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Gnostic societies and their leaders will recognize dangers to their existence when they develop, but such dangers will not be met by appropriate actions in the world of reality. They will rather be met by magic operations in the dream world, such as disapproval, moral condemnation, declarations of intentions, resolutions, appeals to the opinion of mankind, branding of enemies as aggressors, outlawing of war, propaganda for world peace and world government, etc. The intellectual and moral corruption which expresses itself in the aggregate of such magic operations may pervade a society with the weird, ghostly atmosphere of a lunatic asylum, as we experience it in our time in the Western crisis.
 - Eric Voegelin, The New Science of Politics.

Comments

  1. Dennis Dale9/1/15 9:08 PM

    Great quote. How's Seattle? Have the Seahawks fans reached peaked buffoonery yet?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. C. Van Carter10/1/15 12:28 PM

      Ever notice how Seahawk fans are big fans of themselves being Seahawk fans?

      Delete
  2. Dennis Dale10/1/15 11:23 PM

    They even give themselves credit for wins and their own number.

    ReplyDelete
  3. american fez14/1/15 7:12 AM

    Alas, 'magic operations in the dream world' is how all manner of business is conducted today. I deal with such paranormal strategies at work by pretending to be a shaman in a collar and tie who consults the entrails of unpaid interns for bad omens.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. C. Van Carter14/1/15 10:46 AM

      I imagine if I visited the local lunatic asylum I would find it has the weird, ghostly atmosphere of a cube farm.

      Delete
  4. american fez15/1/15 6:19 AM

    The cube farm fosters the zombie rather than the wraith, but yes. I must attend a conference call in the dream-world to discuss how the magical operations of "social media" are going to boost our sales ..... hocus pocus on Main Street.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mercurius Aulicus20/1/15 3:49 AM

    I find his use of the word "gnostic" in a way totally divorced from it's historical usage troubling. But by the way I stumbled upon a link that might be of interest "Eric Voegelin at 114 " http://speculumcriticum.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/eric-voegelin-at-114.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. C. Van Carter20/1/15 1:33 PM

      Totally divorced? Replace 'Gnostic' and 'Gnosticism' with 'liberal' and 'liberalism' in the following passage:

      "Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know."

      Delete

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