Artless 7 - The age of narratives  29th December 2024

Inevitable narratives

I wonder often whether religion is the problem or religiosity. I frequently (but not always) conclude that religion is a clear and visible target for anyone wishing to complain about mob behaviour, irrationality, and superstition. But beyond it, there are similar strains of behaviour common to many domains of modern life that also display abundant amounts of religiosity.

Religious people, especially when they are well-educated, are at pains to point out that everything -- including political ideologies and fandoms -- may be called religions. They aren't completely wrong. But a label loses utility when it is applied far too widely. Like Syndrome said in The Incredibles, "When everyone is super, no one will be." If we call everything a religion, then eventually nothing is a religion. Labels are useful when they help us tell the difference between a thing and something that is not that thing. If we apply the same label to all things, the label stops being useful.

However, identifying the problems with religion and then insisting on applying them to only religion allows a great grey cultural mass right beyond it to escape our notice. This mass is a product of the human condition, much as religion itself is. Its identifiers are tribal behaviour, in-group / out-group markers, othering, demonising, deification, and blind devotion. These can be found among followers of political figures and online influencers, and also among superstar fandoms and communities that grow up around emergent technologies.

In fact, Silicon Valley founders appear to be harnessing the power of religiosity to fuel the growth of their personal brands and tech empires.

Writing in the MIT Technology Review (link below), Greg Epstein observes, "...I so frequently hear from people, eager for me to know they are fellow atheists, who tell me to buy some bitcoin because it will rewire my neurons and cure me of the woke mind virus.

We seem to be looking at the birthing of modern mythologies and futuristic pantheons. Ways of living that appear to be a step away from the religions of the past, but are in truth more of the same. Perhaps they can't be different. given that we are tribal creatures descended from tribal creatures.

This age, like all previous ages, is the age of narratives. The words we are using today may be different from the words we were using yesterday, but we are essentially saying the same things.

Vimoh