The Political Gnostic Imagination

Abstract In the contemporary global and the American political landscape we see what may be termed political religion, a broad term that, in addition to its use as a descriptor of a totalitarian state expressing a quasi-religious belief-system enacted through the creation of state spectacles and propaganda, also can be extended to include politico-religious or religio-political self-conceptualizations or concepts applied to others. Neo-Gnostic language and concepts like the demiurge, archons, and some other elements attributed to ancient Gnosticism recur in contemporary political discourse in the fashion of Eric Voegelin, especially on social media. Gnosticism and Gnostic metaphors are both means of condemnation via anti-Gnostic rhetoric and a series of metaphors that position the critic of modernity as effectively a kind of contemporary neo-gnostic subject to a demiurge (artificial intelligence), and archons (seen as agents of the state, the media, or corporations more generally), while possessing secret knowledge of the political truth. These identifiable patterns of neo-gnostic metaphors pro and con keep recurring in the political imaginary, especially in contemporary American religio-political discourse, because they reflect power dynamics. Those in or seeking power attempt to identify “Gnostic” heretics to eliminate, while those outside power structures see themselves as neo-gnostic rebels.