Vodou Culture 201: Resistance to Change

Change is frequently demonized in US majority culture, whether in reaction to the racial mix in an area changing or a nebulous threat of culture war cited by cable news programs. According to them, we’re constantly under threat. Our way of life is ending, the world is going to end. A drip feed of poison, of fear and hatred and disaster and threat. Change has its cost, but the degree to which the majority culture fears it is extraordinary.

This draws directly from Abrahamic religions: their good versus evil plot arc, and the idea of a religious apocalypse. For thousands of years, Abrahamic religions have been telling people that good is constantly being attacked by evil, and at some point (criteria varies) there will be a ‘final battle’ or ‘final judgement’, precipitated by a period of catastrophe. No one knows when that catastrophe will start, and anything which happens might be the kick off, so it is ‘best’ to live in a constant state of fear which occasionally flares.

It’s how they keep asses in pews or kneeling on carpets. The news is only borrowing Abrahamic religions’ notes. And those are merely borrowing from other, older sources. Rule by fear is an ancient, ubiquitous form of governance.

In vodou cultures, drawing from nature, change is inevitable. There is nothing you can do to stop change. You can merely choose some part of your response. The more developed you are, the better you understand yourself and the situation, the more you can choose. No apocalypse is coming to finally decide what is good and what is evil. Both categories are irrelevant. The relevant part is your ability to respond to that change, and particularly your ability to respond to change without being destructive, self-harming, or unbalanced. The change itself, no matter how it affects you, is neutral. It exists, you cannot stop it, and trying to assign a moral value to it will result in destructive, self-harming, or unbalanced behavior.

For vodou, resistance to change has another dimension, as well: you can recognize the degree to which someone is matured or developed by the degree to which they resist change. Be wary of people who demonstrate fear and resistance to change, people trying to defend their little kingdoms not against the effect of change but against anything changing, no matter their title.

Many scapegoats have been hung from those walls.