be proud to vote for Jill Stein since my vote essentially doesn’t count for the electoral college. If she gets 5% nationally, the Greens will receive mandated federal funding.
Trump is not the peace candidate he would like us to believe.
Not saying he is — but Harris, with her repeated gloating about the “lethal” fighting force of the US military, is clearly the war candidate. So confusing to me how people don’t make the link between climate disaster and destabilization and the USMIC death machine.
Rape seed oil, not oilseed rape.
But hey! At least I’m paying attention!