Religion and the new technology

[rrneck]

11. I don't necessarily think it's manipulative

It's efficient.

We have become so adept at developing systems of thought (and belief) that it has become easier to switch ideologies than make the one we have work. As a result it seems like the path to spiritual growth and self awareness is through smart shopping and the task of cultural development is a marketing issue.

Our culture is designed to give us so many containers into which we can pour ourselves we don't know who we are any more. The solution to the problem is not more contaners but candid introspection. How many times have you heard someone qualify an opinion with a litany of associations and characteristics? Our anomie is such that we can only see ourselves through characteristics we find advantageous or labels designed to be adopted with little effort.

Disaster capitalism functions just as well for the production of religion to suckle the emotionally adrift as it does for the plywood industry before a hurricane. Neither offer a solution for the problem at hand, but profit from the coming disaster.