The Religious Roots of Covidianity
March 14, 2022
I CONTINUE to see people driving alone in face masks.
These people are not just victims of false theories of contagion. It seems that they have slipped into a generalized antipathy toward the physical world, believing it to be fundamentally dangerous and predatory. I can only imagine how miserable this state of mind is. While it’s true, nature is against us, the COVID believers so exaggerate this danger that every particle of air and solid surface is potentially lethal. They are at war with nature itself. Some of these people will never recover a state of ease, except in their own micro-managed, anti-bacterial homes.
The plannedemic spawned a seemingly new religious cult in America, but actually it is one with deep ideological roots in this country. Covidianity is quintessentially American.
Two main aspects of this cult’s belief system are 1) a Gnostic belief in the evil of physical matter and 2) morally-righteous utopianism.
I offer a few quick thoughts here on these roots, but they are entirely inadequate to the subject.
The Puritans brought similar harsh views of the physical world to these shores. Their Sabbath protocols, for instance, were opposed to any kind of natural pleasure. They disdained all ornament in dress, which would be too reminiscent of the feasts and festivities of Old Europe. Their worldview would later develop into the Prohibition movement, which banned the sale of all alcohol. The Puritan was extremely moralistic and totalistic in regard to sensual dangers.
The Puritans also brought utopianism and a spirit of activism, what Scottish philosopher David Hume called a “gloomy enthusiasm.” From Hesiod’s Corner: Read More »