fetish for the demons

This familiar sequence of volcanic eruption and cooling off illustrates yet again Max Weber’s notions of bureaucratization and the routinization of charisma. Post-modern financial institutions, a mobile faith like the Pentecosts, correspond to a global financial flow.

from Slavoj Zizek:Thus, those who would place all blame on the Wall street executive avoid the fact that capitalism, as we know it, could not function without the very speculative financial products Wall street provides.

This same inverted fetishist tendency is seen not only in the secular West, but appears in the religious Global South as well. In looking at Pentecostalism in Sub-Saharan Africa, Amos Young and Samual Zalanga, point out the role that demonology plays in interpreting the reality of poverty and underdevelopment. Out of the eight important points they explicate regarding this complex phenomenon a general framework is revealed. In Sub-Saharan Pentecostalism’s interpretation of socio-economic-political realities the spiritual world—spirits and personal demons; individual, geographical and cultural curses; and the working of God directly and through intermediaries—casually affects socio-economic-political life more drastically than any material agents or systemic effects….

---She saw people in spasms of religious ecstasy, speaking in tongues and falling to the floor as if they were struck down by the Holy Spirit. Some laughed while others cried, but all said they felt wonderful and wanted more. So powerful was this religious phenomenon, in terms of the number of people who were being touched and the force with which people were moved bodily, that it soon was called the Toronto Blessing.--- Read More:http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/12/23/at-the-worlds-hottest-church/

…From God being responsible for individual prosperity-Gospel-preachers’ excessive wealth, to demons and curses facing the blame for most, if not all, of the region’s social ills, any form of systemic critique is avoided. In addition, individual corrupt government officials and church leaders are not held responsible due to the power that the spiritual realm exercises over their actions. In short, the someone-supposed-to-be-responsible is spiritualized in the face of radically dizzying complexity. While, seemingly different in their apparent dualisms both the immigrant/Wallstreet-banker of North America and the variegated spiritual representation of reality of Sub-Saharan Pentecostalism are two sides of the same inverted fetishist coin. Read More:http://dtomolson.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/zizek-and-the-inverted-fetishism-of-the-global-north-and-south/a

---That was the first question that sprung to mind when we found the chief executive of Goldman smiling at us from the top of a very long profile of the firm that begins with the headline "I'm doing 'God's Work.' Meet Mr. Goldman Sachs. “We’re very important,” Blankfein is quoted as saying in The Times of London. “We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle.” He goes on to admit to being the focus of public outrage--"I know I could slit my wrists and people would cheer"--but then blows the attempt to reconciliation by saying he is "doing God's work." Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-11-09/wall_street/30054567_1_blankfein-goldman-sachs-year-end-bonuses#ixzz1hYamcfO3 image:http://www.anunews.net/blog/?cat=442