Spiritualism without decolonizing is just new age grift

Well there we have it. Deepak Chopra appears in the Epstein Files 3,466 times. You can read the details in this article: The Silence: Inside the Chopra-Epstein Files

If you were to ask me if I was surprised, the answer would be absolutely no. I am not surprised. When it comes to spiritualism, self help, and this entire realm of people claiming to be here to heal and support others, I see a sea of predators using spirit and healing as a Bowling for Dollars scheme visited on primarily whiteness, underpinning the values of capitalism and colonialism with woo woo and soft words gift wrapping the undermining of people who are actively seeking to dismantle the most violent structures in the world.

Ideological apparatuses

If we want to start looking at the mechanisms of social control, it is really useful to look at some of the ways it has been examined in the past. A philosopher by the name of Louis Althusser examined an aspect of social control and found two distinct apparatuses of social control – Repressive State Apparatuses, and Ideological State Apparatuses. Let’s break them down just a bit.

What is an ideology – the beliefs and values of people, especially those not related to a belief in a knowledge. So this can include everything from how we construct gender, to the political parties we support, to how we envision relationships.

What is a repression – it is the act of subduing or subjugating by force. This can be military action, policing, the judicial system.

What is an apparatus – it is a complex structure within a system. You can think of an apparatus in this sense as the parameters of these two mechanisms for building control in capitalism.

Repressive State Apparatuses	Ideological State Apparatuses
– Maintain control through physical coercion and violence – Police, courts, military, carceral systems, governments – Function through repression but also make great use of ideology	– These are softer mechanisms of control that rely on ideologies – family, school, religious organizations, work, media, – Feel like the normal, natural way of doing things – nuclear families, 5-day work week – Reproduce social control to make capitalism feel normal -Ensure relationship to production through obedience

It is important to know these things. Capitalism and colonialism have an appearance of complexity in how they function because they encompass all belief systems in a society. From the notion of time and how it breaks down over a Julian calendar – months, weeks, days, hours, to accepting that a 5 day work week is the norm, to thinking that a nuclear family is a long standing way that humans operated, to even food systems, education, and language, they rely on building ideologies, enforced by repression.

Hegemony

Another philosopher by the of Antonio Gramsci defined something called hegemony.

Hegemony when describing ideology is the social control that appears to use consent to shape societal beliefs and values to maintain force without using violent repression. It does so to create a condition of seeing the dominant ideologies as “common sense” or “the norm” or “natural” with any deviations from the ideology seen as deviant, defiant, or a challenge to social order. This, however, does not mean that defying the hegemonic force will not have physical repression as a result.

An example of this could be life ways that challenge a societal dominance such as the nuclear family. It is generally accepted that a family is comprised of two parents of binary opposition gender (mother and father) living in a home with a socially acceptable amount of children (two, three on the outside limit). Stepping outside of this might not result in physical repression but single parent, queer, multiple parent, or multi generational homes will face social repression that ultimately create conditions of social violence such as poverty, shunning and exclusion, and sometimes person to person direct violence. While it might be illegal in a state to attack a family or home that does not maintain the nuclear family values, it is largely accepted that these families are punished for living in a way that deviates from the “common sense” hegemony.

Reading about the history of the nuclear family is fascinating. It is in its genesis a colonial artefact of Catholicism, reinforced by other economic systems forcing families to separate and live in nuclear units. Most ironically, since it was defined and labeled as “nuclear family” in the 20th century, it has been on a rapid decline, now no longer representing the majority of families in the colonial states where it took its beginning. But think of the control – how many taxation, governmental, school, religious, social policy and practice serve to benefit a family structure that is on a wild decline?

Why do I need to know this?

These terms are crucial for being able to explain mechanisms of control without having to use long explanations in each instant. So while I dislike the use of jargon, these terms stand as terms of specificity and clarification instead of obfuscation. They seem complex but like any word, once you can decode the meaning, it opens new avenues for communication.

How does this all relate to spiritualism

When we remember that spiritualism under colonialism is another tool to prop capitalism and create social control, we can start to dismantle the industry as an ideological apparatus that underpins some of the most violent systems of colonial repression by simply ignoring them. And then also builds other repressions by deliberate tactical use of ideology as an instrument of undermining revolutionary processes.

I will frequently say – spiritualism without decolonization – is just new age grift.

Upcoming

I am going to write this out in parts. This could get long so digestible portions will help to unravel this. This relates to two related systems – capitalism and colonialism. Many can argue which one requires the other, or what they each constitute. For my purpose I will use these terms as individual, symbiotic systems of violence. Stay tuned for part 2.