As Festinger et al write in When Prophecy Fails, the failure of the prophecy (in this case abduction of the faithful by UFO aliens) does not end the religious cult that has formed around a religious prophecy. The cultists go for broke when the prophecy fails, looking for ways in which they failed to interpret the prophecy properly. Only later does the prophetic cult disintegrate as members start to fall away.
As Nietzsche writes, particularly in The Will to Power, when a god dies, as in his God is Dead notion, what follows is a period of decadence -- of cultural dying -- followed by nihilism, meaning that people experience life as meaningless, followed by the eternal recurrence, where life seems to be a constant recycling of meaninglessness, as in the movie Groundhog Day. But then a new age dawns with the revaluation of values, where a new god arises to comfort the believers.
As new age philosopher Ken Wilber relates, using his multi-level theory of consciousness, when things fall apart people regress from their current level of consciousness to the next lower level of consciousness. E.g., fascism, where people regress, when things aren't working, from a citizen consciousness appropriate for the city to a tribal consciousness appropriate for a people under siege.
And right now I am reading the classic Autumn of the Middle Ages by Johan Huizinga. It's about the thuggish lords and princes in love with tales of knightly derring do as soldiers for Christ saving damsels in distress. And elaborate court ritual. And the semi-polytheistic cults of the saints. Things weren't working, and people -- that is to say the ruling class -- really didn't have a clue.
Well, imagine you are a good educated Gentry liberal living in a good Gentry liberal city like Minneapolis or Seattle. How is it possible for racist sexist white policemen to be kneeing the necks of helpless victim minorities? It must be a malevolent influence. Maybe white supremacists!
Or, you might ask, how come a 48-year-old career criminal with fentanyl and methamphetamine in his blood gets to cash a fake $20 bill in today's America? What's wrong with us? (Yeah, I know, who's this "us" Kemosabe?)
Or, you might ask, how come that "peaceful protests" attended by earnest young Gentry liberal students become the occasion for organized gangs of looters driving SUVs up to high-end stores selling name-brand luxury goods?
Would you believe me when I say that all this mayhem represents the "failure of prophecy" of the Gentry liberal cult that believes in the saving of society by educated experts and/or activists that will assuredly bend the arc of history towards justice?
That the idea of beneficial legislation handing out loot, first to the working class, then to blacks and minorities -- and even gentry women and gays! -- does not solve any problems? Because the problem of the working class in the 19th century and the former slaves in the 20th century was that they had not yet learned the code of the city, how to become responsible citizens with marketable skills and a reputation for trustworthiness.
That the idea of the administrative and regulatory state, staffed by educated experts in the latest settled science, is a non-starter because life is much more complicated and conditional than is possible for administrative experts to direct from government offices.
That the idea of educated Gentry imposing their woke religious beliefs on the bigoted deplorables and firing them from their jobs for Badthink is a non-starter because, as the Founders declared in their wisdom, there should be no state establishment of religion. Yes, and in our modern era, dear Gentry liberals, that includes so-called "secular religions" like social justice. Do you know why the Founders put the thingy about no establishment of religion into the constitution, liberals? It's because they were still smarting from the religious wars of the 17th century, and figured that the government should confine itself to basic questions of life and death and mayhem in the streets and not arcane questions of morality.
So I am saying that we are in a Reign of Terror and Virtue, rather like the French Revolution, because the arc of history isn't bending fast enough for our liberal masters.
I am saying that liberals are experiencing a "failure of prophecy" right now and are reaching desperately to make the prophecy come true before it crashes to the ground in failure.
I am saying that we are about to experience the moment when the liberal god dies and a period of decadence and nihilism takes over as the former believers blunder around looking for a new god.
I am saying that liberals are going backwards, in a Great Reaction, trying to find meaning in the jumble of archetypes in the basement, now that their exalted higher consciousness seems to be failing them.
I am saying that the liberal Activism Culture is a dead end, because we do not need revolution, or a stage version, because the problem is liberals themselves, not some imagined patriarchy or white supremacy.
I am saying that liberals are leading their helpless victims up a blind canyon and the victims will crash into the canyon wall as other Little Darlings of the liberals have already done.
And the best thing that can happen in America is for liberals to become demoralized by their manifest failures and take their hands off the controls of the ship of state!
And then we can all get back to work and working together and building trust in reciprocal trusting relationships.
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