Как политика становится религией. Понятия с Виктором Вахштайном* и Ириной Воробьёвой / 01.08.25

The Politicization of Beliefs
📈 Since 2021, American popular press highlights how political beliefs increasingly resemble religious dogmas and ideologies blur with cults.
📉 A sharp decline in US church attendance from ~70% (1937-1998) to 39% after 1998 suggests religious energy has shifted into the political sphere.
🇫🇷 The French Revolution (with its Cult of Reason and Cult of the Supreme Being) serves as a historical example of secular political movements taking on religious characteristics.

Key Concepts from Religious to Political
📌 Karl Schmitt's "Political Theology" argues that significant modern legal and political language is directly derived from religious codes.
👑 The concept of the "Sovereign" (whether monarch or "the people") is presented as a "distilled image of God," holding ultimate, often unquestionable, authority.
✨ The "Miracle" is reinterpreted in politics as the "state of emergency," where the sovereign suspends normal laws to demonstrate a higher, seemingly divine, order.
🍎 "Sin" (original or fall from grace) transitions into political discourse, seen in notions like inherited historical injustices or "cancel culture" as a form of purification ritual.
➡️ The religious idea of a "Day of Salvation" is secularized into striving to be on the "right side of history" or the judgment of future generations.

Sociological Evolution of Society
🌍 Niklas Luhmann's theory describes societal evolution into "differentiated societies," where various spheres (politics, economy, science, religion) operate as distinct, specialized systems.
⚙️ In modern society, individuals navigate these "operatively closed systems," each with its own codes (e.g., "truth" for science, "influence" for politics, "transcendence" for religion), leading to a "natural state of schizophrenia" in roles.
🔥 The concept of "immanentization of the eschaton" (Erich Voegelin) explains the secular transfer of transcendent religious ideas (like God or salvation) into earthly political forms (like the sovereign or historical judgment).
🗃️ The contemporary rise of fundamentalisms (scientific, religious, political) is attributed to humanity's struggle to find a unifying worldview in a fragmented modern world.

Democracy and Secularism
🏛️ Classical democratic theory often sacralizes "the people" and their "general will," viewing them as an ultimate, almost divine, sovereign.
❌ Constitutionalism acts as a vital "limiter" against the potentially unchecked and "insane" will of the people, preventing democracy from becoming an absolute, potentially dangerous force.
🚧 Realist theories of democracy (e.g., Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter) advocate for stripping democratic institutions of their "substantive holiness," viewing democracy as a neutral "machine" or institutional framework rather than an ideology or cult.
💡 Max Weber's "disenchantment of the world" suggests that while mystical aspects fade, the "sacred" does not disappear but rather shifts its locus to other societal spheres like politics or science.

Key Points & Insights
✨ Political beliefs are increasingly adopting religious characteristics, including dogmas and cult-like ideologies, posing challenges to secular governance.
🔍 A deeper conceptual analysis, beyond mere "parallels," is crucial to understand *how* and *why* religious concepts like sovereignty, miracle, sin, and salvation have migrated into political discourse.
🧩 Modern society's functional differentiation means individuals operate in multiple, distinct spheres (e.g., science, religion, politics), leading to a fragmented existence where different codes apply.
⚠️ While ideologies can become new religions, democracy itself should remain a non-ideological, "pure form" to avoid becoming a cult that demands "human sacrifices" or overrides fundamental rights.
🌐 The current global trend towards fundamentalism across various domains (religious, political, scientific) stems from a human need for a unified worldview in an increasingly complex and differentiated world.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Aug 04, 2025, 22:17 UTC