WRITING ABOUT ENDING THE COSMIC WAR WHEN IT SEEMS IT IS JUST KICKING OFF

SHOULD I BOTHER?

When I began thinking about the Cosmic War as an old, powerful, toxic Story that had us in its grip, and how to replace it, I could not find anyone who thought about it as I did. The idea came to me after a person I once respected posted something online that made me think, that they thought, they were in a Cosmic War. I realized quite suddenly that many people think they are in a Cosmic War. I realized that the Cosmic War Story is so pervasive yet so backgrounded it is hard to see it clearly, and it affects those who don’t believe in it because they respond to its characters, archetypes, and narrative. It is not just a religion thing. It is about culture and difference and morality. Remember, ultimate good and ultimate evil. Saviour heroes. Bands of virtuous rebels who are oppressed. We are always in the end times, and it is always our side that will win, any day now, provided we stay pure and make sacrifices. The Cosmic War is fought in the metaphysical realm between God and the Devil, on earth through history, and in our hearts. It is fought over the bodies of the young, their identities and sexualities. It is fought in our communities as we other those who are not like us. It defines history and then ends it. While we think we are fighting it, we can’t address the real issues of our times. Like climate change. And fascism.

Kia Ora koutou and welcome to Ending the Cosmic War with me, Karen Effie.

So, here we all are, things are moving faster, and the Cosmic War Story seems much more obvious. This is partly because that strand of Christianity that is conservative, nationalistic, and dualistic is so much noisier and in the political ascendant, despite what they say about being oppressed and discriminated against. People like Pete Hegseth and Mike Johnson speak openly about spiritual warfare.

In the history of Christianity, it is not just the pagans or Muslims who have been the enemy: it is the enemy within. It is obvious in the world there are people who believe things that are plainly wrong-headed, such as atheism or other religions or whatever. But heretics are worse: they present something that looks like the truth but isn’t, and that is more monstrous. Thus, conservative Christians reserve much of their ire for the libs. The libs are not true Christians or true Americans; they sound reasonable but underneath that is the Devil at work in his kingdom that is this earth. It has been this way since Paul, whose most strident criticisms were for his fellow religionists.

Three years ago, I imagined myself saying to people they think they are in a Cosmic War and most of the people I know saying we are? Who knew? Yeah nah, as we say here in Aotearoa New Zealand. And I would say, the Cosmic War is backgrounded. It is pervasive in popular culture. It is in our mythical bones. It is a Story. When we set ourselves up for ultimate good fighting ultimate evil, we just know how it plays out. So we don’t really have to do anything about the fact that we are all superfucked right now. A saviour hero will arise. The rapture will happen. A new world will arise from the ashes of the old one. The Cosmic War can be a call to action and virtue for believers, but for the rest of us it just makes for passivity.

Now, things are moving faster. I did not predict the course of events. Particularly I did not predict the near takeover of influence of the tech bros, the amount of surveillance we are under, and the rise of obvious fascism in the North world. At least not so soon and so thoroughgoing. My reading and thinking have struggled to keep up. We clearly can’t wait for a saviour hero or for Armageddon to sort it all out for us. We are all we have.

I am asking myself if the Cosmic War is still worth writing about. My concern is also based on various family issues and health issues that have stopped me in my tracks at times and left me little energy for writing. And, well, I don’t have a lot of readers, and Substack has changed a lot and become a lot less friendly to small accounts like mine. However, in all my wanderings, I have never found anyone who has quite my approach. There are many good thinkers writing about the future and today’s urgent issues. There are many critiquing evangelical Christian nationalism and its emphasis on spiritual warfare and eschatology. But I am the only one I know who takes it right back to the start, to four thousand years ago, who sees it as a Story embedded in our cultural identities and histories. My view of it may not be the best, but it is still seemingly unique and that counts for something.

I was brought up knowing I was weak. I am female, very small and now getting older and a bit sicker. My hands have never worked properly. I am a slow runner and a slow thinker. As a child I was taught I would not, in fact should not, survive a catastrophe. I think that teaching was supposed to make me feel helpless or something or maybe induce me to seek out a man for protection. What it did do, was make me aware of our interdependence. Human and non-human and more-than-human communities: we all depend on them even if we believe we are big and strong and don’t need anyone.

I love the world very much. All its realities, it is all there for us. I don’t want it to end. I want no harm to come to it. I don’t want a world where elite white men upload themselves into posthuman eternities. I don’t want to save the environment for a white ethnostate. I don’t believe it needs to be made anew for a new race of men, or anyone for that matter. It is as it is, alive, imperfect, frightening, joyous, indifferent, real. We are part of it. We belong.

Thank you for reading, if you got this far, and for your forbearance. Ma te wa.

The link is to the Robert Fripp version of Peter Gabriel’s “Here Comes the Flood”. This is an unusual choice for me as I am usually an absolute metal head, but it is a beautiful song and the Fripp version has such restraint. There is the refrain: “If again, the seas are silent, in any still alive, it’ll be those who gave their island who survive”.