A Return to the Opium of the Masses
How Religion is surging once again
“A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and the meaninglessness of an individual existence.” — Eric Hoffer
“There is nothing that men like more than to throw off the burden of individual responsibility by merging themselves in the subhuman personality of the crowd.” — Aldous Huxley
These two quotes signify the current position that we are in, especially in my native USA. Recently, a rise in conservatism and religious populism is on the horizon. Economic turbulence and a failure on behalf of the secular Left to satisfy the needs of those on the Right have us opening our Bibles and returning to Scripture for guidance.
Anecdotally, many of my peers, whether in high school or college have turned to God for a life partner. Earlier today I watched a video of a former classmate being baptized, claiming they had lost their identity when they strayed too far from the grasp of the Lord.
However, I have my doubts that people are simply returning to religion for their own personal reasons (although many of them claim this). I’m not here to pretend I understand the individual rationale, but by mere observation, it isn’t difficult to spot the absurdities.
In fact, I argue quite simply, there is a political element to why people are returning to the hands of God. It must be noted that one must not necessarily be politically active for this to occur but by association and a Heideggerian ‘throwness’ we are all left to scrap together a semblance of meaning in our lives. And this meaning, comes primarily, from the restriction on freedoms, the rhetoric of leaders, and society as a whole.
The greater emphasis on sensitivity, feelings, and pure emotion is ruining the integrity of many on the Left. Riddled with identity politics and false sentiments, it is apparent that a large slice of the population would rather turn to a religious phenomenon that we truly have no rational reason to believe exists.
Many Right-wing rallies are surrounded by the idea that we need to admire God and allow him to rescue us from the evils of unrestricted freedom. Even popular internet personalities such as Andrew Tate claim the West is dead because it does not fear God the same way it used to, hence his conversion to Islam. I wonder what he would tell a young girl in Afghanistan who is no longer able to attend schools to the same level as boys until the Taliban is finished ‘remodeling the syllabus along Islamic lines.’
Or to the child who will now live in foster care because their parents are addicted to drugs and can’t take care of them. Or the child who will be shot in school because we need killing machines for sport and recreation. All in the name of pro-life. That is until you’re 18 and the war effort needs you to aid in slaughtering foreigners for their natural resources and influence.
This is the realm of discourse we live in today. Primitive arguments that abandon the labor of philosophy and science. As Hoffer stated above, it isn’t the promise of Heaven that appeals to people. It’s purely the thought of it at the moment. When life boils down to nothing except impending doom, the thought that we are sentenced to eternal blackness frightens the motivations of the present. Instead, not worrying about death makes the present easier.
The same applies to politics. No matter how complex an issue is, we subscribe to the immediate relief that it gives us. We begin to simplify an issue because an ideology contextualizes it for us and makes it understandable. It’s almost like you have been given a key to an additional domain of knowledge, one that is esoteric and ‘unavailable’ to the masses. Therefore, it is worth holding onto, and worth advancing on others.
A prospect such as the one I have discussed is concerning. Schools are reversing, and so is public opinion. We are once again declining into the politics of religious association.
Thank you all so much for reading this. I hope you were able to take value from it. If you enjoy my work, feel free to give me a follow to support my writing.
The quote from the poem above, is from Songs of Myself by Walt Whitman
Below is a link to another piece that you may like and my page on the Iowa State Daily, where I am a columnist
Best regards,
Caleb
