NeoPaganism, Fascism, and America’s Culture War

A Livestream Class with Gus diZerega

Time and Room Not Chosen Yet for This Class

The United States’ constitutional and democratic traditions are under unprecedented attack, symbolized by Donald Trump’s presidency and Elon Musk’s co-presidency. Many different analyses have been made as to this crisis’ causes. Many have an element of truth in them but no well-known ones link it to deeper spiritual causes.

In 2013 my book “Faultlines: The Culture War, the Sixties, and the Return of the Divine Feminine” did exactly this. Over a decade ago. I argued three major causes underlie what was happening: a reaction against the feminine and re-evaluation of nature as good in themselves, challenging patriarchy; these values provoking a challenge by pre-industrial values underlying the old Confederacy, and the collapse of modern secular Western values in general. I argued NeoPaganism’s impact and the values it embodied pointed the way out of this crisis, the deepest since the replacement of hunting and gatherings societies with agriculture. I argued the jury was out as to the fate of the US, but the crisis I described would color the modern world for the foreseeable future.

My workshop will develop these arguments and bring them up-to-date by examining the years since its appearance.