Every now and then I come across the comment that the world has become disenchanted. Once upon a time, we had a lovely enchanted world, full of magic and wonder, but now it has become drearily disenchanted. The reasons are various: capitalism, industrialisation, Protestantism (a position taken, among others, by that pious dickhead, Kevin Hart)… So the solution is some form of re-enchantment, usually with a traditional Roman Catholic angle. More hocus pocus, not less, is the cry. Unfortunately, some greens follow a version of this argument, arguing that the cause of our environmental problems is a spiritual crisis, a loss of the sense that the earth is sacred, vibrant and filled with spiritual wonder.
But do we really want to believe once again that aubergines are deadly for Christians or that the devil pisses on blackberries? If you are going to re-enchant the world, then go the whole hog. In that medieval golden age so beloved of radical orthodoxy, Alasdair Maclagan, eco-spiritualists, and muddle-headed theologians, the devil does indeed piss on blackberries. You see, you need to pick your berries by 29 September (in the northern hemisphere at least), since on that day the devil has an almighty leak and makes them inedible.
At a deeper level, the whole narrative of enchantment-disenchantment-re-enchantment is skewed. As Marx in his early comments on fetishism argued, it is more a case of profane-sacred-profane, the enchanted or profane moment being an anomaly in the story. On that matter, he shares this argument with the biblical polemic against idolatry as found in Isaiah 44.
21 January, 2010 at 8:45 am
If you want to know what an enchanted world looks like, consider Pat Robinson’s take on the Haiti earthquake being caused by an 18th century voodoo ceremony. The legitimate basis for political decision-making in an enchanted world
… aaaand the number one reason why we don’t want to re-enchant the world is: Roland’s gonna start legitimating Marx’s comments with the authority of scripture! We’ll be right back with Sarah Jessica Parker…
21 January, 2010 at 1:59 pm
In that world Pat R would simply not be permitted to say anything.
21 January, 2010 at 11:20 am
You know, I might be misunderstanding this whole enchantment thing, but I feel like the world is a fairly enchanted place. I don’t believe in magic and supernatural things like that, but there is wonder. The world is a big place and there are always new things to learn (ah, science!). I stand on the rim of the Grand Canyon here in America and I see beauty and I get a similar feeling when I read a good novel or watch a good film.
I imagine any kind of enchantment that relies on some idea of magic (Roman Catholicism, Pat Robertson) would be inherently toxic, because magic tends to hinder progress (at least in the cases of Roman Catholicism and Pat Robertson). I don’t see any reason why the world would be any more disenchanted now than it was prior to capitalism, industrialism, and Protestantism and all that fun stuff, because the only difference now (aside from technology) is that hierarchy is less pronounced, though still very present. I think the existence of various hierarchies are what cause magical thinking or at least reinforce it where it exists.
(By hierarchies being less pronounced, what I mean is that there are these myths that anyone who works hard enough can make it to the top, that the president and other people of authority aren’t taken at their word quite as much anymore, just because of the authority they hold, and so on.)
21 January, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Actually, BZ, I’m constantly amazed by stuff, but I don’t feel that it is spiritually pregnant (and I use the term deliberately). As for less hierarchies, I disagree: they may be less obvious in some situations, but that makes them more lethal.
21 January, 2010 at 4:30 pm
agree. and under the present phase of neoliberal capitalism, where we are ‘anti-hierarchical’, we are each treated as a private business with a private spiritual plot to cultivate. if you make a mess out of your life, the rationale is that you can only blame yourself for failing to invest in your education/ failing to pick the right religion/ failing to choose the right clothes/ etc.
conversely, the fantasy of a mythical past of benevolent hierarchies, where the baron/lord used to bring you (the serf) flowers when you were sick is pure fantasy. maybe maclagan and eco-spiritualists should be deprived of all ‘evil’ modern medicines, sewerage and be made to visit a medieval dentist every month.
22 January, 2010 at 2:07 am
The question in my mind is whether the dichotomy as presented here is legitimate. Is the choice only between pure materialism with no sense of spiritual mystery, and a world with some sense of spiritual mystery but without modern medicine and dentistry?
Yes, talk of those good ol’ Medieval days is silly, but is that really the world that people are pining for? This seems less about nostalgia (though it may be framed in those terms) and more about utopia.
Though, of course, the line about the devil pissing on blackberries makes for wonderful rhetoric
.
22 January, 2010 at 9:10 am
i agree with you re: dualism colin. that is why the talk of some re-enchantment is fantasmatic for it assumes 3 things: firstly, that there existed a golden age of “spirituality”; secondly, that even if such a time did exist, that it is ‘repeatable’ or even replicable at a different spatio-temporal moment; and thirdly, granted that the dualism is false, that we were ever disenchanted in the first place.
23 January, 2010 at 6:16 am
remy, excellent thoughts. Certainly I agree with points one and two…these are things that I think most of us have had to say to people we know over and over. As I said, however, though this kind of thinking presents itself as nostalgic, I think it is actually more utopian.
“that we were ever disenchanted in the first place”…When I read this line I reacted with both a resounding “yes!” and an eye-brow-forrowing “but weren’t we?” I need to think, read, and reflect on this question quite a bit more. But thank you very much for stating it in those terms.
23 January, 2010 at 12:52 pm
I don’t believe in a mythical past of spiritual enlightenment however I think the whole dis-enchamtment/re-enchantment thing is driven by the instrumentalist/exploitative and reductionist dynamics of capitalism. The world, including living creatures, is not a place of grace or wonder or mystery, but ratehr something to be manipulated and exploited even trashed if profitable. Likewise we humans are no more than individual consumers without any ties or connections to each other except through the most reductionistically procreative (patriarchy marriage nuclear family etc) let alone connected to the broader planetary or cosmic realms. Connection requires reciprocity and respect which flies in the face of the capitalist ethos.
So to really re-enchant the world captialism has to be brought to an end. In the meantime I’ll quite happily stay Catholic, celebrating and affirming the sacredness and interconnectedness of the world in which we live.
25 January, 2010 at 11:38 am
I have been trying to find words to respond to this question of enchantment, disenchantment, reenchantment, and I feel some resonance with your response, Michael. I, too, want to celebrate and affirm the sacredness and interconnectedness of the world, and mostly do so in an RC context despite all the crap. I would go so far as to argue that churchy ideas such as “grace” and “sacrament” are first qualities of a material world taken up by various religious traditions as if they have been helicoptered in from some otherworldly place.
Is this material grace a kind of enchantment? Perhaps the category of enchantment is not all that useful here.
On blackberries and the devil. Maybe blackberries have a season. Sometimes mythic explanations, even if they seem superstitious to us and have destructive consequences in other contexts, reflect material realities. But I don’t know enough about the growth of blackberries in Europe to comment.
What I would argue for is not so much a reenchantment of “nature”, but the need for a reorientation of many humans (especially those most privileged by capitalism), in humility and responsiveness toward an Earth community of which they are only a part, and often a pretty destructive part. But that is a bit obvious. A real reorientation would be subversive of capitalism. Easier said than done.
23 January, 2010 at 9:18 pm
This needs a longer response, but I’m completely knackered and need to get to bed.
25 January, 2010 at 7:07 am
[...] enchantment, re-enchantment | Leave a Comment Some thoughtful responses to my earlier post on disenchantment call for a few more comments. In that post I argued that the narrative of former enchantment and [...]
27 January, 2010 at 10:37 am
[...] critics of capitalism: Don’t be over-eager to re-enchant the [...]
28 January, 2010 at 10:41 am
[...] to fall into the narrative of re-enchantment – which is of course highly problematic (see here and here) – then we need to go the whole hog. Not merely should the devil once again start [...]
19 March, 2010 at 4:25 pm
[...] a few earlier posts (here, here and here) I had argued that the idea of re-enchanting the world is one that is generated out [...]