Decoding The Gurus
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Lecture: The Rise of secular gurus in an Age of conspiracy theories (Audio)
🕑 Added 2023-08-09 12:52:03 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
We are aiming to have Chomsky out this Friday, God willing!
But in the meantime, some of you might enjoy this academic lecture I (Chris) gave last month at Temple University at The Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies titled: The Rise of secular gurus in an Age of conspiracy theories. I was kindly invited by Benoît Hardy-Chartrand who you will hear from at the start and end.
This was the abstract:
"We are living in a golden era of digital gurus from YouTube influencers to techno monks and podcast pundits. Their rise has been facilitated with a revived and increasingly influential interest in conspiracy theories, particularly notable in the online world and among populist politicians. Charismatic figures such as Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, and Russell Brand now spread their prophetic and conspiratorial messages to millions of digital followers.
This talk explores how these very modern gurus have adapted a traditional charismatic and performative role to suit a contemporary context, offering a comforting antidote to the alienating complexities of modern life. Based on a multi-year deep analysis of their content, partly documented on the Decoding the Gurus podcast, this talk will explore the psychological and rhetorical techniques these gurus leverage to grow their audiences and position themselves at the forefront of public discourse".
They have not made the talk public yet so consider this an advanced preview! The Q&A section is included, though it might be a bit difficult to hear what the audience is asking. I've tried to boost the volume but the results might not be great. See what you think.
Anyway, as always comments and Feedback are welcome, as always!
Comments
Christopher Kavanagh
Ah I was going to talk about Japanese laws regarding libel, that I think make public criticism a much less appealing prospect. I also think the broader culture and public are less sympathetic to figures who stake out claims as being against the mainstream/ contrarian.
Marcin Junczys-Dowmunt
If he wasn't real, he should have been planted :) It's rare to get such nice illustrative examples.
n-gons burgess
This was fun! What is the answer to the question about japanese gurus you forgot?
Emma
Oh that's an interesting idea I had not heard before. But come to think of it, there have been a few male subject matter experts I previously followed who seemed to go off the rails in the last few years. I had put it down to the pandemic but maybe some of it was mid life. One example I cam think of is Peter Attia who, to me at least, seemed to be a fairly balanced medical science communicator. Even if he was advocating slightly more unusual approaches. But then more recently he seems to me to have been mildly red pilled. Like posting how he was trying to make his licence plate 'unwoke'. And also seeming to a little bit cozy up to the anti vaxxers by saying he was still pro vaccines but anti mandates. Or something like that. Anyway I have stopped following him but I think he might be someone who has recently evolved into a guru. And he is middle aged now.
Sean Donnelly
I always wondered what happened to Madge. Ramsay hasn’t been the same.
Kai
This was great!
Fake Chuck
Good talk, and it mostly served to remind me that you guys desperately need to do an episode on Curtis Yarvin.
Simon Patience
Did the presenter call Matt “Madge?”
Anonymous ethicist, not a serial killer at all, just asking questions.
Appreciated the defender in the audience, nice to see were not always preaching to the choir
Jennifer Nelson
Totally agree with the midlife crisis thing!!!
Christopher Kavanagh
So many nice audio clips I wanted to play…
Christopher Kavanagh
It’s possible but I don’t think I would lump it all in as white vs minorities because I don’t think all minorities have the same culture around the values of being demure. I think it’s probably partly demographics (there just are more white people) in North America and Europe, partly personality( men on average more highly opinionated and confident in their views), as well as the sociological/cultural factors you reference. But I also do think there is something to this co-occurring with mid life crisis timing, from people who feel they have not been acknowledged appropriately yet.
Jennifer Nelson
Just got to the part where the John Campbell acolyte derailed the whole conversation. Good lord
Enchant-o-matic
Great presentation, I'm amazed you got through the initial presentation in a mere 30 min! I can hear the Campbell questioner well enough on the audio feed, BTW, though some of the others are a little muffled.
Jennifer Nelson
Great episode, really enjoyed your lecture, Chris! Regarding the demographic question of why the over representation of white men “of a certain age” in the secular guru space, I was wondering what you thought of it also being due to the fact that white men are socialised to unquestioningly “own” the space they are in. A popular metaphor/meme for this are those men on the metro sitting with their knees spread so wide that they take up two seats. Women and people of colour aren’t socialised like this so they don’t tend to dominate conversations, meeting, etc with their perceived authoritative voices (unearned or not)
Donkey kong
You should try Da Vinci Studio AI Voice Isolation
Dee the Lobsterdancing Bananaland Dinosaur Monster
I’m sure a great universal intelligence was willing so here we have it! It’s already been downloaded in the RSS so I’ll be sure to have a listen. Thank you!!
Hugh Denton
It was well worth putting up ! - just now rewatching a chunk I skipped, when overtaken by a sudden impatience to get to the argy-bargy part, previously talked-up 😋
Christopher Kavanagh
Tried to boost them up but hard because it’s all the same audio file.
Hugh Denton
The lecture is really good though, it's nice work
Hugh Denton
Dammit, it's really difficult to hear what the Campbell acolyte - or anyone else in the audience - is saying. Obvs, not your fault, just the way it's miked.
Christopher Kavanagh
Ya!
Hugh Denton
Cool! Was waiting for you to post this . Look forward to the content as it's presented publically/academically-facing. As well as the John Campbell fan near the end right? How are there John Campbell fans in Japan tho? I imagined there'd be only a couple thousand in Carlisle ..
Sean Donnelly
God willing, you say? Careful now… If you put him off much longer, it’s likely to be an obit piece. Lord have mercy. Thanks for the bonus, Chris. Lord have mercy. I’m not sure; am I supposed to say it three times? It’s been a while.
