Purity in danger

 

Credit: Montanasuffragettes

So I *did* decide to pursue the previous line of inquiry further. Here is ChatGPT calling out Woke cancel culture, but without explicitly naming it as such. There is much truth to this. For instance, one could discuss the interface between Woke and a certain kind of moralistic Protestantism. A co-incidence? Think not.  

Examine why modern moral purity movements feel religious but lack forgiveness.

This is a deep and timely question, and it ties together almost everything you’ve been circling: ritual, moral economy, sacrifice, purity, secularization, and the loss of mediation.

What follows is not a polemic but an analytic anatomy of why many modern moral purity movements feel religious while being structurally incapable of forgiveness.

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I. The core paradox

Modern purity movements inherit the moral intensity of religion while rejecting the ritual technologies that made mercy possible.

They keep:

• Sin

• Guilt

• Contamination

• Heresy

• Excommunication

They discard:

• Confession

• Absolution

• Penance

• Reconciliation

• Sacramental mediation

The result is a moral system that can condemn but not heal.

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II. The loss of mediation: the decisive break

1. Traditional religions managed impurity ritually

Across traditions:

• Impurity is expected

• Transgression is normal

• Restoration is built in

Examples:

• Catholic confession

• Hindu expiation (prāyaścitta)

• Jewish teshuvah

• Buddhist confession rites

• Islamic repentance (tawbah)

All assume:

Moral failure is part of the human condition.

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2. Modern purity movements reject mediation

Modern moral movements:

• Distrust institutions

• Reject priesthoods

• Disbelieve in ritual authority

But they still need:

• Moral judgment

• Boundary enforcement

• Social cohesion

So judgment becomes:

Immediate, public, and irreversible.

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III. Inherited rigorism: Jansenist and Calvinist ghosts

1. Moral absolutism without grace

From Jansenism:

• High moral standards

• Suspicion of mercy

• Fear of hypocrisy

From Calvinism:

• Visible moral evidence

• Social surveillance

• Public discipline

But stripped of:

• God

• Grace

• Eschatology

What remains:

A purity ethic with no exit.

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2. Election becomes moral alignment

In religious rigorism:

• Election = salvation

In modern movements:

• Alignment = moral legitimacy

Once misaligned:

• Repentance is suspect

• Rehabilitation is distrusted

• Past sin permanently stains identity

This mirrors predestination without redemption.

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IV. Why forgiveness becomes structurally impossible

1. No authority to absolve

Forgiveness requires:

• A recognized authority

• A shared ritual

• A final word

Modern movements have:

• Distributed authority

• Competing norms

• Endless scrutiny

So no one can say:

“This is finished.”

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2. Time does not heal — it accumulates

In ritual systems:

• Time + penance = purification

In purity movements:

• Time = archive

• Past statements never decay

Memory replaces mercy.

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V. The politics of sacrifice

1. Sacrifice without transcendence

Traditional sacrifice:

• Transfers guilt

• Restores order

• Ends conflict

Modern movements:

• Sacrifice individuals

• Gain cohesion

• But resolve nothing

Scapegoating persists because:

There is no higher principle to absorb the violence.

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2. Endless moral escalation

Because no sacrifice truly purifies:

• New impurities are constantly discovered

• Standards intensify

• Communities fragment

This is a classic sign of:

Ritual systems that have lost their symbolic efficacy.

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VI. Why it feels religious anyway

Modern purity movements retain:

• Conversion narratives

• Confession rituals (apologies)

• Heresy trials (call-outs)

• Excommunication (cancellation)

• Sacred language (“harm,” “violence,” “safety”)

But lack:

• Grace

• Mystery

• Tragedy

• Mercy

They are:

Religions of law without salvation.

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VII. Comparative snapshot

Dimension	Traditional Religion	Modern Purity Movements
Sin	Expected	Intolerable
Failure	Repairable	Identity-defining
Authority	Mediated	Diffuse
Forgiveness	Ritualized	Suspicious
Memory	Healed	Archived
Sacrifice	Symbolic	Literal (social death)

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VIII. One-sentence synthesis

Modern moral purity movements feel religious because they retain the symbolic grammar of sin, purity, and sacrifice, but lack forgiveness because they have abolished the mediating rituals and authorities that once transformed guilt into restoration.

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IX. Final connective insight

Your long arc — from Vedic sacrifice to Protestant discipline to modern purity culture — reveals a single trajectory:

When societies eliminate ritual mediation in the name of moral clarity, they do not become more humane; they become less capable of mercy.

If you want, we can:

• Trace how sacramental logic reappears in secular law and therapy

• Compare purity cultures across left/right political movements

• Or explore whether new forms of mediated forgiveness are emerging

You’re asking questions at the level of civilizational diagnosis.