I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and come from a cultural background where belief in some sort of god and religion is a part of nearly everyone's life. It doesn't even occur to most people that belief in god or religion is optional; they simply perpetuate and parrot whatever ideology they were raised with, even very clever individuals that I know who are doctors, scientists, etc. Religion and culture overlap greatly and people seem unable or unwilling to question things or don't see the point in upsetting the status quo.
Anyway my intense love for science, logic and understanding how things worked meant it was only a matter of time before my doubts about The Truth became too numerous and I had to admit it was a load of shite. I looked at other mainstream religions and saw the same characteristics and realised they were shite too. Eventually I had to admit I was an atheist.
However, I have retained a grim fascination for understanding religious beliefs, how religions and ideologies evolve, why do people believe in things that are demonstrably untrue or have no real evidence, how belief systems attract new followers and perpetuate itself etc.
I would have liked to maybe pursue this lifelong interest as some sort of academic research, but I don't think I am cut out to be a detached researcher in this topic. It generates a very visceral response in me of hate, disgust, anger and sadness due to my experiences with the Jehovah's Witnesses and my personal journey as a religious apostate.
Nevertheless I still ponder on these topics as an amateur. I find human behaviour frustratingly illogical but predominantly predictable and I have noticed certain common threads that run through ideologies and beliefs over time.
While I am just as fallible as anyone else and not immune to succumbing to any kind of ideology, I find my background as an apostate helps me stay a bit alert, a bit sensitive to certain words or phrases, a bit wary when I get a 'whiff of bullshit', feel my skin crawl or my spidey-sense starts tingling especially when everyone around me seems to be going along with something.
I plan on buying Eileen Barker's book on New Religious Movements to learn more, but in the meantime I can't help but view the current phenomenon around Gender Identity ideology as the birth and formation of a New Religious Movement.
Religious and faith movements have come and gone for millennia. Humans seem predisposed to grasping for order and sense in a chaotic world and find different routes for this purpose. It does appear, though, that the more chaotic and unstable the world, the more likely people are to turn to magical thinking and superstitious beliefs as a way of protecting themselves or distracting themselves from the reality they live in.
People who are happy, healthy and feel a sense of purpose and connection with their communities feel less inclined to jump onto bandwagons and movements.
While global standards of living have increased overall, the past 10 years or so has seen wealth inequalities increase in Western economies. The self-destructive political ideology of austerity and neoliberalism has meant that investment in public services has declined drastically as well as economic productivity. Extracting short term gain for the wealthy at the expense of our collective long-term future is the goal. Compared to previous generations, people are earning less, in less secure jobs with paltry pensions, unable to climb the housing ladder due to extremely inflated property prices and lack of social housing and so on.
While membership of organised religions are falling, people's desire for grasping onto beliefs in a chaotic world haven't decreased. The rise of 'woo' is a testament to this. As funding for physical and mental health provision has fallen, the rise in energy healing, crystal healing, the bizarre devotion for 'eastern philosophies' and so on is becoming popular to cater to people's physical aches and pains and mental health issues. Food fads and various ways to remove 'toxic' things internally and externally keep appearing. We have the looming threat of climate change on our doorstep, so it's easier for people to block it out and focus on selfies, cosmetic surgeries, fashions in the quest to unearth and celebrate 'who you really are'. Much easier to focus on the individual and the superficial because it's actually pretty difficult to face deep seated, collective problems.
Gender Identity ideology appears to me to be a way of blocking out collective problems and focusing on pointless individualistic issues that ultimately have no bearing on ourselves and our species. Pronoun 'crimes' are more devastating and infuriating than a lack of decent and affordable housing, for example.
Gender Identity ideology is fascinating because it is similar to many other types of NRMs but also has some differences due to rise in internet technology.
NRMs tend to appeal predominantly to relatively well educated and middle class young people. They are not burdened by the responsibilities of looking after young or old family members, so have the time to invest in these activities. Women seem especially susceptible to NRMs.
These ideologies don't necessarily have to have a religious or spiritual element. They can arise from all sorts of political, social and philosophical movements. The underlying structure is the same. People looking for meaning, purpose, community and unconditional acceptance (except these forms of acceptance are rarely unconditional).
Conventional NRMs have followers congregate in physical spaces, maybe a retreat or ashram, but due to the internet, you can now have online and networked social spaces as an easy substitute. A lot of young people spend considerable time online and Gender Identity ideology is known to have crystallised and evolved in spaces like Tumblr. They are least likely to read traditional news sources and instead rely on alternative media for their news and facts. Online algorithms tend to show you only things you are interested in and the ability to block and ban material you disagree with means you have generated a very effective bubble of groupthink without having to live in a spiritual retreat for months or years.
Gender Identity ideology is a fairly decentralised movement i.e. there is no single figurehead leading it, but there are several key players. Powerful organisations like Stonewall lobby and influence society outside of the movement by promoting materials with their doctrines. Self-styled gurus are popular amongst the adherents on YouTube and Instagram - these non-binary and trans superstars showing believers how amazing their lives are and your life could be awesome like theirs too.
This is a movement in its infancy so we are currently seeing the expansion / proselytising phase. They need sufficient first generation converts if they are to carry on as a movement. All NRMs have this aggressive proselytising phase as far as I'm aware. This is because although they quickly gain followers and admirers, NRMs by their nature have very high turnovers. Very few followers become hardcore, long-term believers. Most followers remain loosely associated on the fringes and many lose interest after a few years. The novelty of the doctrines wear off and they find other movements that catch their attention or find the pressures of life don't leave them with time for such indulgences, or they feel disillusionment with the community and acceptance they were promised.
It will be interesting to see if this NRM manages to evolve into the more longer-term and stable phase. The subsequent generations born into this ideology due to their parents being adherents, will be more likely to question and rebel.
What happens when a teenager raised to have unquestioning faith in gender identity challenges their parents upon learning about the immutability of biological sex or the lack of evidence of a gendered soul. Will they be kicked out of home for disagreeing and rebelling? I think so.
Interested to hear what others think about this.