Religions of the Chaos Lords
Pamela L. Bunker and Dr. Robert J. Bunker at SWJ Blog
The Spiritual Significance of ¿Plata O Plomo?
Conventional wisdom holds that narco gang and drug cartel violence in Mexico is primarily secular in nature. This viewpoint has been recently challenged by the activities of the La Familia cartel and some Los Zetas, Gulfo, and other cartel adherents of the cult of Santa Muerte (Saint Death) by means of religious tenets of ‘divine justice’ and instances of tortured victims and ritual human sacrifice offered up to a dark deity, respectively. Severed heads thrown onto a disco floor in Michoacan in 2005 and burnt skull imprints in a clearing in a ranch in the Yucatán Peninsula in 2008 only serve to highlight the number of such incidents which have now taken place. Whereas the infamous ‘black cauldron’ incident in Matamoros in 1989, where American college student Mark Kilroy’s brain was found in a ritual nganga belonging to a local narco gang, was the rare exception, such spiritual-like activities have now become far more frequent.
These activities only serve to further elaborate concerns amongst scholars, including Sullivan, Elkus, Brands, Manwaring, and the authors, over societal warfare breaking out across the Americas. This warfare- manifesting itself in ‘criminal insurgencies’ derived from groups of gang, cartel, and mercenary networks- promotes new forms of state organization drawn from criminally based social and political norms and behaviors. These include a value system derived from illicit narcotics use, killing for sport and pleasure, human trafficking and slavery, dysfunctional perspectives on women and family life, and a habitual orientation to violence and total disregard for modern civil society and democratic freedoms. This harkens back to Peter’s thoughts concerning the emergence of a ‘new warrior class’ and, before that, van Creveld’s ‘non-trinitarian warfare’ projections.
Cultural evolution in action, accelerated by extreme violence.
May 29th, 2010 at 5:40 am
So not only are there powerful drug cartels conducting cartel activities (basically a war for the supply chains to move narcotics through Mexico), but there appears to be a spiritual manifestation of these activities that has a growing following. The biggest danger would come if one of cartels eventually wins and starts supporting Aztlan nationalism in the SW USA. They have funding, a spiritual symbol, and aren’t afraid to kill at will. The US may be looking at a narco-fascist death-cult state to its south in 20 years or so? Which is much more exciting to the average 18 year old Mexican than picking strawberries is.
May 29th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
The National Geographic recently set aside it’s usual focus on global warming to publish this indepth article of the rise of the cult of Santa Muerte.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/05/mexico-saints/guillermoprieto-text/2
May 29th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
I don’t think our national security apparatchiks are mentally prepared for this type of challenge.
May 29th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Lex Green,
I’ll take it one step further. I’d be on the lookout for something even more insidious. Right now the transnational elite in America are scanning the environment and they don’t like what they see. Their projects overseas are producing negative return on investment, and now flyover country(Middle America) is getting uppity. Geopolitically, they (the transnational elite) like having friends in Mexico to help contain Middle America. If a/the cartel[s] win in Mexico, I expect that the transnationals may see them as a better ally than Middle America? They both need Middle America for its material, human, spiritual resources. Don’t be surprised if the Death Cult/Cartel, merges with the transnational elite/diversity alliance to form a super multi death cult.
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I see three big forces in North America. 1) The transnational elite(TNE)/multicult alliance 2) Middle America 3) Cartel Mexico
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If the transnational elites’ in Mexico lose, then I expect the American TNEs to form an alliance with Cartel Death Cult Mexico to contain Middle America. Their spiritual promotional plan will be the Multi-Death Cult.
May 30th, 2010 at 5:01 am
[…] at Zenpundit.com […]
May 30th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
As William Lind wrote a while back, "Very few peasants are agnostics." The cultures that cartels like La Familia thrive in are ones where the secularism of the Mexican state does not make sense. "Divine Justice" most likely rings a lot more true in the ears of a poor and neglected rural populace than any state-led initiative. The challenge for the cartels will be to maintain the local perception that their violence is "just" and not random.As long as groups like La Familia, Hezbollah, etc. continue to provide services to communities that have been ignored by the state they will build relationships with the people that will make any effort to separate the fish from the water bloody complicated. "This model – an illegal but widely profitable local economy + social services +religion – will, I think, spread widely. To succeed, it needs a weak state, one thattakes from the local population but provides little or nothing in return. That kind ofstate is already common in much of the world and will become more so." – William Lind
May 31st, 2010 at 2:39 am
I agree, this is a viral social template. Think Boxer Rebellion, Ghost Dancers, Mau-Mau, Mystery cults of Rome, the Kharijites etc. Chaotic and violent social conditions help these memes spread.