Counter-Currents
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise

LEVEL2

Donate Now Mailing list
  • Webzine
  • About
  • Books
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Donate
  • Paywall
  • Crypto
  • RSS
    • Main feed
    • Podcast feed
    • Videos feed
    • Comments feed
  • Advertise
  • Recent posts

    • Football’s Race War

      Pox Populi

      5

    • VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      Peter Brimelow

      4

    • Collin Cleary Interviewed on Richard Wagner

      Collin Cleary

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 534 Interview with Alexander Adams

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Union Jackal, May 2023

      Mark Gullick

      17

    • Biden and Bibi

      James J. O'Meara

      11

    • Forward with a Vengeance

      Tom Zaja

      1

    • Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Jim Goad

      24

    • The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thomas Steuben

      4

    • Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      8

    • Remembering Louis-Ferdinand Céline (May 27, 1894–July 1, 1961)

      Greg Johnson

      12

    • Blood, Soil, Paint

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Céline’s Guerre

      Margot Metroland

      7

    • The Trial of Socrates

      Greg Johnson

    • Fields of Asphodel

      Tito Perdue

    • George Floyd and the “Color” of Revolution

      Stephen Paul Foster

      11

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • No, Really, Everything’s Fine!

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      18

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      25

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

      Beau Albrecht

      35

    • No Brexit This Way

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Martinez Contra Fascism

      Thomas Steuben

      24

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 2: „Věčný nacista“

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • A 5D Plan in 3D: Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder

      James J. O'Meara

      16

    • After Waco

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Munchhausen: The Third Reich’s Wizard of Oz

      Steven Clark

      13

    • Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha Capítulo 1: Política y Metapolítica

      Greg Johnson

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 14-20, 2023

      Jim Goad

      14

    • The (So-Called) New York “Thought Criminals” & the “Intellectual Dark Web”

      Alex Graham

      9

    • Documenting the Decline

      Spencer J. Quinn

      7

    • Remembering Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-February 13, 1883)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      2

    • The Psychology of the Politically Correct

      Richard Knight

      65

    • Springtime in Tallinn

      Veiko Hessler

      13

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 2: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      11

    • Remembering Julius Evola (May 19, 1898–June 11, 1974)

      Greg Johnson

      5

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      22

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 2

      D. H. Corax

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 1: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      1

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 1

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 1

      D. H. Corax

      48

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

      2

    • Be On the Lookout

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      4

    • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Librarians are Bad for Children

      Stephen Paul Foster

      24

  • Classics Corner

    • Cù Chulainn in the GPO:
      The Mythic Imagination of Patrick Pearse

      Michael O'Meara

      5

    • Remembering Dominique Venner
      (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • A Robertson Roundup: 
      Remembering Wilmot Robertson
      (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

      Margot Metroland

      13

    • Metapolitics and Occult Warfare

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Maurice Bardèche:
      October 1, 1907–July 30, 1998

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • The Power of Myth:
      Remembering Joseph Campbell
      (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987)

      John Morgan

      11

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Politicizing Luz Long, Part I

      Clarissa Schnabel

      2

    • Breaking Beat: Reflections on The Rebel Set, a Masterpiece That Never Was

      James J. O'Meara

      1

    • If Hillary Had Won

      Stephen Paul Foster

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 3

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      7

    • Nice Racism, Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      5

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part II

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part I

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 530 The Genealogy of Wokeism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Patrick Bateman: “Literally Me” or a Warning?

      Anthony Bavaria

      9

    • British Sculpture, Part II

      Jonathan Bowden

      1

    • British Sculpture, Part I

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • The New Story

      Jocelynn Cordes

      21

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      11

    • Robert Rutherford McCormick, Midwestern Man of the Right: Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Prophet of Eugenics and Race-Realism

      Margot Metroland

      11

    • In Defense of the White Union

      Asier Abadroa

    • Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Oscar Winner the System Loves

      Steven Clark

      32

    • Incels on Wheels: Jim Goad’s Trucker Fags in Denial

      Beau Albrecht

      17

    • The White Pill

      Margot Metroland

      10

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 528 Karl Thorburn on the Bank Crashes

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Women Philosophers

      Richard Knight

      23

    • Stranger Things and Surviving in the Modern World

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

      2

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

  • Recent comments

    • Antipodean

      An Interview with Teša Tešanović

      I can envisage a few reasons to be in China, earning decent money being the major one, or making...

    • John

      Football’s Race War

      -“These people are like children.”  That’s not our problem. -“…[A]nd if they were treated as they...

    • Bigfoot

      Football’s Race War

      I don't think a boycott would be too much to ask for. If people can do it to Bud lite and Target,...

    • Bigfoot

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      Now that some law schools are dropping the LSAT for admittance and some states are considering...

    • Amerikaner

      Football’s Race War

      I don’t know much about football, but it is huge in Europe to where it dwarfs American sports...

    • Henri

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      "They whine about discrimination. Do you know who is being discriminated against? The white...

    • ncleapyear

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      We need to get ourselves far, far away from the Chosen Ones and their sub-Saharan bioweapons.  Tall...

    • Domitian

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      "Good faith effort to comply" - the older generation still has idyllic memories of a system where...

    • John

      Football’s Race War

      “At this point, it is essential that every white/European person realize”. Europeans are White,...

    • Antipodean

      Football’s Race War

      Great summary of the problem but what are we to do about it?  These people are like children. They...

    • Nicolas Bourbaki

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      That's horrible. Speaking of movies I now can understand how "Transylvania" has been used to...

    • Sambo

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Oh, I totally agree, I wasn't trying to dismiss him. I'm a casual fan of his. It's just so dang...

    • Jim Goad

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Oh, I get it. But I also fear that we can purity-spiral ourselves to death. Even if there’s a Nazi-...

    • John

      Collin Cleary Interviewed on Richard Wagner

      “People who will not fight eventually will be eaten by people who will fight. A community whose...

    • Enoch Powell

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      This country has become nothing more than a corporation whose prime purpose is to ensure the...

    • Sambo

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      I like Irvine Welsh, but he's always had that "please don't call me a racist" defensiveness about...

    • WayDown

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      The two cases you cited took place a few years ago when there was more sanity. I'm not sure the...

    • Sandy

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      O cheer up folks. Now that euthanasia (as they call it) is legal, we need the Mizzys to remind the...

    • T Steuben

      Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Reductionism is the scourge of our time. It inherently calcifies and thus kills the world. I reach...

    • Hamburger Today

      Martinez Contra Fascism

      One problem with your argument is that ‘Christianity’ as a major religion was constructive material...

  • Book Authors

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Collin Cleary
    • Jef Costello
    • Savitri Devi
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Julius Evola
    • Jim Goad
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Greg Johnson
    • Charles Krafft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Trevor Lynch
    • H. L. Mencken
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Tito Perdue
    • Michael Polignano
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Fenek Solère
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Multiple authors
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Jim Goad
    • Alex Graham
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Richard Houck
    • Ondrej Mann
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quintilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
  • Private Events
  • T&C
  • Contact
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly No College Club Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Print May 24, 2017 3 comments

The Soul of an Establishment Philosopher:
On John Gray’s The Soul of the Marionette


Rocketmensch

1,318 words

John Gray
The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Enquiry into Human Freedom
London: Allen Lane, 2015

Of the current establishment philosophers, John Gray is one of the ones I like the most. My favorite of his books, Straw Dogs, is a classic of contemporary philosophy, demolishing the infantile and delusional fantasies of the myth of progress like a rational adult picking apart a children’s fairy-tale. As a philosopher-in-training, reading Straw Dogs was exhilarating. At once, Gray showed me what a philosopher could be and what he could attack: there were to be no golden sacred cows, nothing to shy and hide away from, and no commandments to bow to. This mercurial philosopher told it as he saw it, and he commanded my respect and admiration for it.

However, since I read Straw Dogs in 2002, the political and geopolitical landscape have significantly shifted, and what I respected and admired in John Gray no longer seems to exist as it turns out that there are, in fact, sacred cows he refuses to slaughter. That is, since the publication of Straw Dogs, England (where Gray resides), has incontrovertibly and fundamentally changed as a result of the 7/7 attacks, huge demographic changes that have wrought ethnic division, Brexit (which was motivated primarily by hatred for immigration and job-related policies), and the continuing migrant crisis. Yet “edgy” John Gray refuses to analyze the underlying current of these political events, as demonstrated by his most recent book, The Soul of the Marionette. In this short review, my gripe with John Gray focuses on two issues: his lack of philosophical rigor and his inability to grapple with the biggest issues of his day.

Gray’s inability to deal with such issues is odd, especially considering that he prides himself for being able to see how current trends, phenomena, and idealistic thinking may not correspond to the expected utopian vision of the progressive ideology. He is to be applauded when he sets his sights on artificial intelligence, biogenetics, and the like. Yet, how is it that Gray misses the two biggest interrelated issues of the day: globalization and mass immigration? For a philosopher who is supposed to see sharply and clearly, these omissions demonstrate how spectacularly Gray has missed his target – especially when these are the two main issues that motivated the UK’s breakaway from the EU and Trump’s rise to the Presidency. Evidently, there is only one explanation that accounts for this: there are some sacred cows that you cannot talk about if you’re in the establishment.

Earlier I wrote an article, “False Equivalence,” about the Cologne Christmas Market attack, where a Muslim man drove a truck into a Christmas market, killing twelve and injuring forty-nine. In it, I said that those unsure about the benefits of immigration:

. . . oppose this migrant crisis within Europe, yet even the most deranged Liberal could confidently state that none of these refugee attacks would have happened in Europe without letting them through the front door of Europe. So, to the umbrella of the Left and the Liberal’s that fiercely kvetch about protecting the livelihood and lives of others: hasn’t the time come where it is at least an open question whether mass immigration into European countries is a good thing for Europe, the native population and the society. When refugees reap destruction into your society by claiming large welfare, raising racial tension in society, increasing crime in the cities and towns, committing massive rates of sexual assaults, rapes and harassments, shooting civilians in midday and ramming a truck in a peaceful and beautiful Christmas market, surely it is at least an open question whether they benefit Western civilization.” [Emphasis mine.]

Despite populism being on the rise across Europe and America, with anti-immigration sentiment an obvious motivating force propelling recent political events, John Gray does not question whether mass immigration and multiculturalism in Europe are aspects of progress. What is the need for an establishment philosopher when the masses have already come to the conclusion before you and used that conclusion to make real change in the world?

Secondly, throughout the text, Gray is surprisingly philosophically relaxed. His lack of philosophical rigor comes in many forms, such as in this passage early in the book:

If one of Kleist’s marionettes were somehow to achieve self-awareness, Gnosticism would be its religion. In the most ambitious versions of scientific materialism, human beings are marionettes: puppets on genetic strings, which by an accident of evolution have become self-aware. Unknown to those who most ardently profess it, the boldest secular thinkers are possessed by a version of mystical religion. At present, Gnosticism is the faith of people who believe themselves to be machines.[1]

For those who hold to ambitious versions of scientific materialism – and I would hold myself to that account – the capabilities of human beings are determined by genetic coding and genetic combinations. I would agree with Gray’s brief conception of scientific materialism. However, there is no necessary connection between those who profess “ambitious scientific materialism” and the Gnostic belief that we can transcend our physical and materialistic limitations. We can be charitable to Gray and think that surely, he doesn’t believe that all (or most) ambitious scientific materialists really profess a type of Gnosticism. Yet, if this is the case, why does he not water down his message to the following: there is a tendency amongst scientific materialists to be beholden to a type of Gnosticism where we believe that we can transcend our material and physical limitations? This is obviously less provocative but more philosophically correct. I’m sure that most thinkers who adopt a type of ambitious scientific materialism do not adopt a type of Gnosticism underneath, since there is no necessary connection between the two. Human beings are marionettes that will not be saved.

Another example of Gray’s lack of philosophical rigor:

To be sure, the picture of an inner cabal of strategic thinkers directing the course of government has no resemblance to reality. Wracked by internal conflicts, guided by unreliable impressions of volatile and nebulous public moods, seizing on one faddish notion after another, modern governments often have no clear picture of what they are doing, let alone of its unintended consequences.[2]

It seems that only Gray is unable to comprehend the uninterrupted global picture. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the EU has been pushing mass immigration into European countries without the native populations voting for it, punishing public dissent and controlling opinion via political correctness and propaganda. Moreover, the results of referendums on whether countries should join the EU have been routinely dismissed or ignored if they achieve incorrect outcomes. Famously, in 2008 the Republic of Ireland rejected the Lisbon Treaty, only to be forced to vote on it a second time in 2009, accompanied by a mass media and propaganda campaign, when it was finally accepted.

What use is a philosopher like Gray when he ignores the major issues that we face today: terrorism, mass immigration, globalization, and the EU? Most First World citizens doubt whether these issues belie progress as the Gnostic Left proclaims it.  Gray does not have to give a definitive answer, but he could at least raise it as an open question: is the promise of the EU and the fact of mass immigration merely the fabled myth of progress?

Would I recommend The Soul of the Marionette? Only if you want to ignore the present political and existential landscape: at one point he tells us that the singularity – which has not yet come about – may not be the utopian ideal that we believe it to be. Edgy, Professor Gray, edgy.

 

Notes

1. John Gray, The Soul of the Marionette: A Short Enquiry into Human Freedom, Kindle ed. (London: Allen Lane, 2015), locations 123-126.

2. Ibid., locations 1195-1197.

This review originally appeared at Apotheosis Magazine, an ideas Webzine that focuses on Philosophy, Science (Neuroscience, Genetics, Bioethics), Alt-Right Politics, Literature and Film. They can be followed on Twitter at @ApotheosisMag.

Related

  • The Honorable Cause: A Review

  • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

  • Céline’s Guerre

  • No Brexit This Way

  • Springtime in Tallinn

  • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

  • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

  • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 1: Democracy Against the People

Tags

book reviewsBrexitEnglandEuropean Unionmass immigrationprogressivismRocketmensch

Previous

« What Would Evola Do?

Next

» Bless the Man’s Heart

3 comments

  1. Proofreader says:
    May 24, 2017 at 11:41 pm

    There’s something about John Gray’s style of thinking and writing that I dislike. He comes across as making overly drastic statements and sweeping generalizations at the expense of rigor and precision, and he seems to like taking heterodox positions largely because they are heterodox. (At the same time, his commentary relating to race, the Jews, and nationalism is annoyingly conventional.) I think it would be fair to say that his thinking is colored by “splenetic grumpiness” (Francis Wheen).

    It’s wrong to say that Gray hasn’t addressed globalization, for it’s the subject of his book False Dawn, and I think he also addresses it in Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern. However, I don’t know what Gray says or doesn’t say about it in his more recent works. (I have skimmed through The Silence of Animals, but I remember little of it now, other than that the publisher resorted to the typographic equivalent of padding: they used large print and generous linespacing to increase the number of pages.)

    1. Rocketmensch says:
      May 25, 2017 at 1:55 am

      Proofreader, thanks for the poignant comment.

      I was not going to jump into the comments, but you’ve delivered a genuine criticism which I feel the need to reply to.

      I could have fleshed this out in a longer argument but I wanted to keep the article very short and emphasise the point that Professor Gray is unable to see that multiculturalism and mass immigration are impediments to progress despite mass evidence supporting this position. He does not even have to agree with us, but state that the question is now open due to the overwhelming evidence. But we all know this will never happen.

      In reference to the side point that Gray has missed that globalisation is not a sign of progress, whilst the electorate has. He has also discussed terrorism, populism and the EU in his articles, yet again he does not discuss whether the liberal egalitarian utopia is a facade.

      It is true that Gray has talked about globalisation in articles and False Dawn (as you mentioned). However, Gray sees no problem with cultural globalisation, which is an issue for the burgeoning alt-right and also although he believes that the global free market is unstable (and in a sense predicted the global recession of 2008), he only despises it for its hubris and underlying ideology. Gray has no issues about global markets per se, and would not object to mass immigration, multiculturalism and the like.

  2. Zero says:
    May 25, 2017 at 3:41 am

    There are two distinct aspects of the Gnostic faith that could be referenced . One is frequently held by great scientists, and is the faith that knowledge is possible, and can be attained with the help of intuition. The shyness of humean skepticism does not get results. This also explains why so-called philosophers of science make lousy scientists and ornithologists make lousy birds.

    Self-consistent materialist ought not hold this view. There is nothing in a clock, or a computer chip, that corresponds to truth or falsity in an absolute sense. Objects, whether they be circuits, gears, or neurons, are not actually true or false, they simply are. For every question a program answers true, one can simply flip a bit and invert all the answers. A bit is the only quantitative difference between a positive and negative response. Pure materialism destroys even the possibility of knowledge. At most we are left with the Nietzschean, “there are no facts, only interpretations” .

    Now, the second aspect of Gnosticism, I will refer to as the Gnostic sickness. It frequently appears as a compensation/reaction to the type of materialism described above. Paradoxically, it elevates mind above all else and declares matter irrelevant. “Are we machines? No. We are Gods. Trapped in contingent machines. We shall reshape the world and the self in our own mental image, and then, finally, we shall be free.” . This type of religious faith appeals to people ranging from transhumanist to transgender.

    I myself prefer a type of dual-aspect monism that avoids the traps Descartes set for us. Mind and matter are both aspects a single reality that is not reducible to either. My genes and heritage are as much part of me as is the living spark of immanence that drives them forward into a new and yet-unpredicted path. But to tear them apart by cognition so long as they are together makes as much sense as separating the adjacent faces of a cube. “Knowledge shreds the world, wisdom makes it whole.”

Comments are closed.

If you have Paywall access,
simply login first to see your comment auto-approved.

Note on comments privacy & moderation

Your email is never published nor shared.

Comments are moderated. If you don't see your comment, please be patient. If approved, it will appear here soon. Do not post your comment a second time.

  • Recent posts

    • Football’s Race War

      Pox Populi

      5

    • VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      Peter Brimelow

      4

    • Collin Cleary Interviewed on Richard Wagner

      Collin Cleary

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 534 Interview with Alexander Adams

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • The Union Jackal, May 2023

      Mark Gullick

      17

    • Biden and Bibi

      James J. O'Meara

      11

    • Forward with a Vengeance

      Tom Zaja

      1

    • Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Jim Goad

      24

    • The Honorable Cause: A Review

      Spencer J. Quinn

      8

    • George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years

      Thomas Steuben

      4

    • Remembering Oswald Spengler (May 29, 1880-May 8, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      8

    • Remembering Louis-Ferdinand Céline (May 27, 1894–July 1, 1961)

      Greg Johnson

      12

    • Blood, Soil, Paint

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Céline’s Guerre

      Margot Metroland

      7

    • The Trial of Socrates

      Greg Johnson

    • Fields of Asphodel

      Tito Perdue

    • George Floyd and the “Color” of Revolution

      Stephen Paul Foster

      11

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • No, Really, Everything’s Fine!

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      18

    • Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      Jim Goad

      25

    • The Dakota Territory’s Indian Wars During the Civil War, Part 1

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • How Much Would Slavery Reparations Actually Cost?

      Beau Albrecht

      35

    • No Brexit This Way

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Martinez Contra Fascism

      Thomas Steuben

      24

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 2: „Věčný nacista“

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • A 5D Plan in 3D: Hitchcock’s Dial M For Murder

      James J. O'Meara

      16

    • After Waco

      Morris van de Camp

      18

    • Munchhausen: The Third Reich’s Wizard of Oz

      Steven Clark

      13

    • Nueva Derecha vs. Vieja Derecha Capítulo 1: Política y Metapolítica

      Greg Johnson

    • The Worst Week Yet: May 14-20, 2023

      Jim Goad

      14

    • The (So-Called) New York “Thought Criminals” & the “Intellectual Dark Web”

      Alex Graham

      9

    • Documenting the Decline

      Spencer J. Quinn

      7

    • Remembering Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813-February 13, 1883)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Remembering Dominique Venner (April 16, 1935–May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      2

    • The Psychology of the Politically Correct

      Richard Knight

      65

    • Springtime in Tallinn

      Veiko Hessler

      13

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 2: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      11

    • Remembering Julius Evola (May 19, 1898–June 11, 1974)

      Greg Johnson

      5

    • Clash of the Billionaire Comic-Book Supervillains

      Jim Goad

      22

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 2

      D. H. Corax

      11

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 6, Part 1: Conclusion

      Kenneth Vinther

      1

    • Úryvky z Finis Germania Rolfa Petera Sieferleho, část 1

      Rolf Peter Sieferle

    • On White Normie “Brainwashing”: A Reply to Kevin MacDonald, Paul Craig Roberts, & Other Dissidents, Part 1

      D. H. Corax

      48

    • Liberal Anti-Democracy, Chapter 5, Part 2: Democracy Against the People

      Kenneth Vinther

      2

    • Be On the Lookout

      Gunnar Alfredsson

      4

    • Not Pretending to Be Anything: Charles Bukowski

      Mark Gullick

      8

    • Librarians are Bad for Children

      Stephen Paul Foster

      24

  • Classics Corner

    • Cù Chulainn in the GPO:
      The Mythic Imagination of Patrick Pearse

      Michael O'Meara

      5

    • Remembering Dominique Venner
      (April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • A Robertson Roundup: 
      Remembering Wilmot Robertson
      (April 16, 1915 – July 8, 2005)

      Margot Metroland

      13

    • Metapolitics and Occult Warfare

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Maurice Bardèche:
      October 1, 1907–July 30, 1998

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • The Power of Myth:
      Remembering Joseph Campbell
      (March 26, 1904–October 30, 1987)

      John Morgan

      11

    • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

      Trevor Lynch

      24

    • The Searchers

      Trevor Lynch

      29

    • Gabriele D’Annunzio

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • Remembering A. R. D. “Rex” Fairburn (February 2, 1904–March 25, 1957)

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Denis Kearney & the Struggle for a White America

      Theodore J. O'Keefe

      1

    • Posthuman Prospects:
      Artificial Intelligence, Fifth Generation Warfare, & Archeofuturism

      Christopher Pankhurst

      5

    • Earnest Sevier Cox:
      Advocate for the White Ethnostate

      Morris van de Camp

      15

    • Remembering Jack London
      (January 12, 1876–November 22, 1916)

      Greg Johnson

      2

    • Remembering Robinson Jeffers:
      January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962

      John Morgan

      3

    • Remembering Pierre Drieu La Rochelle:
      January 3, 1893–March 15, 1945

      Greg Johnson

    • Remembering Rudyard Kipling (December 30, 1865-January 18, 1936)

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Restoring White Homelands

      Greg Johnson

      34

    • Remembering Hinton Rowan Helper

      Spencer J. Quinn

      11

    • What’s Wrong with Diversity?

      Greg Johnson

      10

    • Redefining the Mainstream

      Greg Johnson

      3

    • Edward Alsworth Ross:
      American Metapolitical Hero

      Morris van de Camp

      8

    • The Talented Mr. Ripley & Purple Noon

      Trevor Lynch

      19

    • Christmas & the Yuletide:
      Light in the Darkness

      William de Vere

      3

    • Thanksgiving Special 
      White Men Meet Indians:
      Jamestown & the Clash of Civilizations

      Thomas Jackson

    • Colin Wilson’s The Outsider

      Sir Oswald Mosley

      4

    • Dostoyevsky on the Jews

      William Pierce

      4

    • Jefferson &/or Mussolini, Part 1

      Ezra Pound

      5

    • I Listened to Chapo Trap House So You Don’t Have To

      Doug Huntington

      98

    • The Homeric Gods

      Mark Dyal

      13

  • Paroled from the Paywall

    • Politicizing Luz Long, Part I

      Clarissa Schnabel

      2

    • Breaking Beat: Reflections on The Rebel Set, a Masterpiece That Never Was

      James J. O'Meara

      1

    • If Hillary Had Won

      Stephen Paul Foster

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 3

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Nice Racism, Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      7

    • Nice Racism, Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      5

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part II

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Aristophanes’ Clouds, Part I

      Greg Johnson

      1

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 530 The Genealogy of Wokeism

      Counter-Currents Radio

      5

    • Patrick Bateman: “Literally Me” or a Warning?

      Anthony Bavaria

      9

    • British Sculpture, Part II

      Jonathan Bowden

      1

    • British Sculpture, Part I

      Jonathan Bowden

      2

    • The New Story

      Jocelynn Cordes

      21

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 2

      Beau Albrecht

      1

    • Why Does Cthulhu Always Swim Left? Part 1

      Beau Albrecht

      11

    • Robert Rutherford McCormick, Midwestern Man of the Right: Part 2

      Morris van de Camp

      1

    • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Prophet of Eugenics and Race-Realism

      Margot Metroland

      11

    • In Defense of the White Union

      Asier Abadroa

    • Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Oscar Winner the System Loves

      Steven Clark

      32

    • Incels on Wheels: Jim Goad’s Trucker Fags in Denial

      Beau Albrecht

      17

    • The White Pill

      Margot Metroland

      10

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 528 Karl Thorburn on the Bank Crashes

      Counter-Currents Radio

    • Women Philosophers

      Richard Knight

      23

    • Stranger Things and Surviving in the Modern World

      Howe Abbott-Hiss

      2

    • The Fabulous Pleven Boys

      P. J. Collins

      2

    • Nuclear Families: Threads

      Mark Gullick

      4

    • Reviewing the Unreviewable

      Margot Metroland

      3

    • Counter-Currents Radio Podcast No. 527 Machiavellianism & More

      Counter-Currents Radio

      2

    • The Machiavellian Method

      Greg Johnson

      11

    • My Breakout from the Modern World: The Hungarian Day of Honour Tour 2023, Part 2

      Tizenegy

      4

  • Recent comments

    • Antipodean

      An Interview with Teša Tešanović

      I can envisage a few reasons to be in China, earning decent money being the major one, or making...

    • John

      Football’s Race War

      -“These people are like children.”  That’s not our problem. -“…[A]nd if they were treated as they...

    • Bigfoot

      Football’s Race War

      I don't think a boycott would be too much to ask for. If people can do it to Bud lite and Target,...

    • Bigfoot

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      Now that some law schools are dropping the LSAT for admittance and some states are considering...

    • Amerikaner

      Football’s Race War

      I don’t know much about football, but it is huge in Europe to where it dwarfs American sports...

    • Henri

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      "They whine about discrimination. Do you know who is being discriminated against? The white...

    • ncleapyear

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      We need to get ourselves far, far away from the Chosen Ones and their sub-Saharan bioweapons.  Tall...

    • Domitian

      VDARE Facing Mortal Threat

      "Good faith effort to comply" - the older generation still has idyllic memories of a system where...

    • John

      Football’s Race War

      “At this point, it is essential that every white/European person realize”. Europeans are White,...

    • Antipodean

      Football’s Race War

      Great summary of the problem but what are we to do about it?  These people are like children. They...

    • Nicolas Bourbaki

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      That's horrible. Speaking of movies I now can understand how "Transylvania" has been used to...

    • Sambo

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Oh, I totally agree, I wasn't trying to dismiss him. I'm a casual fan of his. It's just so dang...

    • Jim Goad

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      Oh, I get it. But I also fear that we can purity-spiral ourselves to death. Even if there’s a Nazi-...

    • John

      Collin Cleary Interviewed on Richard Wagner

      “People who will not fight eventually will be eaten by people who will fight. A community whose...

    • Enoch Powell

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      This country has become nothing more than a corporation whose prime purpose is to ensure the...

    • Sambo

      The Worst Week Yet: May 21-27, 2023

      I like Irvine Welsh, but he's always had that "please don't call me a racist" defensiveness about...

    • WayDown

      The Union Jackal, May 2023

      The two cases you cited took place a few years ago when there was more sanity. I'm not sure the...

    • Sandy

      Euthanizing the Homeless? It’s a Start

      O cheer up folks. Now that euthanasia (as they call it) is legal, we need the Mizzys to remind the...

    • T Steuben

      Notes on Strauss & Husserl

      Reductionism is the scourge of our time. It inherently calcifies and thus kills the world. I reach...

    • Hamburger Today

      Martinez Contra Fascism

      One problem with your argument is that ‘Christianity’ as a major religion was constructive material...

  • Book Authors

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Collin Cleary
    • Jef Costello
    • Savitri Devi
    • F. Roger Devlin
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Julius Evola
    • Jim Goad
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Greg Johnson
    • Charles Krafft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Trevor Lynch
    • H. L. Mencken
    • J. A. Nicholl
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Tito Perdue
    • Michael Polignano
    • Spencer J. Quinn
    • Fenek Solère
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey
    • Multiple authors
  • Webzine Authors

    Editor-in-Chief

    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.

    Featured Writers

    • Beau Albrecht
    • Morris V. de Camp
    • Stephen Paul Foster, Ph.D.
    • Jim Goad
    • Alex Graham
    • Mark Gullick, Ph.D.
    • Greg Johnson, Ph.D.
    • Spencer J. Quinn

    Frequent Writers

    • Aquilonius
    • Anthony Bavaria
    • Alain de Benoist
    • Kerry Bolton, Ph.D.
    • Collin Cleary, Ph.D.
    • Jef Costello
    • F. Roger Devlin, Ph.D.
    • Richard Houck
    • Ondrej Mann
    • Margot Metroland
    • John Morgan
    • Trevor Lynch
    • James J. O’Meara
    • Kathryn S.
    • Thomas Steuben
    • Michael Walker

    Classic Authors

    • Maurice Bardèche
    • Jonathan Bowden
    • Julius Evola
    • Guillaume Faye
    • Ernst Jünger
    • Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D.
    • D. H. Lawrence
    • Charles Lindbergh
    • Jack London
    • H. P. Lovecraft
    • Anthony M. Ludovici
    • Sir Oswald Mosley
    • National Vanguard
    • Friedrich Nietzsche
    • Revilo Oliver
    • William Pierce
    • Ezra Pound
    • Saint-Loup
    • Savitri Devi
    • Carl Schmitt
    • Miguel Serrano
    • Oswald Spengler
    • P. R. Stephensen
    • Jean Thiriart
    • John Tyndall
    • Dominique Venner
    • Leo Yankevich
    • Francis Parker Yockey

    Other Authors

    • Howe Abbott-Hiss
    • Michael Bell
    • Buttercup Dew
    • Giles Corey
    • Bain Dewitt
    • Jack Donovan
    • Richardo Duchesne, Ph.D.
    • Emile Durand
    • Guillaume Durocher
    • Mark Dyal
    • Fullmoon Ancestry
    • Tom Goodroch
    • Andrew Hamilton
    • Robert Hampton
    • Huntley Haverstock
    • Derek Hawthorne
    • Gregory Hood
    • Juleigh Howard-Hobson
    • Alexander Jacob
    • Nicholas Jeelvy
    • Ruuben Kaalep
    • Tobias Langdon
    • Julian Langness
    • Travis LeBlanc
    • Patrick Le Brun
    • G A Malvicini
    • John Michael McCloughlin
    • Millennial Woes
    • Michael O’Meara
    • Christopher Pankhurst
    • Michael Polignano
    • J. J. Przybylski
    • Quintilian
    • Edouard Rix
    • C. B. Robertson
    • C. F. Robinson
    • Herve Ryssen
    • Alan Smithee
    • Fenek Solere
    • Ann Sterzinger
    • Robert Steuckers
    • Tomislav Sunic
    • Donald Thoresen
    • Marian Van Court
    • Irmin Vinson
    • Aylmer Wedgwood
    • Scott Weisswald
  • Departments

    • Book Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Music Reviews
    • Art Criticism
    • Graphic Novels & Comics
    • Video Game Reviews
    • Fiction
    • Poems
    • Interviews
    • Videos
    • English Translations
    • Other Languages
      • Arabic
      • Bulgarian
      • Croatian
      • Czech
      • Danish
      • Dutch
      • Estonian
      • Finnish
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Lithuanian
      • Norwegian
      • Polish
      • Portuguese
      • Romanian
      • Russian
      • Slovak
      • Spanish
      • Swedish
      • Ukrainian
    • Commemorations
    • Why We Write
  • Archives
  • Top 100 Commenters
Sponsored Links
Above Time Coffee Antelope Hill Publishing Paul Waggener IHR-Store Asatru Folk Assembly No College Club Imperium Press American Renaissance The Patrick Ryan Show Jim Goad The Occidental Observer
Donate Now Mailing list
Books for sale
  • The Trial of Socrates
  • Fields of Asphodel
  • El Manifiesto Nacionalista Blanco
  • An Artist of the Right
  • Ernst Jünger
  • Reuben
  • The Partisan
  • Trevor Lynch’s Classics of Right-Wing Cinema
  • The Enemy of Europe
  • Imperium
  • Reactionary Modernism
  • Manifesto del Nazionalismo Bianco
  • O Manifesto Nacionalista Branco
  • Vade Mecum
  • Whiteness: The Original Sin
  • Space Vixen Trek Episode 17: Tomorrow the Stars
  • The Year America Died
  • Passing the Buck
  • Mysticism After Modernism
  • Gold in the Furnace
  • Defiance
  • Forever & Ever
  • Wagner’s Ring & the Germanic Tradition
  • Resistance
  • Materials for All Future Historians
  • Love Song of the Australopiths
  • White Identity Politics
  • Here’s the Thing
  • Trevor Lynch: Part Four of the Trilogy
  • Graduate School with Heidegger
  • It’s Okay to Be White
  • The World in Flames
  • The White Nationalist Manifesto
  • From Plato to Postmodernism
  • The Gizmo
  • Return of the Son of Trevor Lynch’s CENSORED Guide to the Movies
  • Toward a New Nationalism
  • The Smut Book
  • The Alternative Right
  • My Nationalist Pony
  • Dark Right: Batman Viewed From the Right
  • The Philatelist
  • Confessions of an Anti-Feminist
  • East and West
  • Though We Be Dead, Yet Our Day Will Come
  • White Like You
  • Numinous Machines
  • Venus and Her Thugs
  • Cynosura
  • North American New Right, vol. 2
  • You Asked For It
  • More Artists of the Right
  • Extremists: Studies in Metapolitics
  • The Homo & the Negro
  • Rising
  • The Importance of James Bond
  • In Defense of Prejudice
  • Confessions of a Reluctant Hater (2nd ed.)
  • The Hypocrisies of Heaven
  • Waking Up from the American Dream
  • Green Nazis in Space!
  • Truth, Justice, and a Nice White Country
  • Heidegger in Chicago
  • End of an Era: Mad Men & the Ordeal of Civility
  • Sexual Utopia in Power
  • What is a Rune? & Other Essays
  • Son of Trevor Lynch’s White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • The Lightning & the Sun
  • The Eldritch Evola
  • Western Civilization Bites Back
  • New Right vs. Old Right
  • Journey Late at Night: Poems and Translations
  • The Non-Hindu Indians & Indian Unity
  • I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group
  • Pulp Fascism
  • The Lost Philosopher
  • Trevor Lynch’s A White Nationalist Guide to the Movies
  • And Time Rolls On
  • Artists of the Right: Resisting Decadence
  • North American New Right, Vol. 1
  • Some Thoughts on Hitler
  • Tikkun Olam and Other Poems
  • Summoning the Gods
  • Taking Our Own Side
  • Reuben
  • The Node
  • The New Austerities
  • Morning Crafts
  • The Passing of a Profit & Other Forgotten Stories
Copyright © 2023 Counter-Currents Publishing, Ltd.

Paywall Access





Please enter your email address. You will receive mail with link to set new password.

Edit your comment