I see this posted from time to time and today I finally read through the whole thing. Very compelling and evocative. You see the manifestations of this form in those southern megachurches. Joel Osteen is like a simulacrum of this inversion of religion under the social relations of capital. He has synthesized Christian Faith and Capital Accumulation, creating in effect a Christianity skin suit for this "Real God", in which to parade it out into the open.
You must sacrifice a portion of your wages to the church in the form of a seed in the hopes that it will one day bloom into a bountiful harvest. It is a similar myth to the one expressed by the preachers of Capital. Sacrifice your time, your money, in service of a future return on your investment. In both, a lack of success is only the manifestation of a lack of sacrifice and commitment to this social order on your part, and in no way a failing of the "gods" for which you are toiling for.
Like a house of mirrors, our social institutions are reflected against the mirror of capitalism, warping their intended form against the shape of capitals demands. The longer you stare into this twisted reflection, the more likely you are to be convinced it to be the true form, until you can no longer recall what the original form was, or that it even existed at all.
I see this posted from time to time and today I finally read through the whole thing. Very compelling and evocative. You see the manifestations of this form in those southern megachurches. Joel Osteen is like a simulacrum of this inversion of religion under the social relations of capital. He has synthesized Christian Faith and Capital Accumulation, creating in effect a Christianity skin suit for this "Real God", in which to parade it out into the open.
You must sacrifice a portion of your wages to the church in the form of a seed in the hopes that it will one day bloom into a bountiful harvest. It is a similar myth to the one expressed by the preachers of Capital. Sacrifice your time, your money, in service of a future return on your investment. In both, a lack of success is only the manifestation of a lack of sacrifice and commitment to this social order on your part, and in no way a failing of the "gods" for which you are toiling for.
Like a house of mirrors, our social institutions are reflected against the mirror of capitalism, warping their intended form against the shape of capitals demands. The longer you stare into this twisted reflection, the more likely you are to be convinced it to be the true form, until you can no longer recall what the original form was, or that it even existed at all.