Coined by Kyla Scanlon in June 2022, “Vibecession” (and really “vibe“-anything) seem to neologically (and ironically very materialistically) tap into the zeitgeist in a way that transcends otherwise stark generational divisions. Young and old, all seem united in the sense that we’re not being told the whole truth and that our societal goals perhaps aren’t quite the panacea we’d been led to believe,i and perhaps even more importantly, that there isn’t necessarily any action we should take to resolve this quandrary, but that we really just need to figure out the right feelings to get ourselves unstuck.ii
This, in a nutshell, is as clear as an indications as any that the Westerniii world today as led by its foremost colony in the Americas is on a steady and seemingly unwitting march to reinvent rediscoveriv the Catholic Church; Pope and all.v Allow me to explain.
To start with, do you really think there’s anything new under the sun? Do you really think that sociopolitical arrangements in any given time and place might actually be entirely novel to our humble species(es)? If you’re sensing some sarcasm, you’re not wrong, it’s there, so let’s proceed with the shared understanding that, to quote the great poet of our age, “the only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know yet.”
Our humility therefore being well established as we attempt to unpack our current sociopolitical moment, let’s take a look at where we were with Peak WASP Culture in the Jekyll Island Era more than a century ago, the fumes of which carried us well enough through until the early 1970s, and the subsequent downward trendline since that system’s apparent dissolution at that time,vi and what we pretty quickly realise is that there’s currently a lot less trust, ambition, imagination, and innovation, and a whole lot more “vibes” in the air, to the point where we’re all now practically drowning in (mostly negative) energetic waves as the pyramidal tuning forks between our ears get slapped around and whipsawed back and forth by the tumultuous tides of history we currently find ourselves in. The net result being that, whether we blame The Fourth Turning, demographic decline, industrial decline, globalised currency debasement, pandemics, the outbreak of WW3, and/or ECDO-mediated deluvianism, we’ve rarely felt more helpless in the face of such seemingly insurmountable adversity.
Conveniently, and just in the knick of time (and WHO COULD’VE PREDICTED!!!1), along comes the power of “prayer” (ie. saying the “right things”) to save our souls as seen in the revolving door of verbal fashion known as “political correctness,” as well as ego-protecting “reasons” for the nobility of poverty, centralised oligarchic bureaucratic control of society, self-flagellating “missions” to preserve the planet, “therapy” as confessional, “infinite tax” as tithe, “colonisation” as original sin, and even the reformulation of Universities back into the functional seminaries they long were previously,vii none of which would feel out of place to the Benedictine Monastics in the 9th century AD, and are every bit as germane to virtue signalling / status games then as now.
Indeed, in this increasingly “Catholic” (and inter-industrial) context, our virtue and social standing are determined not by the value we produce, as in Protestant (now Chinese) culture, but by what we’re willing to believe and how loudly we’re willing to proclaim it. The value of our economy is therefore predicated not on manufactured output – in part because it’s a “solved problem” since the late 19th centuryviii and in part from failures of succession planningix – but rather on the slickness of our slogans. Truly a world of Mad Men, in every sense.
Y’see, while secularism could never be serious enough for the leviathan task of social control / cohesion at the tail end of a declining Empire and beyond through the coming Dark Ages, Catholics have been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. So sure enough, since the French Revolution, “the people” have been all but reinventing rediscovering Catholicism “from first principles” because quite simply the revolutions just keep revolving. It’s just what they do.
So what does our future bring? Almost certainly more talking and less building, more zero-sum / negative-sum contests as the positive-sum world becomes an increasingly distant memory, a time when literal giants walked the earth – at least for the next few centuries – until once more our predestined path towards the stars is reforged anew by martyrs, just as it’s always been. At least that’s the vibe.
- This, quite in spite of the fact that we probably couldn’t handle the whole truth in the first place, there’s still something that stings our sense of personal self-importance and desire for “fairness” when we learn we’re being excluded by those “in the know.”
And yet this hierarchical division of knowledge is a rather stable arrangement! At least if the history of Catholicism is any indication, or indeed that of any other ancient sociopolitical arrangement enduring more than a few centuries. You can really take your pick, but surely readers are more familiar with The Vatican than Chichen Itza? So let’s stick with Catholicism for now, ya?
To take a sociological and/or philosophical perspective on the “Vibecession”:
Sociologically, Émile Durkheim’s concept of anomie—the breakdown of social norms and the resultant feelings of isolation and meaninglessness—provides a useful lens through which to view the “vibecession.” In a state of anomie, individuals may seek out more rigid and extreme forms of social organization and belief to compensate for the lack of normative guidance. This can lead to behaviors and attitudes that are more extreme than those of the original authority, hence being “more Catholic than the Pope.”
Philosophically, this phenomenon can be linked to the concept of hyperreality, as articulated by Jean Baudrillard. Hyperreality describes a condition in which the distinction between reality and its representation becomes blurred, and symbols or simulations come to constitute a new reality. In the context of the “vibecession,” people might adopt exaggerated or intensified cultural practices that surpass traditional norms and expectations, creating a form of hyperreal engagement with cultural and social identities.
- This being the case, you still think Jews are “infiltrating” the US Administration? Or
they’rewe’re just the only ones left in America who believe that agency goes to the active! Of course, Catholics still loooove them some scapegoating, particularly when it’s ( ( ( (you know who) ) ) ) burning at the stake: - “The West” is one!
1776 divided a civilization, as the English speaking peoples fought over how politically unified the then geographically dispersed settlements should be.
1941 united this civilization once more, as the British Empire joined the Pax Americana.
— Samo Burja (@SamoBurja) May 15, 2024
- Is there really such thing as “invention” or is it all just “discovery” and “rediscovery“? ↩
- Our current “Pope” is something like the Federal Reserve Chairman. ↩
- The early 1970s were also a time when the Magnetic North Pole started rapidly shifting. Coincidence? ↩
- Which is just hilariously “round tripping” to a degree that would make even Moonbirds blush. Indeed, chants of “Queers For Palestine” are no more nor less rationally defensible that was “Predestination For Thee But Not For Me.” Quite so, as the whole “predestination” debate is really just the “free will” debate with a hint of a slightly coarser “nature vs. nurture” debate innit? Funny how that works. ↩
- Per Marko:
We have lived in an effectively post-scarcity society since 1885. Most political conflict since then has revolved around what to do with all the surplus we generated. The modern "services-oriented" economy is the solution we arrived at: give everyone fake jobs to LARP scarcity. https://t.co/CXeK0MQ9Bh
— Marko Jukic (@mmjukic) May 31, 2024
- Per Samo’s 2018 piece “The Succession Problem”. ↩
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