Revolt Against The Modern World

May 1, 2018 – 2:54 pm

Here’s something worth reading: an interview with the anonymous traditionalist “Wrath of Gnon”. (For those of you not familiar with the neoreactionary term “Gnon”, you should imagine it as meaning something almost exactly congruent with Kipling’s “Gods of the Copybook Headings“: the enduring truths of Nature, or Nature’s God, that periodically render a pitiless judgment upon our imaginary Utopias and dream-castles.)

Posted by Malcolm on at 2:54 pm, filed under Reaction. RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

5 Comments

  1. Jason says

    I fundamentally agree with this fellow Gnon, although the interview is a bit much at times. For instance, globalization is in many ways a salutary phenomenon – it’s tiresome the way critics like him endlessly bash it with no reflection or qualification. If these guys were suddenly confronted with a time machine, and forced to live either today or in say, the “wonderful” Middle Ages, I can guarantee you the choice 95 percent of them would make. Some balance please, where one doesn’t feel the need to show everyone he is so hairy-chested?

    Posted May 1, 2018 at 5:40 pm | Permalink
  2. Jason says

    I’m just curious though: is there really this infatuation with “modern” art? Maybe among a few dumb elites, but everybody I’ve known likes the masters. The streets of Florence were certainly packed when my mom and I were there two years ago.

    Posted May 1, 2018 at 5:48 pm | Permalink
  3. Malcolm says

    Jason,

    I think that when W.o.G. refers to “globalists” he is referring not to international trade, or intercourse of other sorts between nations, but rather to the universalist worldview that sees no meaningful distinctions among nations and peoples, and thinks nothing of purÁ©eing them all together in a sort of cultural and ethnic Cuisinart.

    As for modern art, I will myself confess a fondness for several 20th-century painters, including Kandinsky, Picasso, Klee, Miro, and de Chirico.

    In short, I don’t think even the hardest-core of modern reactionaries would suggest chucking out the baby with the bath, even if that were possible (which of course it isn’t). Speaking for myself, I’d be very reluctant indeed to give up a great many of the blessings of the modern world, and I suspect that to put even the most radical reactionary in the same frame of mind would require nothing more than a toothache.

    Posted May 1, 2018 at 6:14 pm | Permalink
  4. Jason says

    Yeah, I think these are all good points you make Malcolm. Perhaps I’m nitpicking. And again, I’m with Gnon in his basic critique.

    Just occurred to me that “Wrath of Gnon” is perhaps a play on the film “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan”.

    Posted May 1, 2018 at 6:53 pm | Permalink
  5. Malcolm says

    Jason,

    Just occurred to me that “Wrath of Gnon” is perhaps a play on the film “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan”.

    Right, and the term “Gnon” comes from reversing the first letters of “Nature or Nature’s God” (which I realize I didn’t make explicit above).

    Posted May 1, 2018 at 7:29 pm | Permalink

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