"Gnosticism's systematic misrepresentation of reality is not merely a theoretical fallacy."

Source: Sandoz's book, below.

"Gnosticism's systematic misrepresentation of reality is not merely a theoretical fallacy; it also carries a self-defeating factor by forcing thought and action along perversely mistaken lines with disastrous consequences for rational politics and policy."

Gnosticism replaces truth with a counterexistential dream world(NSP, 164-67).

"Dream and reality are identified as a matter of principle, and anyone who challenges official truth in the name of reason and truth meets vituperation or worse. Rational debate is impossible. Practical dangers are not met with appropriate measures rationally calculated to resolve them.

"So, how does Gnosticism deal with these practical dangers?"

Page 114

They will .. be met by magic operations in the dream world, such as disapproval, moral condemnation, declarations of intention, resolutions, appeals to the opinion of mankind, branding of enemies as aggressors, outlawing of war, propaganda for world peace and world government, etc. The intellectual and moral corruption which expresses itself in the aggregate of such magic operations may pervade a society with the weird, ghostly atmosphere of a lunatic asylum, as we experience it in our time in the Western crisis. (NSP, 170)

NOTE: I believe Eric Voegelin wrote this passage in 1952, during the Korean War. Think about it. How does it sound to you today, in 2007?