Caustic Ramblings

Fair enough on the value judgments! I would maybe have leaned toward highlighting your explicit goal there as something like "look, you've heard enough about why 20th century alt-spirituality was so awesome, but wasn't so great about it? Here's a list: [list]" and then "Well, if we can't have that, does it mean going back to old-fashioned Christianity? I sure hope not, I'd rather see something like this: [list]". Mostly that's just for rhetorical effect (you don't lose anyone who already agrees with you, and you seem more transparent and even-handed to anyone on the fence, and either way is already going to piss off folks that don't agree with you), and you might not be too worried about persuasive/rhetorical shenanigans (I just teach this stuff - for example, I just had to grit my teeth and help some students improve their persuasive presentation on why folks' problems with TikTok are misplaced).

And yes, that's a good point about localizing and re-settling. As I believe we have talked about before, the particular blend of Magian-Faustian religion seems optimized for being as universal and un-local as possible, and that's made a heck of an impact on the last few centuries of settlement and culture here, so it's no surprise that it would take a heck of a long time for anything different to take hold.

Lastly, hear, hear to the hope for something better than disenchantment or cheap romanticism!