@farmerman,
farmerman wrote:
Quote: Witchcraft is arguably achieved not by supernatural means but by certain social-emotional techniques.
Originally it was always based upon the supernatural. Either by direct belief by the laity or by the imposition of false supernatural beliefs by the priesthood.
Modern materialism inhibits people from reconciling their 'science-based' views with spiritual concepts.
There is nothing above or outside of nature, i.e. 'supernatural,' but the limited perspective of materialism denies the natural existence of God, spirits, etc., which exist together with materialities. To put it simply, it would be like insisting that a computer exists only at the level of the hardware and denying that there is a desktop interface and information-processing going on within the hardware.
The informational events occurring on the screen you are looking at are neither 'magic' nor 'supernatural.' They are simply patterns within the materialities of the computer hardware, which is energized to mediate those patterns.
Human beings are also energized computers that mediate patterns of various kinds, so you could call it 'witchcraft' to conjur up certain negative patterns of human cognitive-emotional behavior, and that is largely what is behind the Trump hate generally and these investigations and impeachments generally.
Somehow the emotional partisanism needs to be separated from politics and governmental action, but we are currently living in times where the traditional religious values that favor rising above base emotions have been demonized by radical critical views of Reason and Truth as nothing more than weapons of oppression by a white Christian patriarchy.
For this reason, I think too many people have given up on the possibility of rising above emotion and hysteria and, as such, have submitted themselves to the kinds of spiritual witchcraft that are currently conjuring up all sorts of negativity in politics and public discourse.
Quote:
When you have enough power and money, you are able to impose your influence no matter how unproven.
It might not be that centrally-determined. There might also be a collectivist element to it, like when hysteria spreads among a herd of animals as a stampede draws new individuals into the frenzy.
