The Weekly News Demon, full steam ahead. All right, just an abbreviated podcast this week, really short essays. I was South Park's recent episode, and I saw a headline that claimed Harry and Meghan were suing South Park over its worldwide privacy tour. Well, obviously, I had to check it out.
It's when I see my HBO subscription. I didn't really even want it, but it's always something to watch. So I tuned this in, and it was pretty good. Oh, by the way, I guess Harry and Meghan are not going to sue.
Different reports, some say Meghan was horrified of what South Park did, but they're not going to sue. But I greatly enjoyed the episode. It was 22 minutes well spent, but I really enjoyed the other main plot line better. The Cum Hammer brand management subplot.
It's a branding company that helps people cultivate a brand. Kyle and Butters both consult with the brand management specialists who presents them with different brands. Each brand has four parts. So, for instance, the first one suggested to Kyle is rugged.
Not executed, I'm having my computer here. Rugged, vegan, compassionate, victim. Those are the four traits that Kyle should present to the world. And Kyle didn't like those, so the brand manager, or specialist, recommended sensitive, outdoorsy, frugal, victim.
And it goes on like that. The fourth characteristic is always the victim. That's what you want to present as part of your brand. So, like, everyone is a victim.
And I get it. We're all tired of the victim spiel. The only ones who aren't tired of it are the ones claiming victimhood, like the shockingly privileged Meghan Markle. But what's behind it?
I mean, why does everyone want to be a victim? There are the immediately obvious reasons. It elicits sympathy, which brings focus on you, thereby gratifying your self-centeredness. It sets you apart and makes you special, or it used to.
And South Park may have put pay to that concept. Victimhood could result in speaking gigs and proceeds from your online creativity, from your podcasts and your essays, like those person, the victim, So I'll read what she has to say. But still, why? Why would the mere status as a victim be celebrated?
Well, I think it's because we are all victims of an evil structure. Now, shift pack, or shift back to last week's podcast, the Gnostic hate structure. Go check it out and listen to it. Go to the Daily Demon and listen to it and read it, whatever you want.
See, here's the thing. The Gnostic is always battling the structure. The ancient Gnostics thought an evil demiurge set up a structure to imprison their souls. The modern socialist Gnostic thinks an economic base sets up a structure to preserve its power.
The more moderate leftist Gnostic thinks a structure of language arising from cultural norms creates a confinement structure that privileges the people best situated to take advantage of those cultural norms. If there's an evil structure, there are sinister forces that support the structure, the demiurge and his minions, the bourgeois, the white colonialists, the dude doing this podcast. And there are victims of the structure, the dupes who unwittingly promote the demiurge's prison, the workers, the non-white indigenous people, the aborigines of Australia. You see that?
The Gnostic is hardcore dualistic. Everything for the Gnostic is either-or. Everything is a binary. This pole or that pole.
To the ancient Gnostic, you're either striving against the demiurge or you're reinforcing his prison by enjoying it. To the communist Gnostic, you're either striving to end capitalism or you're reinforcing it by making money and enjoying the fruits. To the moderate Gnostic on the left, you're privileged and trying to keep your privileged position or you're a victim. Now, this next section is entitled, Victimhood is one example of how our culture is Gnostic.
Because that's the thing, the prevalence of victimhood is merely cultural Gnosticism in its glory. Gnosticism, as Hans Jonas, Kurt Rudolph, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Eric Vogelin, and others have pointed out, is a religion. It's a complete worldview which includes the initial leap of faith in the belief in something that can't be proven. Whether it's belief in an evil demiurge or a sociopolitical cultural superstructure.
And like any religion, it has leaders and followers. It has ardent believers. It has mere lukewarm believers. It has believers who logically and rigorously pursue its tenets.
And it has folks who don't even entirely understand the religion but go along with it in general. It's the last one that's prevalent today in the subject of this podcast episode. I call it cultural Gnosticism. Our culture is infused with Gnosticism.
We think like Gnostics. We use Gnostic terminology. Our attitude is Gnostic. I don't even think most of us are Gnostics.
But we're culturally assimilated to Gnosticism. And that's a major problem. You don't believe me? Ask anyone and they'll confirm it.
They'll tell you they're victims. Thanks for listening.