[HN Gopher] The Reality War - It's just Gnostics all the way down
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       The Reality War - It's just Gnostics all the way down
        
       Author : Melchizedek
       Score  : 55 points
       Date   : 2022-02-05 09:37 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (theupheaval.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (theupheaval.substack.com)
        
       | sophrocyne wrote:
       | 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
       | 
       | 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 wrote:
         | " 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 wrote:
           | It's a fair point - Especially when you consider that modern
           | nationalism and political ideology is a religion unto itself.
        
       | FooBarBizBazz wrote:
       | 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-cultu...
       | 
       | This one's a little older, so it's interesting to read with some
       | hindsight.
        
       | cosmiccatnap wrote:
        
       | user249 wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | shiftoutbox wrote:
        
       | joseph8th wrote:
       | 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.
        
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       (page generated 2022-02-05 23:02 UTC)