Post #4023911

2026-07-23 01:33 UTC

At the root of the "Western" understanding of magic is a supreme commitment to utilitarianism: #magic, or #magick as Crowley and other ceremonial occultists have rendered it, is chiefly about wanting things (magical intent) and making them happen (manifestation). A spell in this model is like a concentrated package of command: one commands the Cosmos and its supernatural entities "DO THIS" and it happens. Is it any surprise that magical thinking has therefore soaked into U.S. business and especially into #technology, which has its own reasons for pretending that it's the only way to get things done? #Marketing depends on magical thinking, the promise of being able to effect instantaneous and complete transformations. (cont'd)

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@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-23 01:38

Are you unhappy? Is your social life sagging? Are you having trouble at work or in your marriage? Then buy product X and it'll fix it all. The secret to happiness is magic detergents, miraculous machines, high-speed communications and transport which are sold AS IF they are instantaneous, thus infusing U.S. culture with terminal impatience. Nobody wants to wait for anything. Any process or undertaking which takes any signficant time is rated a failure--or worse, the delay is taken as evidence of skulduggery. Instantaneity has come to be seen as equivalent to quality, to correctness, to progress and hope for the future. I'd like to stress at this point: the Western perception on #magic is imbalanced, concentrated on power and utility because it was shaped by some of the worst human beings which "Western Civilization" has brought to the surface. (cont'd)

Open ##4024001