Its kind of like they see themselves as practictioners of a kind of counter spelling magic, like anti hexes.
A good number of them literally believe the legal system functionally actually is word magic.
And they functionally believe they can counter the false and binding evil magic (legal) words with the /true/ form and nature of /true/ legal verbiage, basically by studying/inventing/misinterpreting various legal documents, precidents and history.
In a way many of them see themselves as … i guess yould say arcane etymologists of legalese, working against a vast conspiracy unknown to the masses by uncorrupting the very magic used by their hated foes.
Yeah they fail to understand one of the fundamental truths of our world: that political power grows from the barrel of a gun. There are three ways to get a government to do what you want: appease it via its rules or myths, deal with it by offering what it wants but cannot comfortably take, or force it in some way.
The first one is what most of us do most of the time because it works and if the government is functional it’s not that bad and generally results in the stability that people prioritize, the second is more typically done by other governments and the rich, and the third is shit like strikes, revolutions, wars, and mass protests. It’s high cost high reward.
The first though has one major drawback: it’s bullshit, but it’s bullshit that enough people agree to abide by life is better and easier so we do it. And that’s what sovcits don’t understand. They can’t make up the rules, only propose rule changes. Full overhauls result in only the latter two existing until a new government is formed to appease and that is just generally a huge gamble that sucks for everyone especially people who are delusional, annoying, and unsympathetic.
Most forms of magical thinking can usually be exposed by relatively mundane and common place events that are essentially unthinkable, or impossible, to the magical thinker.
Ie, you probably are not going to be able to stop someone from mugging you by expounding a whole bunch of rhetoric about the non aggression principle within the context of say stefan molyneux’s universally prefferable objective transactional moral imperatives, or some nonsense like that.
In same vein, try explaining to a serious practitioner of some kind of wicca variant or modern witchcraft or warlockracy (sp?) that uh, no, doesnt matter if you read your horoscope, did a tarot card reading and a purification sage burning ritual on your apartment… youre still gonna get evicted if you cant figure out how to pay rent.
The actual reality of actual evil forces in world requires actual study and knowledge of a wide variety of complex and nuanced concepts and phenomena that all interplay with each other in objectively definable and testably real ways…
… but that shits complicated yo, what if like, things that i dont like are bad, and, so, i know this (insert magical thinking worldview here) seems crazy at first, but then it all //makes sense man!//.
Basically my hypothesis here (not really my hypothesis, this can actually be seen happening in many comparable/analagous situations in human history) is that as material conditions in a society deteriorate AND there is basically no way for the masses to escape or avoid these garbage conditions, magical thinking takes hold, takes more forms, and eventually leads to more and more dangerous cults.
Best possible example of this? QAnon.
That being said, i very much like your summary of 3 ways to deal with a government. Thats very succinct and generally very accurate!
Unfortunately… it seems those rules also apply, though currently with more exceptions, to very large corporations as well.
In the mugging example, that person is clearly not playing by the rules though, and I think Wiccans are smart enough to stick to things that can’t be categorically proven false.
Its kind of like they see themselves as practictioners of a kind of counter spelling magic, like anti hexes.
A good number of them literally believe the legal system functionally actually is word magic.
And they functionally believe they can counter the false and binding evil magic (legal) words with the /true/ form and nature of /true/ legal verbiage, basically by studying/inventing/misinterpreting various legal documents, precidents and history.
In a way many of them see themselves as … i guess yould say arcane etymologists of legalese, working against a vast conspiracy unknown to the masses by uncorrupting the very magic used by their hated foes.
Yeah they fail to understand one of the fundamental truths of our world: that political power grows from the barrel of a gun. There are three ways to get a government to do what you want: appease it via its rules or myths, deal with it by offering what it wants but cannot comfortably take, or force it in some way.
The first one is what most of us do most of the time because it works and if the government is functional it’s not that bad and generally results in the stability that people prioritize, the second is more typically done by other governments and the rich, and the third is shit like strikes, revolutions, wars, and mass protests. It’s high cost high reward.
The first though has one major drawback: it’s bullshit, but it’s bullshit that enough people agree to abide by life is better and easier so we do it. And that’s what sovcits don’t understand. They can’t make up the rules, only propose rule changes. Full overhauls result in only the latter two existing until a new government is formed to appease and that is just generally a huge gamble that sucks for everyone especially people who are delusional, annoying, and unsympathetic.
Most forms of magical thinking can usually be exposed by relatively mundane and common place events that are essentially unthinkable, or impossible, to the magical thinker.
Ie, you probably are not going to be able to stop someone from mugging you by expounding a whole bunch of rhetoric about the non aggression principle within the context of say stefan molyneux’s universally prefferable objective transactional moral imperatives, or some nonsense like that.
In same vein, try explaining to a serious practitioner of some kind of wicca variant or modern witchcraft or warlockracy (sp?) that uh, no, doesnt matter if you read your horoscope, did a tarot card reading and a purification sage burning ritual on your apartment… youre still gonna get evicted if you cant figure out how to pay rent.
The actual reality of actual evil forces in world requires actual study and knowledge of a wide variety of complex and nuanced concepts and phenomena that all interplay with each other in objectively definable and testably real ways…
… but that shits complicated yo, what if like, things that i dont like are bad, and, so, i know this (insert magical thinking worldview here) seems crazy at first, but then it all //makes sense man!//.
Basically my hypothesis here (not really my hypothesis, this can actually be seen happening in many comparable/analagous situations in human history) is that as material conditions in a society deteriorate AND there is basically no way for the masses to escape or avoid these garbage conditions, magical thinking takes hold, takes more forms, and eventually leads to more and more dangerous cults.
Best possible example of this? QAnon.
That being said, i very much like your summary of 3 ways to deal with a government. Thats very succinct and generally very accurate!
Unfortunately… it seems those rules also apply, though currently with more exceptions, to very large corporations as well.
In the mugging example, that person is clearly not playing by the rules though, and I think Wiccans are smart enough to stick to things that can’t be categorically proven false.
At least in my personal experience of knowing Wiccans/Witches/Magic Practitioners in real life, this is absolutely not the case.