Casting Spells: The Enduring Allure of Leftist Mysticism

“In the case of leftist mysticism, the greatest obstacle to this transformation appears to be human nature, which, in part, explains the bloody reality of socialism and communism.”

As a former radical, I know a thing or two about the allure of leftist mysticism and how those under its spell tend to perceive reality: as an affront to their vision of a world without constraints. This perception connects many seemingly unrelated ideas and beliefs of the radical Left, from revolutionary communism to the postmodern denial of biological sex.

These ideas and beliefs require a special, incantatory rhetoric designed to not only conceal but also bend reality. Non-believers are either diagnosed as suffering from “false consciousness” (as the bourgeois conception of reality is often referred to); condemned as reactionary (which is to say, as being on the wrong side of history); or accused of being in league with the devil (the far-right). Exorcisms, witch hunts, and heresy trials—better known today as cancel culture—are a logical consequence of this mindset.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines mysticism as “a constellation of distinctive practices, discourses, texts, institutions, traditions, and experiences aimed at human transformation.” In the case of leftist mysticism, the greatest obstacle to this transformation appears to be human nature, which, in part, explains the bloody reality of socialism and communism. As the myrmecologist (myrmecology: the scientific study of ants) E. O. Wilson put it, “Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species.”