People in the modern age tend to think of people in the prior ages as being primitive or unsophisticated in their understanding of the world. This is mostly a modern thing, something that arose along with science. Once man started to understand the material operations of the natural world, those prior explanations for natural phenomena started to look rather silly. One reason for the primitive – modern dichotomy is a sense of embarrassment that our ancestors were so ignorant.

The truth is, of course, those primitive beliefs about what makes the leaves change color in the fall or why certain people refuse to live by the rules of society were useful and often quite clever. Stories about nature not only helped people understand and predict natural phenomenon, but they also provided a moral lesson. One thing science is telling us is that people are natural story tellers, because we have a natural preference for abductive reasoning over indictive or deductive reasoning.

The primitive – modern dichotomy is not just a battle between rational explanations of the world versus beliefs about the world. Various forms of Christian belief, although not all, are modern relative to prior forms of belief. The Christian logic of man’s relationship with God is very sophisticated compared to ancient belief systems. It was a great leap forward that became a foundation of Western civilization. The belief that the world operates by fixed rules is an axiom of the modern age.

Christianity has been subject to the primitive – modern dichotomy by radicals since the French Revolution. With the rise of science, all religion has been gratuitously lumped into with privative beliefs. Ironically, this is a primitive belief itself, as humans are biologically wired to believe. Belief is one of the oldest modern human attributes that probably coevolved with language. Like language, belief facilitates knowledge by providing a way to efficiently containerize abstract concepts.

In this regard, radicalism is best seen a primitive reaction to the advance of our material understanding of the world. The French Revolution may have started as a reasonable objection to the aristocratic system, but it quickly led to the Cult of Reason, which looked like a Bronze Age pagan festival. Today we see the same thing, but the pagan god at the center is called science. People are wearing codpieces on their faces and using grimy canvas sacks because science.

Notice how the primitives are saying that the rush to the border is caused by climate change, rather than the infantile tantrums of the new President. It is not excuse making or a distraction, at least not entirely. The people saying this nonsense know that tens of millions of people believe Gaia is angry at our lawnmowers, so they are happy to heap their troubles on the goat of climate change. If we just repent, Gaia will relent and lift these terrible plagues from us. Oh, save us Gaia!

This is not just rank and file oogily-boogily. The people at the top of our society are more like shamans and soothsayers now. The high priests of Progressivism are blaming the Covid panic on climate change. It is no surprise that this stuff is belching out of Harvard, as it has been and continues to be the primary training ground for the high priests of the Progressive faith. Founded by Puritans, it is the most prestigious indoctrination academy of the Judeo-Puritan ruling elite.

The ruling class embrace of increasingly bizarre forms of animism is not without its amusing aspects. In less sophisticated times, the court would have had an astrologer or wizard to impress the court with magic and soothsaying. Today, the court magician is little Italian fellow named Anthony Fauci, who is better suited to play the role of court jester than court magician. Modern paganism has become self-parody but combining the clown and the priest into a single role.

Another hallmark of primitive thinking is the person charged with finding those responsible for angering the gods. Currently, the name for those in league with Old Scratch are called conspiracy theorists and the tool for unleashing sin in our community is disinformation. We now have “experts” charged with analyzing how Old Scratch uses disinformation to trick us into sin. The similarity between this bit of oogily-boogily and the use of spectral evidence in witch trials should be obvious.

Of course, you cannot have witch trials without some witches, and you need witch hunters to supply those witches. This is where the cast of dingbats and airheads employed by C-list news sites find their place. These otherwise useless people roam the countryside looking for “haters” who knowingly speak blasphemy and spread heretical thoughts. Instead of an actual witch trial, the mob goes to social media, points, and ululates at the sinner until they go away.

One of the more amusing witch hunters is a dingbat name Megan Squire, who is employed by a university as a full-time witch hunter. Her formal title is professor in the computer science department, but it would be more accurate to call her the chief inquisitor of the one true faith. It is a nice bit of irony putting a raving lunatic in the most rational of fields. Maybe Gaia likes a good joke once in a while. Regardless, Squire’s job is as an increasingly deranged witch-hunter for the Left.

Using the old primitive – modern dichotomy, it is tempting to think we are descending into a primitive madness. This age is riddled with people no better than wizards, warlocks and dervishes who would have easily found work in the most primitive of times, just using different jargon. Megan Squire would have read entrails instead of “data” to explain why the village boy is a witch. Instead of Gaia causing the plague it would have been, well Gaia. Some things never change.

The truth is though, human progress has always been a struggle between the rational and the irrational. When the rational and spiritual correspond, we see rapid advance not only in material knowledge, but in spiritual understanding. The so-called dark ages left us with the most stunning of architecture for a reason. When they are at odds, we get a war between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Usually, the lie beats the truth, because the liars are better storytellers.

A new year brings new changes. The same is true for this site as we adjust to the reality of managerial authoritarianism. That means embracing crypto for when the inevitable happens and the traditional outlets are closed. Now more than ever it is important to support the voices that support you. Five bucks a month is not a lot to ask. If you prefer other ways of donating, look at the donate page. Thank you.

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