Question: Where would you find BLM between the Dalai Lama and Eckhart Tolle?
Answer: in the Watkins Mind Body Spirit magazine’s list of “The 100 most spiritually influential living people in 2021”.
There are three criteria taken into account when compiling this list:
1. The person has to be alive as of January 1sst 2021
2. The person has to have made a unique and spiritual contribution on a global scale
3. The person is frequently googled; appears in Nielsen Data; has a Wikipedia page; and is actively talked about throughout the Internet.
Top of the list, as THE most spiritually influential living person in 2021 is Pope Francis.
Sitting at number 2 in the chart is the Dalai Lama.
And at number 3, just above Eckhart Tolle and Desmond Tutu is ….. Black Lives Matter.
I had to read that twice. Black Lives Matter is a movement, not an individual. The front page of the BLM official website invites you to “Join the Movement to fight for Freedom, Liberation and Justice”.
As one of the criteria for selection is having a Wikipedia page, I checked that too – this is how it starts:
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people.[2][3][4][5][6] While there are specific organizations like the Black Lives Matter Global Network that label themselves simply as “Black Lives Matter”, the Black Lives Matter movement comprises a broad array of people and organizations. The slogan “Black Lives Matter” itself remains untrademarked by any group.[7] The broader movement and its related organizations typically advocate against police violence towards black people as well as for various other policy changes considered to be related to black liberation.[8]
I don’t see the word “spiritual” in there anywhere.
I’m not sure if Watkins MBS is trying to be politically correct here, or if it is purely AI algorithms giving us a taste of a techno-ruled future, but I have to say I find this very strange indeed. Perhaps they are working on the premise of “all publicity is good publicity” – but is it, really?
