Speaking my mind

In a fundamental philosophical and ethical sense, shamanism is radically at odds with Western identity politics. Those who are heavily imbued with a philosophy of identity politics will rarely understand shamanistic ideas. That's because the parts of the mind that could be engaged with shamanistic concepts and experiences are already occupied with alternative concepts from a very different paradigm.

A way to understand how shamanism differs from identity politics is in terms of its philosophy of redemption. To be redeemed is to be freed from various vices that afflict us and drag us down.

THE IDEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF IDENTITY POLITICS

The term, "vice", has an entirely different resonance in terms of identity politics as compared to shamanism. In general, identity politics borrows much from Platonism to drive its system of redemption. As such, it invokes an equivalence between moral goodness and an ascetic's embrace of difficult truths:

That which constrains idealists of knowledge, this unconditional will to truth, is faith in the ascetic ideal itself even if as an unconscious imperative — don’t be deceived about that — it is faith in a metaphysical value, the absolute value of truth, sanctioned and guaranteed by this ideal alone (it stands or falls with this ideal). F Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, III, 25

As Nietzsche points out in the above passage, there are those who hold that truth has an absolute value. It is considered to be an indispensable means for moral redemption. To embrace the truth is, in essence, to be redeemed, according to the formulation. The reason why such redemption is guaranteed should be obvious. Implicitly, a monotheistic deity is invoked. This deity stands behind reality acting as guarantor that if one only embraces "the truth", one will also improve morally and thus acquire redemption as one of those who embraces "the Good".

Thus, identity politics is based on a Platonic formulation that implicitly promises redemption in the form of higher moral standing for those who choose an ascetic's path by embracing difficult truths.

The particular difficult "truth" that Westerners urge other Westerners to embrace, as they move along the ascetic's path, is the link between whiteness and oppression. There are various levels of sophistication or amateur reasoning with regard to this link. In some cases, one's whiteness is implicated in oppression by means of an argument that raises some genuine historical facts. In other instances, the equation made is much more essentialistic, so that fashionable modes of speech come into play far more than intellectual analysis. Identity politics thus takes the form whereby one is always guaranteed to win any rhetorical battle -- either by posing as "holier than thou" or by demanding that others recognise their status as "oppressors". Once one has learned to play this game, no matter what else one may do in life, one's morally superior status will hardly be in doubt.

The path to redemption -- through admitting one's guilt or "sin" -- is hereby made into a path to power. Submit oneself to the truth by admitting one's guilt and thou shalt gain moral and social justification. The ascetic's goal is to gain recognition of his or her righteousness within the larger body politic: his, or her society. The very fact that this goal is within reach indicates the relatively elevated, at least middle class status, of those who advocate for a system of morality based on identity.


THE PRACTISE OF SHAMANISM

Shamanism is a spiritual and self-defensive technique of those who have been denied recourse to moral means of self elevation. Alternatively, it is practiced by those who find a moral approach to self elevation to be deceptive and worthy of denouncing.

In the first category are those who have learned to escape the draconian pressures of society by accessing the deeper recesses of their minds. They escape into "other worlds", discover artistic means of distraction or they "shape shift" to become something other than they are in the ever watchful eyes of the oppressors. They are the spiritual and artistic innovators of the world -- hard diamonds, out of the force of devastating pressures.

The philosophical innovators who adopt a shamanistic line and manner are a different group. Bataille and Nietzsche are two who see the futility of the ascetic ideal as a means to self-redemption. Primarily, one seeks to redeems not others, but oneself, via the ascetic means: the self-flagellation of those Westerners who opposed the colonial regime of Rhodesia stops short from the wearing of a hair shirt to protest Robert Mugabe's actions in Matabeleland (known by those on the ground as Gukurahundi) -- and, in any case, the violence continues, even when it is not perpetuated by "whites".

The identity of the perpetrators of world violence continues to shift, thus history relativises the moral positions of those who would rely too heavily upon essentialising identity in order to effect their own redemption (and, perhaps although not inevitably, that of a few select others).

Meanwhile, is is the shaman alone who has enough insight to proclaim, "I am not my historical identity, but something more than that! And, IF I am not yet something more than that, it is the desire of my entire spirit to become more than my historical position has made me out to be!"

Thus, those who are severely oppressed and those who are philosophical spirits join hands to affirm the necessity for every human being to find redemption in mastering the historical time rather than being mastered by it.

To accept that one is made by history and to pay recompense for that is one thing: to blast beyond the limitations of identity and those of the ascetic ideal, is entirely another.