The Collective Effervescence of Modern Religions: Crypto, Potter, and Workism
You don’t need a church to experience the religious ecstasy of strong shared belief
In this three-part series, we’ll explore why the decline of traditional religion doesn’t mean the end of spirituality.
__
Karl Marx claimed that “religion is the opium of the people,” but modern religions are really the amphetamines of the people.
For younger generations raised on remix culture, we see the stitching together of behaviors and content as new religions. And these religions also stitch us together.
As Tara Isabella Burton, author of Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, writes, “In his 1911 book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, [Émile] Durkheim argues that religion is basically the glue that keeps a society together: a set of rituals and beliefs that people affirm in order to strengthen their identity as a group. Religion is a ‘unified system of beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church all those who adhere to them.’
“This church, furthermore, is sustained not through a top-down hierarchy, or through some invisible spirit, but rather through the collective energy of its adherents, a process he calls ‘collective effervescence,’ a shared intoxication participants experience when they join together in a symbolically significant, socially cohesive action.”
From diets like all-meat and OMAD (one meal a day), to the slur-hurled cultish targets like Goop or CrossFit—the gospel of wellness grants opportunities for shared values, goals and rituals. We’re in it together. These are just one category of socially cohesive practices that embody Durkheim’s “collective effervescence.”
Religious collectiveness is a solve for cultural synchrony—cohesion and concurrence during a moment of social polarization and algorithmic segmentation.
Modern religions sync us.
Dogecoin Dogma
Meme stonks and crypto provide moral meaning (giving power to the people), devout purpose (going to the moon or taking down The Man), steady ritual (buying the dip or “gm”), and passionate community (servers to subreddits). There’s a prophet: Satoshi; and a sacred text: The White Paper. The very first block is even called The Genesis Block.
There is a profoundly deep, shared belief in something. A contagious energy. A shared spirit. There are morals and morale here: crypto as a path to salvation, the answer to all of humanity’s problems.
Bloomberg’s Lorcan Roche Kelly calls Bitcoin “the first true religion of the 21st century.”
Praying with Potter
Harry Potter is perhaps the most established modern religion we’ve got.
With a moral compass from shared sacred scripture, Potter has been offering a profound sense of belonging to the Wizarding World for a quarter century now. Potterheads take pilgrimages to Hogsmeade™ village at Universal Studios Orlando and congregate around their own interpretations of the new testament, fan fiction. The Hogwarts house system even provides specific denominations for deeper affiliations.
Endangering the ecosystem to pay their respects, fans have been recently urged to stop leaving socks at the fictional grave of Dobby at Freshwater West Beach in Wales.
And since the first book was published, traditional religious groups have either attacked or compared the magic of the series to their own beliefs.
Worshiping Workism
Recent “Great Resignation,” anti-work, and overemployed movements also check the boxes of modern religions.
Over the last two decades, as traditional religion declined and capitalism thrived, work stepped in as a seamless substitute. With Blackberries and boardrooms as altars, we prayed for promotions. We went as far as replacing “career” with calling and passion. WeWork’s rise (and fall) can be traced back to Adam Neumann’s religious aspirations.
Neumann literally became a Hollywood character larger than himself. This brings us to the religious leader. As Joe Rogan ironically points out, “There’s some weird thing about human beings where they gravitate towards a big leader…. There’s almost like a cheat code.”
From Musk and Trump to Billy McFarland, Anna Delvey, Elizabeth Holmes, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the line between a charismatic leader and a cult of personality is razor thin. Gary Vee, our “youth pastor of capitalism” has proven its effectiveness. Scam culture within the context of our yearning for modern religion is worthy of our mindfulness.
But only recently—with a pandemic, unemployment, and widespread WFH holding a mirror to this greedy, corporate faith, a catalyst for mass reflection—many have reconsidered this theology. In 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns withheld purpose from the masses—shutting down or preventing work—the vibe shift was underway.
As a truly endless spiritual pursuit, millions more are now stepping off the treadmill toward dream job nirvana. Did it ever really exist, though?
Arguably most influential of all, when the church is physically closed and our religious practice is reduced to a Zoom screen in an empty apartment without real socialization, we lose our religion.
When considering these obsessions—wellness splinter groups, crypto, Harry Potter, and work— perhaps we’re not any less religious than years before. Maybe we’re more religious. But why?
May 4, 2023
·
6 min read
The Collective Effervescence of Modern Religions: Crypto, Potter, and Workism
You don’t need a church to experience the religious ecstasy of strong shared belief
In this three-part series, we’ll explore why the decline of traditional religion doesn’t mean the end of spirituality.
__
Karl Marx claimed that “religion is the opium of the people,” but modern religions are really the amphetamines of the people.
For younger generations raised on remix culture, we see the stitching together of behaviors and content as new religions. And these religions also stitch us together.
As Tara Isabella Burton, author of Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, writes, “In his 1911 book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, [Émile] Durkheim argues that religion is basically the glue that keeps a society together: a set of rituals and beliefs that people affirm in order to strengthen their identity as a group. Religion is a ‘unified system of beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church all those who adhere to them.’
“This church, furthermore, is sustained not through a top-down hierarchy, or through some invisible spirit, but rather through the collective energy of its adherents, a process he calls ‘collective effervescence,’ a shared intoxication participants experience when they join together in a symbolically significant, socially cohesive action.”
From diets like all-meat and OMAD (one meal a day), to the slur-hurled cultish targets like Goop or CrossFit—the gospel of wellness grants opportunities for shared values, goals and rituals. We’re in it together. These are just one category of socially cohesive practices that embody Durkheim’s “collective effervescence.”
Religious collectiveness is a solve for cultural synchrony—cohesion and concurrence during a moment of social polarization and algorithmic segmentation.
Modern religions sync us.
Dogecoin Dogma
Meme stonks and crypto provide moral meaning (giving power to the people), devout purpose (going to the moon or taking down The Man), steady ritual (buying the dip or “gm”), and passionate community (servers to subreddits). There’s a prophet: Satoshi; and a sacred text: The White Paper. The very first block is even called The Genesis Block.
There is a profoundly deep, shared belief in something. A contagious energy. A shared spirit. There are morals and morale here: crypto as a path to salvation, the answer to all of humanity’s problems.
Bloomberg’s Lorcan Roche Kelly calls Bitcoin “the first true religion of the 21st century.”
Praying with Potter
Harry Potter is perhaps the most established modern religion we’ve got.
With a moral compass from shared sacred scripture, Potter has been offering a profound sense of belonging to the Wizarding World for a quarter century now. Potterheads take pilgrimages to Hogsmeade™ village at Universal Studios Orlando and congregate around their own interpretations of the new testament, fan fiction. The Hogwarts house system even provides specific denominations for deeper affiliations.
Endangering the ecosystem to pay their respects, fans have been recently urged to stop leaving socks at the fictional grave of Dobby at Freshwater West Beach in Wales.
And since the first book was published, traditional religious groups have either attacked or compared the magic of the series to their own beliefs.
Worshiping Workism
Recent “Great Resignation,” anti-work, and overemployed movements also check the boxes of modern religions.
Over the last two decades, as traditional religion declined and capitalism thrived, work stepped in as a seamless substitute. With Blackberries and boardrooms as altars, we prayed for promotions. We went as far as replacing “career” with calling and passion. WeWork’s rise (and fall) can be traced back to Adam Neumann’s religious aspirations.
Neumann literally became a Hollywood character larger than himself. This brings us to the religious leader. As Joe Rogan ironically points out, “There’s some weird thing about human beings where they gravitate towards a big leader…. There’s almost like a cheat code.”
From Musk and Trump to Billy McFarland, Anna Delvey, Elizabeth Holmes, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the line between a charismatic leader and a cult of personality is razor thin. Gary Vee, our “youth pastor of capitalism” has proven its effectiveness. Scam culture within the context of our yearning for modern religion is worthy of our mindfulness.
But only recently—with a pandemic, unemployment, and widespread WFH holding a mirror to this greedy, corporate faith, a catalyst for mass reflection—many have reconsidered this theology. In 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns withheld purpose from the masses—shutting down or preventing work—the vibe shift was underway.
As a truly endless spiritual pursuit, millions more are now stepping off the treadmill toward dream job nirvana. Did it ever really exist, though?
Arguably most influential of all, when the church is physically closed and our religious practice is reduced to a Zoom screen in an empty apartment without real socialization, we lose our religion.
When considering these obsessions—wellness splinter groups, crypto, Harry Potter, and work— perhaps we’re not any less religious than years before. Maybe we’re more religious. But why?
May 4, 2023
·
6 min read
The Collective Effervescence of Modern Religions: Crypto, Potter, and Workism
You don’t need a church to experience the religious ecstasy of strong shared belief
In this three-part series, we’ll explore why the decline of traditional religion doesn’t mean the end of spirituality.
__
Karl Marx claimed that “religion is the opium of the people,” but modern religions are really the amphetamines of the people.
For younger generations raised on remix culture, we see the stitching together of behaviors and content as new religions. And these religions also stitch us together.
As Tara Isabella Burton, author of Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, writes, “In his 1911 book The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, [Émile] Durkheim argues that religion is basically the glue that keeps a society together: a set of rituals and beliefs that people affirm in order to strengthen their identity as a group. Religion is a ‘unified system of beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church all those who adhere to them.’
“This church, furthermore, is sustained not through a top-down hierarchy, or through some invisible spirit, but rather through the collective energy of its adherents, a process he calls ‘collective effervescence,’ a shared intoxication participants experience when they join together in a symbolically significant, socially cohesive action.”
From diets like all-meat and OMAD (one meal a day), to the slur-hurled cultish targets like Goop or CrossFit—the gospel of wellness grants opportunities for shared values, goals and rituals. We’re in it together. These are just one category of socially cohesive practices that embody Durkheim’s “collective effervescence.”
Religious collectiveness is a solve for cultural synchrony—cohesion and concurrence during a moment of social polarization and algorithmic segmentation.
Modern religions sync us.
Dogecoin Dogma
Meme stonks and crypto provide moral meaning (giving power to the people), devout purpose (going to the moon or taking down The Man), steady ritual (buying the dip or “gm”), and passionate community (servers to subreddits). There’s a prophet: Satoshi; and a sacred text: The White Paper. The very first block is even called The Genesis Block.
There is a profoundly deep, shared belief in something. A contagious energy. A shared spirit. There are morals and morale here: crypto as a path to salvation, the answer to all of humanity’s problems.
Bloomberg’s Lorcan Roche Kelly calls Bitcoin “the first true religion of the 21st century.”
Praying with Potter
Harry Potter is perhaps the most established modern religion we’ve got.
With a moral compass from shared sacred scripture, Potter has been offering a profound sense of belonging to the Wizarding World for a quarter century now. Potterheads take pilgrimages to Hogsmeade™ village at Universal Studios Orlando and congregate around their own interpretations of the new testament, fan fiction. The Hogwarts house system even provides specific denominations for deeper affiliations.
Endangering the ecosystem to pay their respects, fans have been recently urged to stop leaving socks at the fictional grave of Dobby at Freshwater West Beach in Wales.
And since the first book was published, traditional religious groups have either attacked or compared the magic of the series to their own beliefs.
Worshiping Workism
Recent “Great Resignation,” anti-work, and overemployed movements also check the boxes of modern religions.
Over the last two decades, as traditional religion declined and capitalism thrived, work stepped in as a seamless substitute. With Blackberries and boardrooms as altars, we prayed for promotions. We went as far as replacing “career” with calling and passion. WeWork’s rise (and fall) can be traced back to Adam Neumann’s religious aspirations.
Neumann literally became a Hollywood character larger than himself. This brings us to the religious leader. As Joe Rogan ironically points out, “There’s some weird thing about human beings where they gravitate towards a big leader…. There’s almost like a cheat code.”
From Musk and Trump to Billy McFarland, Anna Delvey, Elizabeth Holmes, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the line between a charismatic leader and a cult of personality is razor thin. Gary Vee, our “youth pastor of capitalism” has proven its effectiveness. Scam culture within the context of our yearning for modern religion is worthy of our mindfulness.
But only recently—with a pandemic, unemployment, and widespread WFH holding a mirror to this greedy, corporate faith, a catalyst for mass reflection—many have reconsidered this theology. In 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns withheld purpose from the masses—shutting down or preventing work—the vibe shift was underway.
As a truly endless spiritual pursuit, millions more are now stepping off the treadmill toward dream job nirvana. Did it ever really exist, though?
Arguably most influential of all, when the church is physically closed and our religious practice is reduced to a Zoom screen in an empty apartment without real socialization, we lose our religion.
When considering these obsessions—wellness splinter groups, crypto, Harry Potter, and work— perhaps we’re not any less religious than years before. Maybe we’re more religious. But why?
May 4, 2023
·
6 min read
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you never miss a story.
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Lens features creator stories that inspire, inform, and entertain.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter so you never miss a story.
