Sunday, December 08, 2019

Is There A Magic/Occultism/Supernaturalism/New-New-Age Fad?

I don't really know what the best term is to cover all that stuff including astrology, witchcraft and everything...because some of it's more like magic/supernatural stuff and some's more like pseudoscience. Paranormal? My friend Cindy's mom got into this stuff, and Cindy and I began calling it all "woo-woo," and then just "woo." I still think in terms of that term.
   "New age" was the trendy term for it all back in the '80s-'90s. And it hit its peak about the same time paleo-political-correctness took over campuses. I've got a long-standing tentative prediction that the rise of neo-PC will coincide with a new "new age." So I'd be kinda excited if the woo were on the rise. But I'm a little skeptical. There's a zillion crap pseudojournalists out there and they can't all work for the Washington Post...heeey-o... Anyway: a zillion pseudojournalists working for a zillion clickbait sites, all looking for something they can pretend is a trend. But I think it'd be pretty interesting if it were true.
   My own view is that the woo/paranormal stuff and the cluster of antirationalist doctrines rampant on the left aren't all that different. Relativism and social constructionism--perhaps better called 'social creationism'--are basically magical doctrines. Or at least there are magical versions of these doctrines. (There are also nonmagical versions...but these views survive on the ambiguity.) It's been said may times that the progressive left resembles a religion--but the emphasis is usually on its more moral doctrines. I think it's religion-like on its metaphysical side, too. And that more-or-less means: supernaturalistic.
   Anyway. Just wanted to say: if it turns out to be true, I predicted it a long time ago. Unfortunately if it doesn't turn out to be true I also predicted it.

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