the “parapsychology” thread got nuked but the discussion reminded me of a Return of the Repressed podcast episode I had listened to in December
it was a Q&A episode and in his typical style, the host Marcus went deep on a question posed by fan/collaborator Reid (@seriations on twitter) regarding the role of magical-religious (i.e. non-materialist) beliefs in proletarian revolution. We’re all familiar with the ways the bourgeoisie promote and exploit these sorts of beliefs to their own ends (ex. Filipino aswang vampire psyops vs the Huk guerillas, Indonesian anticommunist “witch hunting” vs Gerwani feminists, Operation Wandering Soul trying to freak out Vietcong with “ghosts”, etc etc etc, up to Qanon and the UFO-cult of today) – and of course, how their own worldviews are often propped up by these sorts of beliefs (ex. social hierarchies are in fact justified by genetic blood-destiny) – but what about the inverse? How might we use them, too?
(note with respect to the aforementioned “parapsychology” thread, this is not a question of whether some such belief might be substantiated, proven “real” or not, but rather of strategy)
Marcus explained his first intuition was to look at the history of accusations of vampirism lobbed at feudal European aristocracy (ex. Elizabeth Bathory), but abandoned this line of inquiry when his research suggested that these accusations actually tended to reflect intra-class conflict between rulers/institutions of the time, i.e. factional power jockeying.
Changing tack, Marcus then offers a long exploration of the contentious historical relationship between Chinese secret societies, magical-religious beliefs, martial arts, and rebellion.
To anyone curious about how these things might intersect (short version: it gets messy), I would recommend the episode and I’ll drop some other related links below
https://podbay.fm/p/the-return-of-the-repressed/e/1703245745
SHOW NOTES
In these dark times its difficult to find reason for making believe, this will all change once you hit play. Answering Reid for almost two hours I will do my outmost to lift you spirits to unknown heights. Counterintuitively by taking a deep dive in to Chinese secret societies, covering thousands of years, culminating in a communist community exorcism by the black and red Dao.
We are talking apotropaic magic, the swallowing of protective charms, anti-fascist Kung Fu fighting, mystic mind-control and brain washing in the Tang dynasty, social tech of the Henan peasantry and the socialist Shaolin monks who would liberate Beijing from the compradors, the war and drug lords as well as imperialist invaders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lanterns_(Boxer_Uprising)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Spear_Society
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Spears'_uprising_in_Shandong_(1928–1929)
➡️ The Red Spears, 1916–1949 Tai Hsüan-chih translated by Ronald Suleski https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.19970
➡️ The Red Spears Reconsidered: An Introduction Elizabeth J. Perry https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/166/oa_edited_volume/chapter/2707255
➡️ Secret Societies Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia by David Ownby (Author), Mary F. Somers Heidhues (Author) https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315288055/secret-societies-reconsidered-perspectives-social-history-early-modern-south-china-southeast-asia-mary-somers-heidhues-david-ownby
➡️ “Secret Societies” Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia (review) Scott Lowe https://muse.jhu.edu/article/396407/pdf
Another good example of historical rebellion and religious figures would be the slave uprising and liberation of Haiti. Look up Dutty Boukman, he was one of the leaders, and also a houngan.
‘Magic’ or whatever you want to call it is part of the social reality we live in and isn’t something we can simply wipe away overnight along with religion and mythology. People experience things they can’t understand for a variety of very explainable reasons and ones yet to be discovered, so and its basically harkening back to the ancients to blame the unexplicable on magic and the likes, but they experienced something, its gaslighting and immature to simply overlook this and alienates what would be some potential allies, including large parts of the proto-proletariat. Old school magic is the affair of the most desperate and cast off portions of society and serves a strong social function to give these people some power, it itsn’t the ritual of itself in isolation, but the symbolism and what it draws from when seen by society at large.
Religion is an an ancient catch all and we are not yet at the most advanced economic age to simply knock people out of religion the incomplete and illusory hope-bringer, you show people out slowly, but at the same time there is shit we don’t know and its very mechanical to assume we know all and socially blind to ignore its power, like fighting with one arm behind your back ignoring a good third of all human symbolism and its power on the psyche since we are far from the day when all are immune to the power of words, symbols, and suggestion.
Back in the day, and probably today too everyone’s alphabet agencies studied weird shit to hope to gain an edge on everyone else, that included former and current AES, and imagine if you could during WW2 everyone involved even had professional astrologers. Yes, even the USSR had their own professional astrologers.
The trick is, in true dialectic fashion not to go too far into the metaphysics, to steal its kernel of truth/play the game to hose your enemies and then run away really fast before it caves in on you, as it will on the bourgeois dictatorship in the west with magical thinking the default to the point they now buy the simulacrum full sale. You don’t want to go the other way neither, that just alienates you from the very people that direly need the most assistance getting away from the metaphs in a very ultra move denying their lived experiences as they understand it.