Hoaxer visionaries of the global

Abstract

The hoaxer is not adequately conceived in discourses on postcolonialism and globalization, despite questions of identity being central to both. Ethnic hoaxes and deceptions thrive in a world of increased migrancy in proportion to the commodification of stereotypes. The global success of the guru is in part a symptom of a persistent Orientalism (though the critique of Orientalism needs updating in a world of increased migrancy), which arguably the guru now exploits for his own benefit partly in revenge on the violence of representation. In a counter‐attack, the guru is perceived as a hoaxer in many representations made by the industries of entertainment and scepticism. The possibility that a guru might be a threat to Western rationalism or even a threatening kind of “national intellectual” (in Fanon's sense) is part of an implicit agenda in these attacks. The attacks, however, do not succeed in their goal of subversion, since they do not recognize the attraction for something that they themselves promote, which we call the ‘global imaginary’. Furthermore, sceptics in particular miss how the guru can always fall back on presenting the world as illusory in order to disarm attacks that focus on their trickery.