33: Manipulating the Hero’s Journey

Christiane Northrup addresses her followers as “angel warriors.” JP Sears counsels his supplement customers to never “outsource their own truth.” Mikki Willis says he was once a “hero of the left”, and now tells audiences that he’s willing to die for the truth of his message. It’s all very grand, and it doesn’t come from nowhere. Trendy spiritualities of the privileged and disconnected have always focused on the heroic triumph of the individual, which has made them easily co-optable by the right.

But what is a real hero? Joseph Campbell contextualized their journey as a ritual of selfless wandering, undertaken on behalf of the community. The concept of the monomyth, which Campbell defined as the Hero’s Journey, has stages, and they have influenced popular culture in profound and, at times, troubling ways.

In this episode, we’ll look at how certain influencers confuse heroism for megalomania and forget that heroes and their societies are interdependent. Derek and Julian measure some of the usual suspects against Campbell’s ruler while Matthew asks questions about what makes a theory vulnerable to distortion.

In The Jab, Julian looks at the three top questions vaccine-hesitant folks have about the mRNA vaccines currently approved for COVID. In a closing essay, Matthew reflects on a space where the painful splits of conspirituality might be calmed: how the home hospice can bring together public health and private spirituality.

Show Notes

Jake Angeli, “Q-Shaman”, describing his New-Age services

CNN on Angeli, “Baked Alaska” and Barnett

The Q shaman — conspirituality runs riot on Capitol Hill

Barnett and “Save Our Children” event in AR in October

JP Sears echoes a justification for ransacking Pelosi’s office

Anti-maskers Storm California Mall, Harass Shoppers and Refuse to Leave

Why Lisa Guerrero Abruptly Ended Interview With Anti-Mask Wearer

Tommy John Sr. hospitalized for COVID

Dr. Tommy John denies his father hospitalized with COVID has COVID

(Tommy’s follow-up post shows his son (?) playing a video game in a COVID-denyi

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