Naomi Wolf on the Return of the Demons

Over the last three years, many of us who are naturally and by training skeptical of supernatural explanations have wondered whether the astonishing upsurge of irrationality and outright evil society-wide and, most depressingly, in the institutions that ought to serve as bulwarks against this madness, may be due to demonic influence. For the scale of the evil wokery on all sides, and the speed of its spread, seems beyond the reach of naturalistic explanations. See, for example, my Does the Demonic Play a Role in the Politics of the Day?

Naomi Wolf, a former lefty who has seen the light, develops the theme in detail and in depth in her essay Have the Ancient Gods Returned?

Since 2020 the world, I feel, has been bathed, infused, bombarded even, with intensely powerful energies that are totally unfamiliar to us in this generation, but that may derive from a pre-Christian, pre-solidly-Jewish time, a time when early Judaism was struggling with the seductive and oppressive entities that always sought to seduce the Children of Israel away from the monotheistic truth, the One God. 

The ancient “shedim” are the only “principalities and powers” I can imagine that are capable of manifesting a national, and now a global, network of policy advocates, social workers, graphic designers, Members of Parliament, who are all on board with an escalating euthanasia death cult. The ancient “daimones” are the only entities I can imagine powerful enough in just two years and a bit, to destroy families, to ruin sexuality and fertility, to make a mockery of human rights, to celebrate the end of critical thinking, to march us all in lockstep to worship of technocrats and technocracy; medical cultism and an orgiastic cult of self- and other-annihilation.

And — I must notice — if these “shedim” or “daimones” are powerless — why are their symbols reappearing everywhere? I used to see fundamentalist Christians who warned of Satan lurking in rock and roll, as fanatics. But what I myself am seeing around me, I cannot unsee. 

A Temple of Baal archway was in fact expensively reconstructed from its original in Syria, and moved to a appear at a major thoroughfare in London, and was now unveiled in Washington, DC, and in New York.

Why? 

A bizarre opening ceremony in a new train site in Switzerland, at which European leaders were present, included a horned entity (“an Ibex”), the upholding of a symbolic lamb, the appearance of a terrifying angel, and the writhing of nearly naked men and women in S-and-M-themed and bondage postures.

Comments

[Dmitri]

Maybe it is better that some people don't see the light Bill?

Wolf, despite her formal academic degrees, is notoriously unreliable. She could never get the simple facts straight or analyze them -- even in her PhD thesis (an easily Googleable story).

It is the same with her article you linked. She claims, without blinking that Trotsky was murdered in his bath whereas multiple professional historians say he was assassinated in his study from behind. A small thing, but characteristic of Wolf's approach to every subject matter...

[Joe Odegaard]

Biden's speech of Thursday 25 August 2022, wherein, while bathed in red light, he demonized about half the country as "semi-fascist" was clearly demonic. So was Hillary's remark that some people are "irredeemable," when Christ has redeemed us all. Her audience cheered when she said it, and that was demonic as well. Better carry a Rosary with you all the time now.

[BV]

Dmitri,

You are quite right about Trotsky. I was going to point that out myself, but you beat me to it.

On 20 August 1940, the long arm of Joseph Stalin finally reached Trotsky in exile in Mexico City when an agent of Stalin drove an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. He died the next day. The Left eats its own. (The Right does too, but to a lesser extent.)

Another detail people often get wrong is when they say Trotsky was attacked with an ice pick. No, it was an ice axe. Big difference. The agent of Stalin was a mountain climber --Ramon Mercader was his name if memory serves -- and no climber uses an ice pick for climbing and self-arrest!

Trotsky was at his desk when the attack came. Here's a linguistic quibble. It is not quite right to say that he was assassinated in his study because conversationally that implies that he died in his study -- which was not the case.

As for Miss Wolf, her howling and whining in some of her writings is off-putting, and she may be sloppy in her scholarship, but I'd say she is on the right track in the article I mentioned. You are free to disagree. She has a Substack, so maybe I should read more of her and lower my view.

In any case, good to hear from you!

[BV]

Joe,

The ugly facts you mention do not by themselves lend much support to the demonic interference conjecture, but they are key ingredients in a cumulative-case argument for such interference. The surgical mutilation of children with or without parental consent by MD's who supposedly have taken the Hippocratic Oath is a much more salient point. Not to mention the allowing of Fentanyl to flood into the country, etc. etc.

[Malcolm Pollack]

Looking at this another way: if supernatural evil actually were abroad in the world, and gaining ascendancy, in what ways would its manifestations differ from what we see?

[Joe Odegaard]

Of all the manifestations of the demonic, the mutilation of live children is the most telling, you are right about that, Bro Bill. And I remember that in our childhoods, all the girls in our class gloried in the fact that they were girls, and we boys liked that we were boys. How far we have fallen in only 60 years. We are seeing with our own eyes the wreckage of thousands of years of common sense, when all the men were men, and all the women were women. Nothing could be more fundamental. Demonic indeed. What could ever be strong enough to pull us back from this folly?

[BV]

Malcolm,

If my and Wolf's conjecture is right, then in no way.

What we see, in a broad sense of 'see' is a massive increase in evil behavior (brazen lying by gov't officials, sexual mutilation of children by physicians, suppression of dissent, incarceration of so-called 'insurrectionists' as political prisoners, outrageous slandering of decent people as white supremacists, racists, etc). That is the fact that needs explaining. If it cannot be plausibly explained in naturalistic terms, then appeal to a supernatural explanation is justified.

[Joe Odegaard]

One might reasonably ask, on seeing these great evils, if there is any natural thing that could stop and reverse them. Certainly logic will not work. If you go to a leftist news site which has comment strings, ("Mediaite" is one such), and argue rationally against transgenderism, for instance, you elicit rather vile name-calling, and threats.

[BV]

https://amgreatness.com/2023/03/06/life-among-the-ruins/

Yet another recounting of horrors by Victor Davis Hanson. But no call to action, and no suggestions about what to do. Do we really need more articles like this?

[Joe Odegaard]

No, I don't think we need any more articles that have only depressing lists. Depression aids the demonic. Cheerful positivity, and workable programs of positive change are what is needed. "Save the planet" is a downer. "Let's do something cool and beautiful !" is much better. That is why I am growing some new Cork Oaks, and grafting apple trees.

[CorkyAgain]

It seems she's confusing Trotsky with Marat. I admit, sometimes I also have trouble distinguishing between these left-wing radicals. They all seem so drearily the same.

[Joe Odegaard]

What would a national exorcism look like? This link is interesting in the context of the comment string here: https://www.worldtribune.com/pastor-melania-trump-demanded-white-house-be-completely-exorcised-before-moving-in/

[BV]

Fascinating, Joe. It look like Melania is having a positive effect on the Manhattan sybarite! The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Did you read to the end of Wolf's piece? Please do! We need a national exorcism.

By the way, Joe, you need a TV to be fully apprised of the depravity of the lamestream media.

If I were God, I would seriously consider pulling the plug on the USA. A nuclear holocaust could be very easily arranged.

[Dmitri]

I definitely agree with the overall spirit and sincerity of Wolf's article Bill. Her change of attitude is unexpected news to me... I don't completely agree with "we are back to dark paganism" line of analysis, because many social phenomena that bother her and most of your readers are quite unprecedented. Relatively recent technological and scientific developments enabled genetic engineering, mass fake news manufacturing and propaganda, sex identity changes, weapons of mass destruction etc. Without these enablers and amplifiers many questionable attitudes & human behaviours wouldn't be as widespread as they are today. All this stuff -- crucial in my opinion to proper understanding where the civilized society is standing and where we are heading -- is missing from Wolf's thinking. What I just said is not an argument against devil's role, but ignoring the factors I mentioned is an expensive, if not fatal, mistake for those who want improve upon the current mess. I am definitely not saying anything new here, merely responding to an account that falls short of adequate analysis.

[Malcolm Pollack]

Bill, you wrote:

"A nuclear holocaust could be very easily arranged."

Looking at current events, it seems that those arrangements may already be underway.

[Joe Odegaaed]

Here is what the exorcism of Germany looked like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhyifvjSHbU

[BV]

Dmitri,

You are surely right that a complete analysis MUST take into account recent technological developments. In addition to what you mention, suppression of dissent and free speech is immeasurably enhanced by the latest surveillance techniques. But this set of considerations sits orthogonal to the questions about the nature of the free agents who are using the technology.

[BV]

>>No, I don't think we need any more articles that have only depressing lists. Depression aids the demonic. Cheerful positivity, and workable programs of positive change are what is needed. "Save the planet" is a downer. "Let's do something cool and beautiful !" is much better. That is why I am growing some new Cork Oaks, and grafting apple trees.<<

You are ignoring the fact that what we need is concerted political action, not personal self-improvement. See the post on Lifestyle Rightism. https://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2023/03/lifestyle-rightism.html

[Whitewall]

Well I never thought I would take time to read a Naomi Wolf article to the end, but the more I read....the more I read. I've never done religion very well but in my mid 70s, I trying. Maybe the returning of the old gods is just another way of talking about the great 'trip wire' of Judeo-Christianity which is confronting and then ignoring Sin.

[Dmitri]

After the article we discussed here Naomi Wolf, having watched the Jan 6 videos released by Carlson on Fox, has issued a full blown apology to conservatives, republicans and MAGA. Quite an amazing U-turn as Bill noted.

Her piece ends as follows:

I don’t like President Trump (Do I not? Who knows? I have been lied to about him so much for so long, I can‘t tell whether my instinctive aversion is simply the habituated residue of years of being on the receiving end of lies).

But I like the liars who are our current gatekeepers, even less.

The gatekeepers who lie to the public about the most consequential events of our time — and who thus damage our nation, distort our history, and deprive half of our citizenry of their right to speak, champion and choose, without being tarred as would-be violent traitors - deserve our disgust.

I am sorry the nation was damaged by so much untruth issued by those with whom I identified at the time.

I am sorry my former “tribe” is angry at a journalist for engaging in —- journalism.

I am sorry I believed so much nonsense.

Though it is no doubt too little, too late —

Conservatives, Republicans, MAGA:

I am so sorry.

The full article is here: https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/dear-conservatives-i-am-sorry

[BV]

Thanks for that link, Dmitri! I will post it at the top of the queue.