Epilogue: Scourge: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of Donald Trump

 The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. 

Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.

~~~

 [Martin Luther King]

Photo: Nick Anderson

I’ve waited until now to write a final comment on what has been an extraordinary and sobering election season. This pause was not to dissect or analyze the events but rather to gain a clearer sense of what Trump’s second term would bring. And indeed, he has revealed himself. One can only imagine the extent of an unencumbered Trump presidency, though the glimpses we now have speak volumes.

The only lingering question I feel compelled to ask is: What possessed the American people?

"Possessed" is, in fact, the key word. If Trump has proven anything, it is his mastery of possession—not in the supernatural sense, but in his unparalleled ability to seize the minds and emotions of his followers. To underscore this point, I turn again to an excerpt from Hypnotic Marketing, shared in the first chapter of this book, as it offers a chilling framework for understanding Trump’s strategy:

Your prospects are all in trances. If you merge with their trance, you can then lead them out of it into the "buying trance" you want them to be in.

Agree with them. Merge with them. Accept that trance as your door. Then lead into what you want to sell by tying it back to their trance.

Here’s how the process breaks down:

1. Understand your prospect’s current beliefs (their "trance").
2. Establish rapport by agreeing with their beliefs.
3. Transition their beliefs into your desired outcome (a new trance).

Here are examples of trances Trump knew people were already in:

• “I’m worried about the border” trance
• “I’m worried about others not of my race” trance
• “Women are taking over” trance
• “I want to be filthy rich like Elon Musk” trance
• “I’m losing my job to immigrants” trance
• “My way of life is being threatened by progressivism” trance
• “I can’t trust the media anymore” trance
• “The government is out to control me” trance
• “Socialism is taking over” trance
• “Big tech is censoring my voice” trance

And the list continues.

Each of these "trances" feeds into deeply personal, often self-serving fears and desires. As Joe Vitale the creator of Hypnotic Marketing and co-author of The Secret notes, the nature of people is inherently inward-focused. They prioritize their own well-being, their own pains, and their own aspirations. These inward states are fertile ground for manipulation, or as Vitale terms it, "trances."

Given the above, it was naive of the Democrats to have ever thought they could put “defend your democracy against fascism” or "The Constitution" at the centre of the political agenda. In a society increasingly characterized by narcissism and consumerism—and therefore can be easily manipulated—the weaponization of unashamed propaganda proved devastatingly effective.

The hard truth, as Hegel reminds us, is that “the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.” With the generation that witnessed World War II and the Holocaust fading from memory—and even the legitimacy of that history being questioned—it will likely take another generation, one shaped by similarly hard truths, to reintroduce substance and deeper notions of justice, fairness, and equity to the political and social mainstream.

Such a shift could, someday, provide a viable and winnable political strategy—though this is far from assured in an age where tech oligarchs wield unparalleled influence over almost every piece of information that enters our minds—with Elon Musk (a product of apartheid era upbringing) being the reincarnation of Goebbels (Hitler’s chief propogandist) of our time.

The only antidote lies in fostering a collective ability to think critically, to discern truth from falsehood, and to resist the seductive simplicity of propaganda. This responsibility, however, falls increasingly on the individual. When the leader of the most powerful nation demands the erosion of truth under the guise of free speech, the burden of distinguishing fact from fiction lies squarely on our own shoulders.

This is the challenge of our time. Whether we rise to meet it remains to be seen.

© Newton Fortuin, January 25, 2025

[Epilogue of Scourge: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of Donald Trump]

The Duality of Politics as a Reflection of Public Sentiment

Image credit: Dave Whamond [The Week] 

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At its best, 

Politics is the response to the mood of the people, 

at its best. 

At its worst, 

Politics is the response to the mood of the people, 

at its worst. 

[Newton Fortuin, 31 December 2023] 

_______________

Example: Obama's politics of Hope vs Trumps politics of Grievance.

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Media & Other

A philosopher to take note of… 

I had the fortune to read some of Newton Fortuin’s work and find it very incisive, imaginative and courageous, given the fact that he has little formal training in the many branches of academic philosophy. 

At the end of the day, people like us are all lovers of wisdom and seekers of truth, so we should help one another, since we are a rare species, almost on the brink of extinction in the present consummerised world…

Scourge is a very original and provocative work. 

WL van der Merwe, Ph.D. Professor:  Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Culture and Metaphysics – Free University of Amsterdam

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Scourge: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of Donald Trump

Months before the US Election season commences, I think it's an opportune time to reintroduce this book.

Image: Newton Fortuin

In Retrospect: The Importance of Timely Insight: Scourge: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of Donald Trump While the digital pages of this book were first crafted in 2007, its relevance has only been accentuated in the unfolding years, culminating in the present moment. Conceived at a time when misinformation on internet platforms was still finding its foothold, the book served as a forewarning about the potential trajectory of such narratives. Little did we anticipate that the ripple effects of these unchecked streams of information would culminate in shaping global political landscapes, most notably evident in the rise of Donald Trump. The crux of this work is not merely an examination of "The Secret" or a political analysis of Trump's ascent, but a deep dive into the collective psyche. It seeks to understand the underlying currents that once enabled authoritarian leaders, such as those during the Third Reich, and how eerily similar patterns continue to shape today's sociopolitical structures. Drawing from Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf," the unsettling realization emerges that large swathes of the population are more susceptible to grand deceptions than minor distortions. When we unpack this further, the influence of seminal works like Gustave Le Bon's 1896 "The Crowd: The Study of the Popular Mind" becomes apparent, revealing the deep-rooted mechanics of mass manipulation. Today's challenges, however, aren't merely echoes of the past but are amplified versions of them. The digital age, while a boon in numerous respects, has inadvertently supercharged the spread of misinformation. This reality makes the insights of this book even more crucial today. The meteoric rise of Donald Trump, coupled with global populist movements and shifting political tectonics, underscores the dire need for collective introspection. Taking "The Secret" as a case in point, this narrative dissects its unprecedented popularity despite glaring logical chasms. Its allure to the masses serves as a microcosm of larger issues at play, illustrating the ease with which ideas, irrespective of their validity, can dominate collective consciousness. This phenomenon gains gravity when one reflects on the rise of Q-ANON or the incongruities of prosperity Christianity's endorsement of Trump. Our present milieu is fraught with challenges that demand sharp discernment. Misinformation, whether in the realm of spiritual consumerism, political populism, or religious evangelism, seeks to distort our collective perception. As we navigate this tumultuous era, it is our onus to ensure that we don't succumb to narratives that distance us from reality. In sum, this work serves as both a reflection and a call to action, emphasizing that our greatest defense in these trying times is an unwavering commitment to knowledge and critical thinking. In the echoing words of Mark Twain, while history may not repeat itself, its lessons remain perennially pertinent.

Weaving Sunlight and Shadows: My Odyssey Beyond a Murderous Guru's Deathly Vice

 A letter received from a reader of  Scourge: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of Donald Trump.

Picture: CBS - Serial Killer Michael Lane

My awakening to the crazy world of self help and recovery from its vice like grip occurred after a quite fantastical and unique experience. One thing I have learned is  that you cannot download anyone else’s ‘system’ or ‘process’ and make it work for you. I think you need to pick through each person’s life experiences for the wool to weave your own tapestry. Certainly with the money, time, energy and hopes invested in other people’s ego creations I could have weaved the Bayeux and then some!!!

What I can say though is that in a bid to understand my abusive childhood and how different I appeared to be from my family I embarked upon a 20 year quest to understand who and what I was. Yes, I fell, hook, line and sinker for the self help and personal development game.

More recently,  over the last 10 years I have stuffed myself silly with Law of Attraction (LoA) type teachings that mainly block out anything negative or ‘not of the light’ and thus, have given my power away more or less to anyone with a cheering claim or nice smile.  Then, even worse I started creating courses and taught them to other unsuspecting fools. Cringe worthy stuff called how to be happy and living the attitude of gratitude…(spewing into a bucket).

Yes, I was a spiritual prostitute except that I paid to turn tricks. God, put like that it is embarrassing and hysterical in equal measure.

Then, a catastrophe of epic proportions that turned all of the LOA stuff on its head, inside out and doing somersaults occurred!!!!

It would fill a book and then some and perhaps one day I will come across someone who wants to take it on. Certainly NBC Dateline wanted to make a 2 hour documentary around events that led from my catastrophe….

Well, your wondering what it was, aren’t you? Mmmmmm how to encapsulate the magnitude in a few paragraphs… (deep breath).

Essentially I met a psychopath (probably the physical manifestation of all the repressed and ignored negativity and blocked out critical thinking from the last 10 ‘positive’ years!!!).

I sunk every penny into a series of businesses with him, got into a hellish personal relationship with him that involved every kind of abuse and threats etc, helplessly watched him systematically destroy several other people and then once I had withdrawn from him and the businesses despite what was on the line (everything material I had) – saw him flee the UK leaving a quagmire of 103 serious problems that escalated into near bankruptcy, over 50 threatened court actions, insurance issues, tremendous weight gain and the utter desecration of everything I believed in. I was massively affected – physically, mentally, emotionally, sexually, financially and spiritually.

Essentially ‘I’ ceased to exist. I became a recluse, stayed away from everyone and everything except what I could not possibly avoid, stopped going out, answering the phone, showering, getting dressed. The only respite from the fireball of pain and stress engulfing EVERY facet of my life was the safety net of suicide. I knew I could kill myself.  I longed for absolute annihilation! I didn’t just think it, I investigated the subject, formed a plan and came seconds away from carrying it out several times – stopped only by my love for my cats and who would care for them?

Without a doubt the worst aspect of all of the above was the belief I had created and attracted it. I spent nearly a year on a wild goose chase torturing myself further by trying to work out why and how a lifetime of positive thoughts and actions had created a monster and a monstrous situation that took 2 years hard time to resolve and was so permanently life changing…

There wasn’t any answers other than the LoA was either horse shit or used wrongly could be disastrous.

I stumbled upon your book which helped as it showed all the guru’s in meltdowns of their own, and I started looking at the shadow stuff that was all around me. For 8 months I delighted in oozing out every shred of anger and negative energy that had long been encased in the basement of my psyche until one day I realised that negative energy was not better or worse than its opposite - just different and that both are required for a reasonably happy existence. Duh…

I knew I was in recovery when my critical thinking skills began to creak into action again and I started reading novels (!!!). I have emerged back out into the sunlight but armed with self reliance that life goes up and down and around and around and ‘this too shall pass…’

Having been kicked out of society I feel quite content to potter around doing not very much. I take each moment as it comes. I delight in the joy that flows out of simple things but at the same time when I feel enraged or angry or pissed off I beat up my pouf fee and enjoy that just as much as all the smiling.

I am content to not know who/what is behind everything and to surrender to whatever pulled me through. Forgiveness has and is helping me with all that happened – even the near murderous hatred I feel towards lawyers (laughing). 

Footnote: My former business partner Michael Lane went on to murder a woman in a particularly gruesome way and then tried to run over and kill a transsexual in the dead woman’s car. He is currently in Clark County Detention Centre, Vegas (where else?!) awaiting trial and possible death penalty next year.

Mmmmm not sure any of this would help anyone. There may be a few ears of corn if you pick through… (raucous giggles).

Hope all in your world is dark and light!!!!

Sarah Demellweek

Neo Heresy

 I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion

~~~

[Baruch Spinoza]

Photo: Salon- Oprah's Dirty Secret

To highlight the reality delusion associated with many neo esoteric beliefs I want to recount an incredibly horrific incident.

It concerns an atrocity that occurred just a few miles from my home in which a seven-year-old girl was brutally raped, her throat slit, set alight and left for dead.

In spite of the inhuman savagery the girl suffered, she miraculously survived, though now most certainly having to bear the scars of this unspeakable horror for the rest of her life.

And to add to the depravity of the act, it was perpetrated by a close friend of the girl’s family, someone she knew and most likely trusted unconditionally. Though someone who in a single hour shattered her innocence, and with it most likely diminished the potential of her young life.

However the real tragedy is that this is a far too common occurrence in a society having been the victim of centuries of brutal colonialism, savage slavery and racial oppression. Though now in post-colonial South Africa the former victims of past oppression are sadly brutalizing their own.

When looking at this particular instance of inhumanity logically and you do hold strong esoteric views, then you unavoidably have to come to some rather irrational conclusions about why this girl supposedly must’ve earned or even deserved her fate.

For instance, if you believe in karma and reincarnation, then it must also be your view that what happened to her – as a consequence of your belief – had to be as a result of her past misdeeds. That is in this life but also of her past lives, and that she now must be repaying back some monumental karmic debt.

Or if you believe in personal spirit guides then they in their infinite wisdom must have orchestrated this monstrous event from some or other higher cosmic vantage. Perhaps it is so that the girl had willingly chosen this lifetime to learn her spiritual lessons through pain and indignity.

Or if you subscribe to the views of The Secret, that “You cannot "catch" anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought”, in spouting this profanity you must be of the view that her conscious or unconscious thinking must’ve been responsible for bringing this cruel inhumanity upon herself.

Or if you are of the opinion that “love is all there is, all else is an illusion”, a quote by John Demartini a contributor on The Secret, explain to her that her horror is not really real, but that from a deeper perspective had been an act of love. And furthermore that the actions of the perpetrator were in fact not a vile and monstrous one, but motivated by some or other form of cosmic love which he had unconsciously enacted upon.

If these indeed are your views then my honest opinion is that you are not living in my reality, and particularly not of that girl’s, but rather in a sick delusional fantasy.

Though if you are of the opinion that you are not deluded, then you must be an incredibly cruel and unfeeling person for having had the gall to confidently proclaim that these are your views. What you therefore are implying is that at some supposed more consequential level, this poor girl had not been the innocent victim of human savagery, but at some obscure ‘cosmic’ level had deserved what happened to her.

Such attitudes are very real and unfortunately are significantly increasing with the advent of New Ageism. The real danger in these neo ‘spiritual’ views is that they essentially are escapist. For instance at a talk I gave in Cape Town where I spoke about this very incident, a prominent person in the city’s New Age movement attempted to defend the notion that “love is all there is, all else is an illusion” by indeed rationalizing it from Demartini’s perspective.

In defense of his ideology he intimated that, unless one takes mental heed of the event, it did not really happen at all from one’s individual perspective.

In his argument he literally equated the events of our lives to the fictitious events on a movie screen by indicating that, if a particular event was not captured on film, it then does not exist from the vantage of the movie audience watching the showing of it at all and thus is not a reality for that particular audience.

Quite frankly, this is the most inhuman argument that I have ever heard.

I say this because I always understood from my Judeo-Christian upbringing (not that I’m a Christian or Jew but an Agnostic, if anything) that one’s capacity to become conscious of the suffering and inhumanity around one and then to actively reach out to those ill-fated by circumstance, is the most consequential act of humanity one can ever show.

Moreover, it is imperative we fully acknowledge that the brutality of ‘humans’ are real and omnipresent and cannot be wished away or meditated into spiritual oblivion as is becoming the predominant view.

Rather it is incumbent on us to fully acknowledge that this type of barbarity takes place, being a scourge within humanity that must be bitterly fought against if we indeed are to collectively evolve to a higher level of being.

Newton Fortuin, 2006

[Prologue of Scourge: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of Donald Trump]

________________________

The incident referred to occurred on Guy Fawkes day, 5 November 2006.

Additional Note

The current Israel-Gaza conflict underscores the deep-rooted inability of both sides, entrenched in their extreme religious perspectives, to fully recognize and empathize with each other's suffering. This conflict has a history that spans decades, shaped by profound historical, religious, and political complexities. The tragic events of October 7, 2023, where Hamas was responsible for more than a thousand deaths of innocent children and civilians, have deeply traumatized the Israeli population. In response, the IDF's retaliatory strikes have led to the loss of thousands of innocent Palestinian lives and extensive infrastructural damage in Gaza. Actions that are guaranteed to perpetuate and intensity the cycles of violence. This cycle of mutual animosity and mistrust conceals the genuine pain and torment experienced by individuals, regardless of their background or affiliation.

Regrettably, the violence continues unabated, as each faction looks upon the other through a lens of dehumanization, justifying their actions without full recognition of the extensive human cost. This scenario underscores a profound failure of both parties to engage in critical introspection and address their own roles in the crisis. Rather than navigating the situation with discernment and empathy, there's an evident reliance on deep-seated biases and resentments, inhibiting a more nuanced and productive approach to the conflict.

Racism Is Dumb

After posting the picture below I on a DiNK Gesprekgroep (Think Conversation Group) Facebook forum, received a considerable backlash where the argument generally was that there is not a problem with systemic police victimisation of black people in the US. Moreover, that the #BlackLivesMatters movement is unfounded. Interestingly the person I argued with in the post "Critiquing the “Sweden Model” as a Cure for COVERT-20", was the most vehement protester. 

One such comment referred to a video of Katie Hopkins, a controversial British commentator to which he requested my response. Refer to Katie Hopkins blasted for offensive Black Lives Matter comments by Crystal Palace star for context.

While I don’t want to give credence to her views by posting a link to the video, she essentially asked the following 3 questions:

Q1: Why do black people only protest when there are white people involved?

Q2: What do they want? They give a doesn’t different answers to this question.

Q3: And all of a sudden not caring about social distancing, either you cared before or you didn’t? Maybe there was not problem in the first place?

This was my response:

To provide a video by Katie Hopkins, who’s a known racist, and even is vocally anti-fat people, as a defence does not help any case. That one gives credence to her views is very revealing. That Trump loves her says all you need to know about her.

Nonetheless, to answer one of her questions: Why do black people only protest when there are white people involved?

The fact that there is black on black violence in America is not remarkable. In the US as a whole there are as many white on white gun violence incidences because gun violence is a real problem in the country as a whole. That's simply because: when you happen to have a gun you more likely are going to shoot those who are the closest to you when you happen to have a homicidal moment.  

However, that being said, how would you answer this question: How many instances of white people being killed in a gratuitous or arbitrary manner by police do you know of? Or generally, the number of reported incidences of indefensible killing of white people by the police.

There’s only one answer: hardly any, and if they were, it would be shown on social media by the likes of Hopkins to bolster her case. I challenge you to find a significant number of incidences. I saw an old white man being shoved around by police recently, and that caused quite a ruckus. To deny that there’s a systemic problem in the US with regards to black men being targeted by police (by white and black policemen) is to bury your head in the sand when confronted by reality.

The second, another really stupid question: What do they want? 

In a nutshell, criminal justice reform that treats all people equally under the law. In fact, 75% of the US agrees: 74% of Americans view Floyd's death as an underlying racial injustice problem. Seems pretty emphatic to me. This also answers the first question in the eyes of ¾ of the American public. It was an issue under Obama, and it was an issue before then. This time a white cop felt so entitled that he must’ve been convinced he could snuff the life out of someone for the whole world to see, and believe that he could get away with it, as cops usually do when they kill black people. This time though there was the COVID 19 Pandemic with students at home, masses of people unemployed, and people feeling they had the reason and inclination to do so. Paraphrasing Ecclesiastes 3: there is a time, a season, and a reason… and that time, season, and reason just so happen to be now…

And what about all of a sudden not caring about social distancing?

It seems that after months of lockdown people are fed-up, but moreover, this cause seems to matter to them more than the possibility of getting a virus. I’m sure there’s going to be a spike. It’s all relative. 
If anything,  while George Floyd's death was the Spark, COVID-19 the fuel, igniting this movement towards meaningful systemic change.

Again, a really dumb question actually, and underscores her very apparent racial bias. 

More Thoughts to Ponder

The following Stats are useful to consider for denialists that their indeed is a race problem in the US:

• Black men have a 2.5 times higher chance of being killed in the US than white men.

• Black Women have a 4 times higher chance of dying in Childbirth in the US, reducing the overall national average to a per capita level greater than Iran.

• Black people are dying from COVID-19 at 3 times the rate of whites in the US.

Does it sound to you that black lives do matter in the US? Or are these just statistical anomalies? 
Or is it just a racist virus? Or are black kids just murderous from the very first day of their lives, so much so that they take their mothers with them? 

Or are black folks in the US just a dramatically more inferior species?
If you say no to all the above, then can you see why black lives should indeed matter too? 

Just as much as all lives should matter.  

And if your answer is yes? 

It is abundantly clear that your racism does make you incredibly stupid. 

Or perhaps, you are stupid just stupid. Period. 

That your mental faculties are so clouded that you  you cannot see reality for what it is, even if it punches you straight in the face. 

Happiness in a Mad World

Psychologist Oliver James, author of Affluenza and now The Selfish Capitalist, believes that the madness does not just stem from Freud's tension between the individual and civilization, or from Eliot's observation that we have to put on faces to meet faces, but from the fact that politics has gone profoundly wrong in the English-speaking world.

We have been infected by affluenza, the notion that our most profound psychological needs – for security, intimacy, autonomy – can be met by things, decisions, actions that cannot possibly meet them. The sex addict is emblematic: they long for intimacy and seek it in promiscuity, the very action that prevents intimacy. James has assembled evidence to show that the people who suffer most from mental illness are those who suffer most from status anxiety, as Alain de Botton put it – the desire or pressure to be beautiful, famous, wealthy…

Why should this result in poor mental health, that is unhappiness?

Advertising tells us this by manufacturing desire and keeping images of how the rich live in front of us… It leads to massive debt – personal and corporate – and a fear-based career as you struggle to earn to pay the mortgage. It undermines intrinsic values… It is a bleak picture, one of massive collective neurosis… The implication is that we are missing the good life even as we think we are pursuing it…  

Extract from Happiness in a Mad World by Mark Vernon

The Godless Atheist

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt. — [Bertrand Russell]

As an agnostic I certainly don’t have a problem with anyone choosing to be an atheist. It however has been my experience that many of the atheists I interact with oftentimes tend to be more dogmatic and intolerant than religious conservatives. My casual observation suggests that they definitely are more so than the average religious person. And oftentimes it is not only the religious that has to bear the brunt of their ire, even agnostics are labeled as wimps for being too soft on “the enemy”, the religious that is, and often are referred to as fence sitters when it comes to the general issue of belief. The following utterance by political satirist Stephen Colbert conveying the general sentiment: “Isn't an agnostic just an atheist without balls?”

I know I’m generalizing but that is my personal observation based on my own experience. But let me relate an incident that highlights the typical mentality. The resulting consternation upon which this example is based was triggered by the following innocent email.

Good morning everyone. It seems that Monwabisi's condition has worsened and he is in hospital again. His girlfriend relayed that he is at the Vincent Pallotti Hospital in the Poplar ward. He is said to be extremely ill. Guys, please keep him in your prayers and thoughts.

As innocent as this email was, all hell broke loose after the sender apologized for sending it to the wrong mailing list. She meant to send it to her department only, but chose a group email that sent it to all the staff at the university. The apology followed five minutes later, but soon afterwards emails flooded my inbox requesting to be removed from the list. It became so bad that the secretary of the chancellor had to ask the operations manager to train staff on the “Reply to Sender” function (which is the default function on the GroupWise mail-server) and they used the “Reply to All” (incidentally not the default option which had to be deliberately selected).

The result was that hundreds of emails were forwarded in this way. By the third day the emails were still streaming in, upon which someone responded with the following.

To ALL those who don't want to be part of this mail:

This was a simple mail, requesting prayers for one of our sick colleagues. What is so difficult praying for someone, why does that bother you so much?

If you can't pray for him, just delete the mails that come to your mailbox and stop filling other people’s mailbox by requesting to be taken out of the mailing list. Tomorrow may be your turn to need prayers. How will you all feel being in Monwabisi's shoes? The Bible instructs us to pray for the sick and to LOVE our neighbors as ourselves.

So, where did Ashley go wrong by asking us to pray for one of us that are battling with ill health?

The more people that pray for him the better.

Yet, this did not end the chain mailing, bearing in mind that these mails were also being sent to Monwabisi mailbox as well. This is when I thought I’d have my say and changed the email header to “Is this an Institution of Higher Learning?” and responded to the previous email, even though the author clearly had strong religious sentiments.

I agree fully with your email, and I hope the other 2000 or so people who cluttered the email system by purposefully selecting the “Reply to all” (as they had to as I purposefully did in this case), actually got your message.

I thought this is a university of higher learning? And that there may be half a chance of finding civilized intelligent compassionate people working here. I know there are, but this clearly had been an exhibition to the contrary. 

I will keep Monwabisi in my thoughts.

After this all the emails stopped with the exception of the following.

Sorry, you might but I don't deserve any rebuke!

Let me explain why..... I never 'replied to all', neither did I ask to be removed from the list. I am sorry to hear of a sick colleague, even if I don't personally know him. But actually it is not about that, it is about boundaries. It is very inappropriate to send out an email asking the entire staff of a University to pray for someone. This is not what work place emails are for. If that was the norm where would it end?

We all know people who are in need of support. Can you imagine if everyone suddenly implored us, via internal mail, to call on divine intervention on behalf of someone else? We'd be flooded by thousands of letters on a daily basis. Use the social networks to do that sort of thin. (By the way they are far more effective).

It is equally inappropriate to send out a manipulative and sickly rebuke reminding us of some biblical injunction or telling us we might be ill tomorrow! It's preposterous! I'm not a child that I need to be chastised. “This was a simple mail, requesting prayers for one of our sick colleagues. What is so difficult praying for someone, why does that bother you people so much?” Do you get how patronizing that is?

On top of that, in the correspondence comes an innuendo that I am neither civilized intelligent or caring! What do you know of me or anyone else on this campus? What is it about people like yourselves that believe it is alright and fitting to adopt a high moral stance because people didn't respond in a way you thought appropriate...

To which I responded.

Let me not draw this out into a lengthy debate, someone made a simple mistake by choosing the incorrect group address (and invaded your personal boundary), and apologized very shortly afterwards. But moreover, with a very simple request, and all hell broke loose. I would not have known you were supportive of that stance, but now I do. By the way, I'm agnostic, but I respect others efforts to elicit concern for those in need, and why not do it by mail. I receive hundreds of spam daily, so what if a legitimate call for concern for someone in need slips in once in a while. If it offends you so much, delete it, unless it gives you some perverse gratification to air your objection to the world…

After this he didn't respond and that was the end of this bizarre unfortunate event. 

While I cannot say for sure whether this person is an atheist as I had never met him, he does exhibit the typical cynical demeanour in his tone.  As far as those who sent the emails, I cannot say either, but more than likely are both religious and non-religious individuals. This however is more reflective of the mob mentality referred to in Book I: The Demise of Critical Thinking. For, once the first email was sent, it appears as if others also wanted to be part of that dissenting group, and thus to show all that they also had something to say, no matter how ridiculous it turned out to be. 

Indeed I would’ve called the section Narcissism in Action because of the total disregard for Monwabisi and his circumstance; i.e. that the responders were more concerned that their boundaries were invaded. Either way, whether he was an atheist or not, this certainly is reflective of the growing narcissistic uncaring mentality of our time.  

And just to remind you, this incident did not happen in urban US—where this type of intolerance is festering, but had taken place in Cape Town, a city known for its tolerance on the southernmost tip of Africa.

Extract from Scourge Book III: Thriving in the age of Austerity

Neo Heresy

I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion—[Baruch Spinoza]

To highlight the reality delusion associated with many neo esoteric beliefs I want to recount an incredibly horrific incident.

It concerns an atrocity that occurred just a few miles from my home in which a seven year old girl was brutally raped, her throat slit, set alight and left for dead.

In spite of the inhuman savagery the girl suffered, she miraculously survived, though now most certainly having to bear the scars of this unspeakable horror for the rest of her life.

And to add to the depravity of the act, it was perpetrated by a close friend of the girl’s family, someone she knew and most likely trusted unconditionally. Though someone who in a single hour shattered her innocence, and with it most likely diminished the potential of her young life.

However the real tragedy is that this is a far too common occurrence in a society having been the victim of centuries of brutal colonialism, savage slavery and racial oppression. Though now in post-colonial South Africa the former victims of past oppression are sadly brutalizing their own.

When looking at this particular instance of inhumanity logically and you do hold strong esoteric views, then you unavoidably have to come to some rather irrational conclusions about why this girl supposedly must’ve earned or even deserved her fate.

For instance if you believe in karma and reincarnation, then it must also be your view that what happened to her – as a consequence of your belief – had to be as a result of her past misdeeds. That is in this life but also of her past lives, and that she now must be repaying back some monumental karmic debt.

Or if you believe in personal spirit guides then they in their infinite wisdom must have orchestrated this monstrous event from some or other higher cosmic vantage. Perhaps it is so that the girl had willingly chosen this lifetime to learn her spiritual lessons through pain and indignity.

Or if you subscribe to the views of The Secret, that “You cannot "catch" anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought”, in spouting this profanity you must be of the view that her conscious or unconscious thinking must’ve been responsible for bringing this cruel inhumanity upon herself.

Or if you are of the opinion that “love is all there is, all else is an illusion”, a quote by John Demartini a contributor on The Secret, explain to her that her horror is not really real, but that from a deeper perspective had been an act of love. And furthermore that the actions of the perpetrator were in fact not a vile and monstrous one, but motivated by some or other form of cosmic love which he had unconsciously enacted upon.

If these indeed are your views then my honest opinion is that you are not living in my reality, and particularly not of that girl’s, but rather in a sick delusional fantasy.

Though if you are of the opinion that you are not deluded, then you must be an incredibly cruel and unfeeling person for having had the gall to confidently proclaim that these are your views. What you therefore are implying is that at some supposed more consequential level, this poor girl had not been the innocent victim of human savagery, but at some obscure ‘cosmic’ level had deserved what happened to her.

Such attitudes are very real and unfortunately are significantly increasing with the advent of New Ageism. The real danger in these neo ‘spiritual’ views is that they essentially are escapist. For instance at a talk I gave in Cape Town where I spoke about this very incident, a prominent person in the city’s New Age movement attempted to defend the notion that “love is all there is, all else is an illusion” by indeed rationalizing it from Demartini’s perspective.

In defense of his ideology he intimated that, unless one takes mental heed of the event, it did not really happen at all from one’s individual perspective.

In his argument he literally equated the events of our lives to the fictitious events on a movie screen by indicating that, if a particular event was not captured on film, it then does not exist from the vantage of the movie audience watching the showing of it at all and thus is not a reality for that particular audience.

Quite frankly, this is the most inhuman argument that I have ever heard.

I say this because I always understood from my Judeo-Christian upbringing (not that I’m a Christian or Jew but an Agnostic, if anything) that one’s capacity to become conscious of the suffering and inhumanity around one and then to actively reach out to those ill-fated by circumstance, is the most consequential act of humanity one can ever show.

Moreover, it is imperative we fully acknowledge that the brutality of ‘humans’ are real and omnipresent and cannot be wished away or meditated into spiritual oblivion as is becoming the predominant view.

Rather it is incumbent on us to fully acknowledge that this type of barbarity takes place, being a scourge within humanity that must be bitterly fought against if we indeed are to collectively evolve to a higher level of being.

Extract from Scourge I: The Demise of Critical Thinking in the Age of “The Secret”

 Copyright © 2007 by Newton Fortuin

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