KINGSNORTH: "LET IT PERISH" (UPDATE)

Jonathan Pageau, by now well know to our readers (if not, check here), recently had a talk with the British, Eastern Orthodox author, Paul Kingsnorth (website). He wrote fiction books as The Globalisation Journeys, Dark Mountain Writing and the The Buckmaster Trilogy. There were times we did not see entirely eye to eye with Kingsnorth, who is a man of the Left originally. But he said something to Pageau that has been percolating here for some time. "I have a feeling that the West itself needs to die" and "Western civilization is already dead". It does not sound very optimistic and there is very little reason to be. As we have pointed out many times in this blog, the problems in the West do not stem from twenty years ago, or even the last hundred years. The foundation was already in place by the year of the Great Schism in 1054. 

Jan. 12, 2025 Jonathan Pageau: Western Civilization Is Already Dead - with Paul Kingsnorth.

Who comes to the awareness that the West is in trouble goes through an entire grieving process. You start with the realization the West is dying, the second phase is trying to save it and its underpinnings in the Enlightenment.

Until you start to find out that the Enlightenment itself is but a symptom of the underlying problem. The same goes for the entire 'reason' project, as well as the lauded Scientific Revolution (link) that rendered the universe a mere mechanism, that preceded it.

Lately the Dawkins crowd have discovered that their nihilism based New Atheism does nothing for the culture, except breaking it down. Enter the 'cultural Christian'. Kingsnorth's criticism is targeting the idea that Christianity is being used as a tool in that way. Moreover, it is an ideology that harbored the seeds that sewed the hatred against it. 

With some notable exceptions we now have an entire industry of 'far right' liberal parties operating on that basis. To name but two we happen to know something about: lesbian AfD leader in Germany, Alice Weidel who is lauded for her relationship with  a 'woman of color'. 

And Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, who sold out his party to the Dutch deep state and annually sings the praises of genocidal maniac and founder of the modern, secular Turkish state, Mustafa Ataturk. Wilders is a lapsed Catholic whose liberal policies are keeping hedonistic, personal liberty fundamentalism entirely in tact. 

In conclusion, the alignment with such parties is completely useless as its underpinnings are sawing off the branch that is sustaining it. I agree with Kingsnorth it is better to abandon the West to its fate and concentrate on the source of our salvation. Particularly as there is no noticeable improvement anywhere, but in small pockets. 

Improve the world, start at home, as the saying goes. A culture is not a thing in itself. It is the byproduct of our choices that determine our values and mindsets. To reason otherwise is typical of modern man: having dropped Aristotle's causes and essences, they are constantly putting the horse behind the cart. 

The times scientists and politicians think that causes can be realized by mimicking its effects, cannot even be counted anymore. And it is the reason so many things thought up behind desks in ivory towers and in glass office palaces, go wrong in practice. But such details are the subject for another time (link).

Check out Kingsnorth's 'First Things' Erasmus Lecture of 2024, titled "Against Christian Civilization" (link) and the written article version of his talk: Against Christian Civilization, January 2025 (link). 

Update
As I was listening to Kingsnorth's address of the Humanists I suddenly remembered why I don't like him. He is fast to condemn those he accuses of being 'cultural Christians' of not being Christian enough in attacks that are far too personal. 

That kind of judgement and in that sarcastic tone of voice, is not at all in the Eastern Orthodox phronema. Kingsnorth still talks like a Marxist Leftie, condemning to environmentalist hell those of less purist persuasion.

He attacks Ayaan Hirsi Ali (link) because he doesn't like her motives; he tells Jordan Peterson - who is just posting a ten part series on the Gospels (link) -- that he doesn't mention God or Jesus Christ; and he accuses cradle Catholic Steve Bannon (link) that he is just using Christ as a tool.

Well, Mr Kingsnorth, I could hit you over the head with a few passages from the Bible, but let's not do that. Just stay out of my way in the future!

Let me know what you think. Signs of more trouble ahead?

- Liberalism, Christianity, Jonathan Pageau, New Atheism -