The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Ep. 179
As we recently explored, the Russian national socialist Aleksandr Dugin is weird. Said to be Vladimir Putin’s “brain,” an unlikely claim, he has been publishing extremist and fascist philosophy for decades, much of which has been leaking into American right-wing (Woke Right) thought rather substantially in recent years. In this episode of the New Discourses Podcast, host James Lindsay reads from a short, creepy essay Dugin wrote for the Russian National Bolshevik magazine in 1995, titled “The Gnostic,” in which he makes the explicit case for following “left-hand path” (black, or Satanic) magic. In fact, he links this “magic” to Communism and Fascism and more. In this episode, Lindsay reads Dugin‘s bizarre essay and explains his concept of sociognosticism that makes sense of it. Join him to learn about this darkness threatening MAGA and American conservatism.
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2 comments
Ancient Gnosticism is easily misinterpreted, being written down in an occult (coded, secret) manner as it was.
A modern materialist could easily see it as a path towards some sort of black magic that could protect a criminal or psychopath from further social persecution. This path would elevate the psychopath to a level that would be unassailable. This is, as one might imagine, a grand delusion. The psychopath was taken down long ago and is in no position to rule anything in his current state.
Modern “spiritual” researchers have validated some Gnostic teachings, at least in their broader meanings. This includes, in particular, the idea of Earth as a prison and that the only real path to a higher level of understanding – and a possible escape from the prison – is through self-development; the re-acquisition of our native spiritual abilities.
These newer spiritual discoveries continue to be ignored by the more hard line materialists – which include most “extremist” approaches like fascism and anti-fascism. Others who simply go along with materialism as an “easier” or “more scientific” understanding of life also remain ignorant of these newer discoveries. It requires – it seems – a rather sane individual to study and use these new discoveries. This rules out the ideas of Dugin. But does it also rule out the ideas of Lindsay?
Common sense rules out the ideas of Lindsay, a person who should be taken seriously by no sane person.
While I would also disagree with Dugin’s apparent Gnosticism, James Lindsay sees everything through the prison of Enlightenment Rationalism, which is probably the dumbest paradigm in the history of ideas.