We Are The Demons We've Been Waiting For

I'm re-reading (re-listening) GK Chesterton's The Everlasting Man right now. It's his masterful takedown of comparative religion studies. There's a tiny portion that brought to mind Miley Cyrus at the recent MTV VMA awards where she did the over-the-top slut routine.

No, really!

GK points out that when we (in our pagan era) talked of dryads and went into the forest to seek them, we did so in the hope of finding them. It was a bit of a lark and a cheerful one at that. When we wanted to make deals with demons, it was a very different thing altogether. It was a much more businesslike proposition, sort of like hiring an attorney. You provided something, expecting performance in return. You explicitly and knowingly did evil in order to get something back from the demon(s). Some child sacrifices in return for victory in battle, perhaps.

Enter Miley Cyrus.

Her performance at the VMA awards was knowingly evil. Repugnant and distasteful and hideous, if you prefer. I'd suggest it was evil. She performed it in front of a crowd she wanted to propitiate and hoped for rewards from them in return.

That it failed to bring her great rewards from them was not because it was evil, but because it wasn't the right kind of evil. It wasn't tasteful evil. Had she styled it differently they would indeed have showered her with praise and acceptance into their ranks.