From
another comment thread:
It [Bush's reputation] can be destroyed by the perception of Bush failing despite adherence to the scheme in the eyes of his followers. Call it occultism, identify and mock the particular tenets, point out how they fail in Reality, and the "faith" collapses in a hurry.
Ironically, this is something I have been struggling with for some time. I do, in fact, believe in the power of the will to alter reality. So, in fact, do you -- it's just that your variant of this belief is called "science," and requires different forms of action than magickal/spiritual methods. ;-)
Seriously, until science brings physical principles into common knowledge, laws of physics are occult, aka "hidden." The basic idea of magick is that there are principles in the universe that can be uncovered with inner explorations rather than (or in conjunction with) outward ones. However, there are limits to what any one person can do, because there's a whole universe out there filled with people and other elements (animals and natural forces, whether you call them spirits, forces of nature, laws of physics, or all of the above) that affect reality all the time, and if you come at them cocked at an arrogant angle, they will take a Santayana-esque delight in knocking you down.
This is called hubris, and it is the greatest danger of the will-worker. And I can think of no greater statement of hubris from a will-worker than this:
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Pride goeth before a fall. This is a psychological truism, based on the blindness caused by hubris -- but it is also a
magickal truism, and overreaching on this tremendous a scale will mess you up every time.
In this particular instance, the problem is that Iraq is the brick that said "no you won't, either," to paraphrase Bill Cosby. They tried to create their own reality there, but the existing reality -- backed by 24 million wills, the religious beliefs of a billion others, and a ton of sheer logistical facts on the ground (which obviously have their own power) -- left the neocons with the proverbial broken hand. And so their hubris has cost them dearly. Alas, it has also cost the world far more dearly.
In short, reality is partly subjective, but it is also a consensus, and locality matters. Convincing tens of millions of Americans that your beliefs are reality doesn't do jack when the tens of millions of Iraqis that are right there can see you royally screwing up.
It really amazes me at times that, no matter what honest belief system, paradigm, ideology, or theory of governance you come at these people from, they manage to be vile, incompetent, hypocritical fools. They're like this from every angle.
It is all well and good to use positive thinking, faith in higher powers, or "magick" to change your own little corner of the world. Instilling confidence in yourself, using your belief to overcome obstacles in helping the poor and victimized, and ritual action taken to defy Murphy are all benign uses of this method no matter what your beliefs. What the Rove/Cheney axis is up to represents an entirely different, and quite possibly unprecedented, level of activity. I suggest that judging any general group by their actions, whether Christian, corporate, American or mystic, is unfair.
(/) Roland X
You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland. And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. -- Morpheus