the "parapsychology" thread got nuked but the discussion reminded me of a Return of the Repressed podcast episode I had listened to in December
it was a Q&A episode and in his typical style, the host Marcus went deep on a question posed by fan/collaborator Reid (@seriations on twitter) regarding the role of magical-religious (i.e. non-materialist) beliefs in proletarian revolution. We're all familiar with the ways the bourgeoisie promote and exploit these sorts of beliefs to their own ends (ex. Filipino aswang vampire psyops vs the Huk guerillas, Indonesian anticommunist "witch hunting" vs Gerwani feminists, Operation Wandering Soul trying to freak out Vietcong with "ghosts", etc etc etc, up to Qanon and the UFO-cult of today) -- and of course, how their own worldviews are often propped up by these sorts of beliefs (ex. social hierarchies are in fact justified by genetic blood-destiny) -- but what about the inverse? How might we use them, too?
(note with respect to the aforementioned "parapsychology" thread, this is not a question of whether some such belief might be substantiated, proven "real" or not, but rather of strategy)
Marcus explained his first intuition was to look at the history of accusations of vampirism lobbed at feudal European aristocracy (ex. Elizabeth Bathory), but abandoned this line of inquiry when his research suggested that these accusations actually tended to reflect intra-class conflict between rulers/institutions of the time, i.e. factional power jockeying.
Changing tack, Marcus then offers a long exploration of the contentious historical relationship between Chinese secret societies, magical-religious beliefs, martial arts, and rebellion.
To anyone curious about how these things might intersect (short version: it gets messy), I would recommend the episode and I'll drop some other related links below
https://podbay.fm/p/the-return-of-the-repressed/e/1703245745
SHOW NOTES
In these dark times its difficult to find reason for making believe, this will all change once you hit play. Answering Reid for almost two hours I will do my outmost to lift you spirits to unknown heights. Counterintuitively by taking a deep dive in to Chinese secret societies, covering thousands of years, culminating in a communist community exorcism by the black and red Dao.
We are talking apotropaic magic, the swallowing of protective charms, anti-fascist Kung Fu fighting, mystic mind-control and brain washing in the Tang dynasty, social tech of the Henan peasantry and the socialist Shaolin monks who would liberate Beijing from the compradors, the war and drug lords as well as imperialist invaders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lanterns_(Boxer_Uprising)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Spear_Society
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Spears%27_uprising_in_Shandong_(1928%E2%80%931929)
➡️ The Red Spears, 1916–1949 Tai Hsüan-chih translated by Ronald Suleski https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.19970
➡️ The Red Spears Reconsidered: An Introduction Elizabeth J. Perry https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/166/oa_edited_volume/chapter/2707255
➡️ Secret Societies Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia by David Ownby (Author), Mary F. Somers Heidhues (Author) https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781315288055/secret-societies-reconsidered-perspectives-social-history-early-modern-south-china-southeast-asia-mary-somers-heidhues-david-ownby
➡️ "Secret Societies" Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern South China and Southeast Asia (review) Scott Lowe https://muse.jhu.edu/article/396407/pdf
Yea that's overly harsh, else better x out all those religious subs quick.
My issue was with my phrasing but whatever, magic is a bit too simple of an approach but I wouldn't go with damn full on censor. There's a lot we still don't know and I'm not going around gaslighting what did or didn't happen in people's experiences since perception is fly, knowledge is gated, and we've all probably had one weird thing happen to us at one time or another, or even multiple. In our 21st century knowledge we can easily dismiss visions and 'dancing' of medieval peasants being caused by ergot poisoning, but in their collectively held social experience, there was some mystical thing going on and I bet even if you were to somehow implant all the information about bad rye and fungi into them they'd still hold the event in a degree of awe.
There's a lot of cases through history of liberation movements drawing from religion or spirituality since its the only refuge allowed to the poor or seen as socially acceptable within the time period. Many of the movements in the global south come to mind. Even historically, the original communal were utopian, not scientific because of conditions of knowledge and society were not set for otherwise. Atheism is sadly still in the realm of academia because conditions are yet still that undeveloped in say the US that people need prescription strength religion and mysticism. Religious institutions are the last places in the US for a lot of communities where mutual aid is still done without interference from authorities (where I live even this is in question now), otherwise people are cast out in a sea of alienation from themselves and each other in capitalist hell.
A lot of the woo folk would be very open to our ideas and learning theory, we seek to make the outer material reality more comfortable instead of merely seeking solace within. Animism is sort of the ancient's approach to materialism with the best knowledge they had access to, and I'd bet the modern animists are no different.