The Covid Cult, Its Origins

Big picture stuff from Bobby Jindal, and it's really pretty good. I'm sure many others have generally sensed that with the Covid Panic we're dealing with a Neo-Gnostic cult--to call it a religion seems vaguely sacrilegious. Jindal examines where this weird cult is coming from, and how the Covid Panic is a perfect expression of its deepest yearnings--which aren't all that deep. You can find the whole article here:

COVID's liberal religious revival – how their God-less theocracy's destroying politics, culture

What is unique about COVID that brought this new left religiosity to the fore?

However, before we get to excerpts from Jindal himself, at the page there's a brief sound clip of Niall Ferguson talking about the rise of "fake religions". Notice that he, too, is uneasy about applying the term "religion" to this phenomenon, although he does draw disquieting historical parallels:

So we are dealing not just with the decay of traditional religion, but--far worse--with the rise of new fake religions, political religions. And one thing that's very clear from the twentieth century is that, when people take their religious feelings and they apply them to political ideologies, terrible things can happen. Central to what made Communism so deadly is that ultimately it's a religion.

Fundamentally, while I sympathize with Ferguson's concerns, I can't agree with the substance of what Ferguson is saying--it's sadly warmed over Classical Liberalism, with its fake dichotomy of "religious feelings" and "political ideology." Politics always reflects a religious worldview--there is no neutral ground. Some of that is also present in Jindal's opinion piece. Like the liberal Ferguson, Jindal appears to identify "religion" with subjective "feeling," rather than with reasonable belief. However, here's what's central:

When the first documented COVID case appeared in the United States 16 months ago, few would have predicted the religious revival it ignited. Unlike the four previous Great Awakenings that expanded Christianity’s American footprint, this revival exposed what now is the country’s most politically powerful religion: Secular Science-ism. 

Pollsters have for two decades noted the rise of the "religious nones," people who claim no particular religious affiliation or beliefs. This group makes up less than one-third of the population but skews toward the higher educated, upper income and politically liberal classes. Pew Forum’s research indicates "solidly secular" Americans are 50% more likely to have a college degree and incomes over $150,000 – and 71% of that group identifies with the Democratic Party. 

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed these "nones" really are not without a religious belief structure, however. ...  

Rejection of the afterlife and focus on this earthly life pulls secular liberals toward caution – perhaps to an extent that risk tolerance drives, rather than follows, political ideology. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/covid-liberal-godless-religion-secular-bobby-jindal-brad-todd like Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s edict that summer campers wear masks while canoeing, or the continued closure of schools after teachers have been vaccinated. 

The Science-ism practiced today has its own clergy – epidemiologists, with the Centers for Disease Control constituting a holiest of holies, and Dr. Anthony Fauci as a pope. Left-wing belief in an inevitable positive progression of humanity licenses the worship of our betters, even elevating scientists over science, putting clergy over scripture.

...

In Islam, Judaism and other established religions, the most orthodox adherents demonstrate devotion by wearing symbolic religious clothing in routine daily life; Christians do it with cross-themed jewelry. Same for Science-ism, whose zealots not only wear masks in crowds, but also while they exercise outdoors, walk their dogs or drive their cars alone, even after vaccination. For them, mask wearing is not merely an attempt to limit exhaled aerosols, it signals a sincere, if irrational, belief structure. 

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Now as even blue-state governors reluctantly rescind mask mandates, liberals who run some local governments and institutions have stubbornly clung to the piety high that only compelling your neighbors can bring. 

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The personal voids created by the rejection of traditional religion will always demand to be otherwise filled.  

... The rabid practitioners of Science-ism do not just insist they should be left alone to practice their extreme beliefs; they insist on a theocracy in which all of government’s decisions turn on them as well. 

What is unique about COVID that brought this new left religiosity to the fore? ... 

The emergence of this militantly secular religion will not go away as COVID death counts steadily decline. While a coronavirus revealed the political power of Science-ism, the fulfillment its sanctimony gives its adherents will not subside. ...

...  

Lacking room for grace or redemption, they see humanity needing to save itself, ... 

The most liberal dogma increasingly focuses on structural racism as America’s inherited Original Sin, and insists no baptism can wash away its stain. To compensate, educated White liberals have adopted their own self-flagellation, whereby they publicly and constantly confess their irredeemable privilege. They will continue to invent new rituals and sacraments, like the wearing of masks and other virtue signaling, to demonstrate their piety and to give their lives meaning. 

... 

Perhaps this cultish belief structure of the Covid Cult explains the seemingly inexplicable results of opinion polling that John Hinderaker points to today. While the full Covid Cult may be the refuge from reality for only a minority of the population, perhaps the underlying confusion we see is a result of American "nones" infecting the general population with uncertainty:

* More respondents say we are on the “right track” than at any time in recent years. I assume this mostly has to do with the fading of COVID, ...

* Along the same lines, Joe Biden seems weirdly popular. ... Having a cadaver in the White House feels like a return to normalcy.

* For some reason, the Republican Party is getting more popular, ... Amazingly, approval of Congress is now in the black, at 54%. I am not sure when that last happened. Most likely Americans are just in a good, post-COVID mood.

* Harris tested the favorability of various institutions. ... the military is on top at 78%/12%, ...

* Probably the most important results are those relating to specific issues. ..., 85% of voters are concerned about inflation.

* Immigration is a huge problem for the Democrats. ...

* Critical Race Theory is a major loser for the Democrats.

Follow the link for much more.