“Maybe contact with supernatural horror is a normative reason why exoterics have various moral narratives to shun esoteric knowledge.” — that is indeed possible. Also, given the compact between exoteric traditions and social power, why rock the boat (even a little bit)?

Is it possible that horror is metaphysically set up in such a way that doesn’t allow it to be captured by words? By metaphysical I mean that the connection is between some aspect of the world and the mental state of the person witnessing the horror (not that I’m putting forward some dualistic explanation here, both mind and world are part of the same thing, here I’m talking of mental states rather than a mind-body distinction). The state of affairs is set up in such a way that seems to bypass language (then again, a counter-example might be horror fiction, but is horror fiction horror?). Would a philosophical analysis of horror have to capture both the properties/characteristics of the horrific thing in the world, and the attributes of a horror-fied mental state? Or would the mental state be enough?

It makes me wonder how exoteric and esoteric traditions respond to horror in a metaphysical sense. That is, what happens when they actually encounter it in the world. It seems also like the empirical versus rationalist tradition in philosophy. Where exoteric is a public, empirically gained knowledge. While esoteric is inward, private knowledge resembling rationalism of sorts. Of course, where they differ from this empiricist-rationalist analogue is the fact that esoterics actually want to make contact with supernatural horror again through various rituals. While exoterics seem to follow a tradition of shunning such knowledge, and repeating the narratives of when they first witnessed it. Maybe contact with supernatural horror is a normative reason why exoterics have various moral narratives to shun esoteric knowledge.

Are the Gnostics the original cryptanalysts? Not in some numerological sense, but in the sense that they were the original individuals to start deep interpretations and decoding of some contradictory aspects of the “God” of the old testament.

How does your distinction between esoteric and exoteric deal with revelation? By revelation I mean the direct contact that people have claimed throughout history with the spiritual big brother entities (Shamanic animal guides, to Gods, to UFOs). Here I mean revelation in two senses: Firstly, there seems to be random events where the entities contact us (direct contact stories in the Bible, the Fatima contacts, most major spiritual movements on the planet started this way). Secondly, there seems to be us trying to contact them (most of the western esoteric and western magic tradition is dedicated to this). Could it be that exoteric religions have a habit of forming after the entities contact us; while esoteric is trying to communicate in the other direction? Assuming for a second that these contacts are a real phenomenon, what are the ramifications for humanity where the entities choose exoteric contact over esoteric? In a sense, they control the comms channel with their outward broadcasts, which in itself is kinda spooky I guess (how can we rely on anything they say when they are the cosmic equivalent of radio free europe?).

Are there cross-cultural analogues to this science of spookiness that don’t rely on Middle Eastern religions like Christianity? The Aztecs might make a good study. A society in which hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered, because their “Gods” told them the sun would drop out of the sky if they didn’t have blood sacrifice.

So… the racists are the dark and shambling hordes of stupid but violent hordes against whom the everyman must take up arms?

It would seem so. You’ll note this fellow has helpful tips for “when you, as a member of the majority group, enter a minority space”, presumably so as to avoid being mistaken for an unreasoning cannibalistic racist and getting a “well-timed shotgun blast to the face”. What times we live in.

(It may have been Tim Wise who wrote the first chapter of this horror story when he penned his open letter comparing white American conservatives to Jason of Friday 13th fame.)

Much like a zombie movie afficionado does, members of visible minority communities have spent years learning to read the warning signs of racial antipathy, even from those who don’t recognize that they’re ‘infected’ with the subtle biases that affect us all.

So… the racists are the dark and shambling hordes of stupid but violent hordes against whom the everyman must take up arms?

I’ve used the opposite analogy before. On Facebook, of all places:

Zombie apocalypse isn’t just idle fantasy, and the last thing the few survivors need during one is zombie government. Bill de Blasio does not appear to be part of a dark and drooling horde, but he won’t be the ones to send in the helicopters.

The rise of the zombie is already an apocalypse scenario: once the virus escapes from the lab, there is no solution that will not be found extremely distasteful, especially not in a society where one TV camera is more powerful than an army.

It’s not about economics. It was once, but no longer: once the vial broke — and it was so shoddily designed that its shattering was inevitable from the start — once apocalypse began, everything else was set aside. The old left is completely right to point out that many Republican voters are voting against their economic interest; but economics *doesn’t matter*. There are the zombies, there are the mad scientists — no, mad engineers; calling them scientists would imply that they understand the necessity for a control group, a necessity lost on experimenters who seek to put the whole world in their petri dish — and there are the survivors, huddled away from the outside world, retreating ever further from it by the day, clinging to their guns and religion and praying that they won’t be eaten.

The rise of Barack Obama had very little to do with grassroots organizing. He made a media-compiled list of the 100 greatest Americans — in 2005, before the publication of his second book and long before his run for president. If Warren can tap into the very real and very large reservoir of economic discontent as fuel for an electoral run, good on her; but this is the same person who falsified her heritage as a career move.

Thankfully, her election would likely not herald a new stage of the apocalypse. Martin O’Malley’s would, if he had a chance in hell of it. De Blasio’s may; or it may merely signify the City’s regression to the zombified mean — a mean which Giuliani and Bloomberg dragged it away from in a tug-of-war opposed by the full weight of the people who began the apocalypse. Their efforts are heroic. But de Blasio has declared opposition to them, and with a generation too young to remember the pre-Dinkins days, and with the ever-increasing weight of the zombie hordes behind said generation, Lhota doesn’t stand a chance, and the City will burn again.

Make no mistake: stop-and-frisk is de facto segregation. It’s much more accurate than the old laws, which were far too sloppy to either survive or merit survival, but it’s de facto segregation nonetheless. Many people have said this, and they’ve all missed the point: during a zombie apocalypse, if you don’t segregate the zombies away from you, you will be eaten.

Civilization or righteousness. Always and everywhere, there can be only one. When the last pretense of civilization falls, it is because its core has already been eaten, by zombie-commanders and Brahmin philosophasters, by mad engineers intent on improving man by freeing him from all higher than his zombie base.

That’s class. Anyone else would have put “This blog is that reservoir” or “This blog is the dynamite that blows up the dam”.

(Meanwhile a Cathedralite explains what the zombie apocalypse is really about.)