Conspirituality - Bonus Sample: So Marianne Williamson Really is the Peace Candidate
Aired: 2023-11-20
Duration: 08:44


=== Marianne's Moral Stand (06:47) ===

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[00:00:24]  Hello everyone, welcome to Conspirituality Podcast, where we investigate the intersection of conspiracy theories and spiritual influence to uncover cults, pseudoscience, and authoritarian extremism.
[00:00:37]  And I will add to that tagline today how sometimes we have to eat our words about whether New Age influencers have any moral backbone when the world erupts in fire.
[00:00:53]  This is a Patreon bonus episode called, So Marianne Williamson Really Is the Peace Candidate?
[00:01:00]  I'm Matthew Remsky.
[00:01:02]  We're on Instagram at ConspiritualityPod, and you can access all our episodes ad-free, plus our Monday bonus episodes through Patreon or Apple subscriptions.
[00:01:15]  We've also got a book out.
[00:01:16]  It's called Conspirituality, How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.
[00:01:22]  It's in print, ebook, and audiobook format, narrated by me.
[00:01:27]  I'd like to talk to you about Israel and Palestine tonight, and I want specifically for you to know how I analyze the situation and what I would do about it as President of the United States.
[00:01:38]  We're walking into the jaws of hell here.
[00:01:41]  That's Marianne Williamson, October 30th, underlining the call for a ceasefire that she first made on October 13th, six days after Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in a shocking attack These are the two choices as I see it.
[00:01:58]  of North Gaza to move to the south.
[00:02:12]  And so are Israelis.
[00:02:14]  Why?
[00:02:15]  Because they both are afraid we're on the brink of a terrible war.
[00:02:18]  Because we are.
[00:02:20]  We can stop this now.
[00:02:22]  Have a ceasefire now.
[00:02:24]  Don't wait till the end of this war to start drawing up plans for a two-state solution.
[00:02:30]  Start doing this now.
[00:02:32]  And that is what I would be talking to Israel about.
[00:02:34]  And that is what I would be talking to other world leaders about.
[00:02:38]  That is the only possible solution here.
[00:02:40]  There never was a military solution.
[00:02:43]  Justice is the only solution.
[00:02:45]  And justice is the only solution now.
[00:02:47]  Justice for Israel and justice for the Palestinians is the same thing.
[00:02:51]  Stop this now.
[00:02:54]  Williamson is a recurring figure of interest here at Conspirituality Podcast, especially for me, because I have some personal and research background in the origins and social impacts of her religious commitments, which are informed by A Course in Miracles.
[00:03:12]  This is the channeled New Age text she helped to popularize on Oprah and the workshop circuit.
[00:03:20]  In calling for a ceasefire and for a radical shift in U.S.
[00:03:25]  relations with Israel, she's taking a moral stand here that challenges her Democratic colleagues.
[00:03:33]  But it's also making me reconsider my biases with regard to the effectiveness of her theology and worldview.
[00:03:42]  I'll start by just running down the criticisms that I've made so far.
[00:03:47]  In an episode called Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus, I profiled the smug spiritual bypassing she has promoted for over four decades through A Course in Miracles.
[00:04:00]  I show how it's a pretty easy gateway into ableism and magical thinking and political naivety I showed how it explains why Williamson is on record as saying that collective prayer can change the path of hurricanes or strengthen the immune system against COVID.
[00:04:21]  In an episode called Marianne Williamson's Ex-Staffers Speak Out, I contextualized allegations that she has been emotionally abusive to campaign workers while selling an image of love and light within the often hypocritical social relations of New Age communities, where a leader's charisma and presumed intuitive wisdom can be used to excuse really shitty behavior.
[00:04:48]  In another episode called Marianne Williamson's Spiritual Therapy Schtick, I looked at how her decades on the workshop circuit has programmed her discourse on the stump.
[00:04:59]  Namely, that whenever material reality gets too close and insistent, her instinct and training is to default to spiritual solutions.
[00:05:11]  And I detailed how this is consistent with her lack of policy experience, coalition building, and how, ironically, that lack of substance may well be read by her followers as a sublime advantage, because many of them come from an historically depoliticized subculture that actively disdains the conflictual aspects of policymaking.
[00:05:36]  In short, I've argued that Williamson's candidacy is a democratic spoiler that hijacks progressive issues and sentiments, drawing attention and dollars away from in-real-life progressive activists and workers at a crucial time.
[00:05:53]  I've criticized her as an unserious disruptor in the political sphere and implied that she's basically grifting for her next book tour.
[00:06:02]  And I've also suggested that 40 years of A Course in Miracles can fry your cognitive skills while not really shifting your interpersonal behavior.
[00:06:12]  Now none of that is wrong, and I think that this criticism is relevant for Democrats, especially Millennials and Zoomers, who think that she is organizationally or ideologically equipped to start actually beating the GOP.
[00:06:29]  But it's also time for me to eat some of those words.
[00:06:33]  Because at this moment of global crisis, a moment that might be more consequential to her political relevance than any other, She's going beyond the bromides, for which she is well known, such as what we hear in this 2015 post to Facebook.

=== Call for Ceasefire (01:53) ===

[00:06:51]  Dear God, please forge a path between Israeli and Palestinian hearts.
[00:06:56]  Intercede, dear God.
[00:06:58]  Pour forth your spirit.
[00:07:00]  Please work a miracle.
[00:07:01]  Amen.
[00:07:04]  Today, she's not just praying aloud.
[00:07:08]  She's calling for a ceasefire to the bloodbath where, as of this recording on November 16th, the UN's Office for the High Commission for Human Rights is reporting that, quote, the bombardment and siege of Gaza have reportedly killed over 11,000 people, injured more than 27,000, and displaced 1.6 million persons, while thousands are still under the rubble.
[00:07:35]  The Guardian reports that 95% of Gazans have no access to clean drinking water.
[00:07:43]  In a tweet from November 5th, Williamson clarifies, For Israel to prosecute an all-out war on Gaza is already a catastrophe for the people of Gaza.
[00:07:56]  It can easily become a catastrophe for the people of Israel as well.
[00:08:00]  There's no endgame there, for them or for the rest of the world, that doesn't multiply the horror.
[00:08:08]  The United States should join an international consortium, Egypt, Jordan, and others, in efforts to secure release of the hostages and cessation of the bombing.
[00:08:18]  Hashtag ceasefire.
[00:08:22]  With these statements, Williamson joins a tiny minority of Western political figures.
[00:08:29]  Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose in-laws are trapped in Gaza, made his ceasefire call on October 13.
[00:08:37]  Tricia Leo Varadkar in Ireland called for a humanitarian ceasefire on October 18,