Post #4023912

2026-07-23 01:28 UTC

Magical thinking is everywhere. It's invaded every crevice of modern life, not the least because mysticism and belief in magic flourishes in hard times (Frank Herbert's Dune alludes to how easily mystical beliefs can be seeded into tyrannies) and because they're like an emotional bolthole, a way that people can dump their pent-up frustrations and emotions that otherwise have no socially acceptable outlet. Inevitably this has had an encroaching, corrupting effective on "Western" scientific understanding and even engineering because more and more people make load-bearing decisions backed up by little more than feelings and emotional maxims. Certain substances have come to be imbued with magic powers in "Western" thought. There's a strong tendency to look for one-shot cures and treatments, i.e. "magic bullets". (cont'd)

Replies (1)

@mxchara@seattle.pink 2026-07-23 01:33

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)

Open ##4023911