So I have someone who I used to be friends with on Facebook and she now seems to spend all her time posting things like 'Self Mastery - Ascended Souls - THE EVOLUTION OF THREE TO FOUR' accompanied by a black-and-white photo of an old man in an apron and several paragraphs, and a video with the caption about how "When a giant hole opens up in someone's life, it's actually much more supportive to acknowledge that hole and let pain exist."
The thing is... context is key. I find this stuff somewhat unnerving and frankly, also quite offensive. It's reminiscent of GOOP and how its business model seems to be to a significant degree replicating the idea of the 19th-century high-class invalid woman. Think Charlotte Perkins Gilman, except that GOOP and its ilk are not telling you the truth. To be very corny, they are not part of the solution, they are part of the problem. As with many an abusive relationship, the message is corrosively individualistic: not that society needs fixing, but that you do. You just need to find the right, conveniently expensive and exclusive, way to deliver you from your ills. They're your friends, girl, looking out for you! Lean back and let the placebo effect, credulity and good old fashioned MONEY make you feel like 'something is being done'!
The thing is, especially at this current point in time, we exist in a very hierarchical world where power dynamics really exist and really affect our lives. The snake oil product you bought from GOOP or wherever because you're 'so effing tired' (very clever marketing by them!) may not make you feel less tired, rich white lady, but your race and class privilege sure as hell are cushioning the ride for you. Some of us will never get access to these rarified echelons (not that it's necessarily something to crave), whether that's due to race, class, place of birth, or any number of factors.
This former friend of mine is, no surprise, a relatively middle-class white lady. I would go so far as to say that she is middle-class, because she was previously living in London and working in the City, in a role that had something to do with the Stock Exchange. I obviously can't pass judgement on everything that she has experienced, not least because I don't know about it all. However, it really felt like there was something very performative and perhaps narcissistic, seeing some of the things she was sharing. Not to mention some of the gobbledygook associated with these posts SCREAMED 'cult.'
So I Googled the woman behind a lot of what she has been tagged in, or shared, and good grief. It's somehow both what I expected and worse. There is the standard racism and even an edge of anti-feminism in there. Not to mention that she has the look of someone who could play the evil aunt in an Indian soap, or a younger Cruella de Vil. Bitch even has a picture of herself in a sari (OF COURSE). 'Former friends' are quoted talking about how she is probably mentally ill, and honestly, a lot of the quotes to me suggest a psychopath (not that I am placed to diagnose).
Much like Scientology, it really feels like yet again, this is something that would HAVE to come from white people. Narcissistic is absolutely the word. Cult? Definitely - when you're pushing people to get 'branded' with your tattoo and going on about your ESP and the aliens you've got cosy with... Wow. They say that whiteness is a hell of a drug, and I must concur. When you can graft together an entire ideology from the pre-existing ideas of others, while also conveniently ignoring and/or discarding the painful realities of the world (like how maybe black women are perceived as less attractive because of misogynoir?)... that's whiteness.
When you can afford to spend time circle-jerking over all your suffering in Costa Rica with other like-skinned individuals (yes, I know there's a handful of Asians in the entourage, and I am NOT SURPRISED, frankly), it doesn't take ESP for me to see that this shit is PRIVILEGED. Those of us who are lower down the ranks have to make do with such trivial concerns as how to get paid and how to avoid being penalised for existing. I feel like I may have to remain a spectator rather than try to break through to my friend, given how utterly vile her cult of choice is.
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