XPost: alt.religion, alt.christian.religion, alt.religion.christianity
XPost: alt.christnet.religion, soc.culture.usa
COVID-19 and the Turn to Magical Thinking
HUGH GUSTERSON / 12 MAY 2020
The late 19th and early 20th centuries were a time of unprecedented
shock and trauma for many Africans. European invaders appeared, armed
with guns for which African spears were no match, and they killed or
imprisoned those who got in their way, forced people into labor, and established colonial rule over new countries that they created de
novo.
In one of a number of revolts against colonial rule, in a corner of
what is now Tanzania, the Maji Maji Rebellion sought to drive out
German colonialists. The rebels were partly incited by a spirit medium
who claimed to be possessed by a snake spirit and to have a “war
medicine” that would turn German bullets into water. In one of the
saddest and most surreal episodes in anti-colonial history, thousands
of Africans who put their faith in this magic perished before German
machine guns.
It has been axiomatic in anthropology since Bronislaw Malinowski’s
seminal work in the early 20th century that people turn to magic when
they feel powerless. Soldiers, for example, may repeatedly practice
mastery of their weapons, but they know there is still a strong
element of chance in whether they live or die in combat, and so they
also pray, wear talismans, and develop superstitions about weapons,
clothes, or routines that bring luck. In this spirit, the Maji Maji rebels—outgunned but unwilling to tolerate German occupation—put their faith in magic water, as well as their own martial skills, as they
rose up.
The turn to magic, however ineffective, can be harmless. But, as the
rebels discovered, sometimes it lends a dangerous sense of false
security. The sudden, devastating spread of the coronavirus, which
makes every human interaction potentially lethal, has also made people
around the world feel helpless and vulnerable. Our normal habits
endanger us, and science offers scant protection. For many, the
official prophylactic (locking ourselves in our homes) seems a recipe
for financial self-destruction. In these circumstances, as
anthropologists would predict, people around the world have turned to
magic and conspiracy theories.
covid-19 magic
Fighters in the Maji Maji Rebellion in what is today Tanzania rose up
against German colonialists in the early 20th century. Many of them
believed magic medicine would protect them from German bullets.
Rumors have spread in Sri Lanka that white (and only white)
handkerchiefs protect people from COVID-19.
In the Philippines, volcanic ash is said to kill the virus.
In France, cocaine has been bestowed with the power to dispatch the
virus. In parts of China, it is saltwater. In India, it is cow dung
and urine.
In Iran, one cleric claimed that brushing one’s hair, eating onions,
and putting violet flower oil onto one’s anus would keep the virus
away. Meanwhile, over 700 Iranians have died from drinking methanol,
which they believed would cure the virus.
Iranians are not alone in attributing miraculously curative powers to
alcohol. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus (where COVID-19 is
now spreading widely) has told his citizens that vodka and saunas will
keep them safe from COVID-19.
It might be tempting for some to believe that contemporary Americans
are immune to such magical thinking. After all, one might think:
Americans have indoor plumbing, universities with medical schools and
physics departments, and they invented the atomic bomb.
But, they are also human—all too human.
Sometimes magical thinking presents itself as explicitly magical,
making reference to charms, spells, or miracles. But it often goes
under disguise, miming the form of its seeming opposite by deploying
the rhetoric of science.
President Donald Trump (whose campaign against the virus was described
by a former White House aide as “like an 11-year-old boy waiting for
the fairy godmother to bring him a magic pill”) has offered us
examples of both. He was using Biblical idioms of magic when he said
in February, before many cases had manifested in the U.S.: “It’s going
to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” Later, Trump co-opted the Magical thinking often goes under disguise, miming
the form of its seeming opposite by deploying the rhetoric of
science.language of medical research when he touted the benefits of hydroxychloroquine (a drug that, preliminary studies suggest, actually increases the likelihood of death for COVID-19 patients): “It’s a
powerful drug on malaria. And there are signs that it works on
[coronavirus], some very strong signs. … We have some very good
results and some very good tests.” Trump called hydroxychloroquine
“one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine.”
Throughout the pandemic, there has been an abundance of both flavors
of magical thinking: the explicitly magical and the pseudoscientific.
Many evangelical preachers have drawn on the Christian repertoire of
miracles. The televangelist Kenneth Copeland performed a televised
exorcism, calling out at the virus: ”I blow the wind of God on you.
You are destroyed forever, and you’ll never be back. Thank you, God.” Copeland also told his followers at home that they could be cured of
COVID-19 by touching their TV screens.
The story of Bishop Gerald Glenn, founder and pastor of New
Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Virginia, is more tragic. Glenn
defied Virginia guidelines about in-person worship services, telling
his congregation, “I firmly believe that God is larger than this
dreaded virus,” and saying he would continue to preach “unless I’m in jail or in the hospital.” He later died of COVID-19. Four family
members, including his wife, also contracted the virus.
covid-19 magic
Some evangelicals claim that God will protect them from the virus, as
shown in this graffiti image at an early May rally on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg. B.A. Van Sise/NurPhoto via
AP Photo
A Pew Research Center poll found that 25 percent of Americans reported
that COVID-19 had intensified their faith. Only 2 percent said the
pandemic had weakened their faith.
Magical thinking of the pseudoscience variety has also been on full
display. Although credentialed scientists have been very clear that
there is currently no cure or vaccine for COVID-19, a number of
companies and television personalities have fraudulently promoted
esoteric knowledge that they say will protect those in the know. Actor
Woody Harrelson has spread conspiracy theories connecting the
coronavirus pandemic to 5G cellphone towers. The right-wing
provocateur Alex Jones claimed that his SuperSilver Whitening
Toothpaste “kills the whole SARS-corona family at point-blank range”
until he was ordered to cease and desist by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
And Jennings Ryan Staley, a licensed physician and proprietor of a
medical spa in California, was arrested for advertising “COVID-19
treatment packs” (priced at US$3,995 for four people) that he said
would provide immunity and would “100 percent” cure the disease. He described his treatment packs as “a magic bullet.”
Americans have also turned to the magic of weaponry, in the form of
guns and shows of military might. As far back as the magical weapons
of ancient Greek and Norse gods, weapons have been seen, unconsciously
at least, as a source of magical power for their owners. (This is why
so many American weapons have mythological names: think the Trident,
Poseidon, and Thor nuclear weapons, and the U.S. Navy’s anti-missile
system, Aegis.)
Warplanes are powerful symbols of American military strength and
solidarity: In the past weeks, several American cities have seen
flyovers by the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds in
an effort to honor health care workers and other essential front-line
workers. The Department of Defense branded the series of flyovers as
“America Strong.”
Many Americans also see guns, but especially assault weapons, in an
almost mystical way, as essential guarantors of their way of life. So anti-lockdown protestors in Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere have
brandished assault weapons in ritualized displays of strength at state capitols. In practical terms, these weapons are useless against a
virus. Mainstream media coverage of assault weapons at protests has
often characterized the show of weapons as a way of threatening
lawmakers. But that may not be the only reason to bring them out on
display at this moment. These weapons have enormous talismanic power
as magical objects that symbolize virility and strength in a situation
where we feel helpless and vulnerable.
And what should we make of the protests? If we are looking for a
contemporary analogue to Maji Maji rebels running, confident but
undefended, into a hail of German bullets, surely it is to be found in
the protestors—flaunting weapons but not wearing masks, and pressed
shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of strangers, often in states where infections are on the rise. And yet the protestors evince an aura of invincibility.
It is a core precept of American civic ideology, especially on the
political right, that individuals should be free to create their own
destinies, with minimal government interference, and that those
destinies are largely just. Referring to the ways Protestant theology
and free market dogma have melded in dangerous forms of magical
thinking, the Irish columnist Fintan O’Toole observes, “religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) … is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.”
Assault rifles have been a common sight at protests against
stay-at-home orders over the last several weeks.
Assault rifles have been a common sight at protests against
stay-at-home orders over the last several weeks. Paul Sancya/AP Photo
This sense that bad things do not happen to deserving people is
reinforced by the belief that the United States has its own
providential destiny as the “exceptional nation.” Much has been made
in the mainstream media of the shadowy network of business interests
that have provided funding and organizational infrastructure for
protests aimed at reopening the economy. Some liberal commentators
have implied that the protestors are merely pawns of these hidden
oligarchical interests, but most people do not risk their lives to
make other people rich: These protestors clearly believe in what
they’re doing. The protests bear witness to a belief that bad things
will only happen to other—less deserving—people.
But the bitter truth is that, for all the wealth and technology the
human race has accumulated, we are helpless before this tiny,
invisible virus that is immune to our weaponry. Far from fulfilling
our providential destiny, we are left playing coronavirus roulette.
If we are lucky, we are among those who will develop mild symptoms, or
even no symptoms, rather than being killed by the virus. If we are
lucky, we have jobs we can do from home. And if we are lucky, we live
in countries—Iceland, Greece, Taiwan, New Zealand—with alert,
competent leaders who acted swiftly to contain the virus and flatten
the curve.
If we are less lucky, we live in countries with smug, indolent leaders
who tell us that “it’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a
miracle, it will disappear.” For some, magic may seem our best hope.
Source:
https://www.sapiens.org/column/conflicted/covid-19-magic/
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)