There has always been a portion of the right who have no time for intellectuals or scholars. On any given day, one can see someone or other lamenting the ‘uselessness’ of what amounts to academic activity. In this post I want to defend the role of intellectual activity and scholarship and outline the service it provides in vanguard formation.
Seeming rather prescient having listened to the 'Don the Pleb' stream earlier. I'm curious as to the timeline of events regarding Don because it would seem either this had been on your mind leading up to the stream and had written some of your thoughts out here first or it was just very coincidental, I'm drawing some relevance reading this. Great article and good stream. I'd heard the name 'Don the Pleb' mentioned a time or two, whether perhaps in the chat or on stream with you prior but I've never watched him before; I'm not impressed...
Since I've never commented either here, in chat or on your videos aside from the stream you did with Redhawk on AA Gold, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your work. I'm a late millennial ('94) American who somehow miraculously stumbled upon Morgoth little over a year ago with a YouTube history of Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, James Lindsay, Tim Pool, your boy Sargon over at Lotus Eaters, a handful of assorted pro-Trump creators, a little Tucker Carlson and some random videos here and there on, say, the Frankfurt School. I was 'on the outside looking in', as you mentioned, but have been sort of anxiously paying attention to cultural developments since school yet hadn't paid much mind to politics or even history much at all until around 2017. Anyway, for some reason I really took a liking to Morgoth's videos, I listened to everything, and I remember I'd started listening to you after watching his 'Tale of Two Country Walks' response to your video on 'Authenticity and Faustian Man'. Millennial Woes followed shortly, and now I listen to everything you guys put out including guest appearances elsewhere along with Endeavor, The Distributist, Frodi, Imperium Press, Lambda, etc. I'm under-educated and unread but have been thoroughly enjoying listening along and reading the articles, and it's making me want to read up on the canon. You can thank yourself for shilling for Morgoth's Substack because it persuaded me to sign up, and I thought I may as well subscribe to yours while I was at it and support you both. Thanks for everything and keep doing what you do, cheers from across the pond.
Someone who I think should feature in the Dissident Right Canon is C S Lewis (as well as Tolkien). His philosophical writings, beyond Narnia, are based. I'd love to see a Cigar Stream on his short essays 'The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment' and 'Is Progress Possible', both in his book 'God in the Dock' - in many ways they pre-empt where we are now and explain why we have got here.
Tolkien, Lewis and Chesterton (haven't read and cannot comment on Belloc) are all utterly essential to the fiction and non-fiction canon of the Dissident Right. The question is which of their works are essential and which are unessential.
For instance, Chesterton's "The Flying Inn" and "The Ball and the Cross" are both relevant and prophetic in their depiction of elites wielding lawfare and immigration as weapons against the populace and the pathologizing of the normal, respectively. "The Man Who Was Thursday," on the other hand, is of interest primarily for those who want a good book, rather than ideas.
Similarly, Lewis is usually cited for "The Abolition of Man," but not for "God in the Dock." If we want that in the canon, we'll have to promote it.
Lewis will be helpful when we formulate the Faith part of the canon, which I firmly believe will develop. I do not think he will be in it, per se, but his writings will shape the thought on how Christianity will play a part in the DR. Christians in this movement will have to reconcile the 'hardness' that will be required to which is in conflict with liberality most of the faith has fallen into; Lewis will help us start, but I don't think he will cross the line with us.
Largely agree that Lewis will be a formative influence. That said, in his Perelandra series he seems to advocate a hard response against our enemies i.e. massacres in Minecraft.
I will confess to invoking 'booklord' from time to time. I insist someone needs to. More is demanded than reading a ton of books from someone that would presume to tell me about them. In any case thank you for introducing me to all these works; it would have been a pity had I died before I read them and sank into Hell being wrong about everything.
The time to measure men will come, perhaps, when we have ran out of books.
The issue for us plebs though, is that a great many of the academics and experts, have completely ignored the evidence and distorted "science TM" to suit their own agendas.
The ones that didn't were smeared, silenced and sacked.
Academics supporting lockdowns, masking, toxic jabs, global warming, Orange man bad and not allowing any dissenting voices, has made me realise that having lots of qualifications and ability to read lengthy texts, counts for nothing when they frequently lack the smallest grain of common sense.
Most of the academics I encounter are incredibly left leaning and fully supportive of the tyranny that has been forced upon us for the last two years.
I agree I would see scholarly research as a form of action in itself . However I do understand the frustration some people have with the inability the dissident right has, when it comes to raising money and building institutions, but Rome was not build in a day.
"Certain computer programmer types disparage ‘The Great Read’ believing that – in what must be the height of total stupidity – old books have nothing to say to our present moment. But these are also people delusional enough to believe that they will overcome the CIA, MI6, Google, and the United States military with, wait for it, network analysis. Let me offer a reality check: that is not happening; least of all when you spend the rest of your time repeating tired Boomerisms no one wants to hear while trying to ‘deradicalize’ the youth. Let me make it simple to anyone reading this: that person is not your friend and is nothing more than a timewaster."
Is there a particular person in mind here? Also what are the great reads?
A wonderful article! AA, you yourself are a great example of how scholarship and serious engagement with the canon can greatly develop and hone a person's views even in the span of just a few years.
I have followed other people (Stefan Molyenux comes to mind) who seem to have moved absolutely nowhere and said nothing new in years. And I believe that not doing the scholarly work in an honest and serious way is at least part of the reason.
Great post
A phrase in use last year was 'step over'
We're going to have to stop arguing with morons who won't even read the canon.
Seeming rather prescient having listened to the 'Don the Pleb' stream earlier. I'm curious as to the timeline of events regarding Don because it would seem either this had been on your mind leading up to the stream and had written some of your thoughts out here first or it was just very coincidental, I'm drawing some relevance reading this. Great article and good stream. I'd heard the name 'Don the Pleb' mentioned a time or two, whether perhaps in the chat or on stream with you prior but I've never watched him before; I'm not impressed...
Since I've never commented either here, in chat or on your videos aside from the stream you did with Redhawk on AA Gold, I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your work. I'm a late millennial ('94) American who somehow miraculously stumbled upon Morgoth little over a year ago with a YouTube history of Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, James Lindsay, Tim Pool, your boy Sargon over at Lotus Eaters, a handful of assorted pro-Trump creators, a little Tucker Carlson and some random videos here and there on, say, the Frankfurt School. I was 'on the outside looking in', as you mentioned, but have been sort of anxiously paying attention to cultural developments since school yet hadn't paid much mind to politics or even history much at all until around 2017. Anyway, for some reason I really took a liking to Morgoth's videos, I listened to everything, and I remember I'd started listening to you after watching his 'Tale of Two Country Walks' response to your video on 'Authenticity and Faustian Man'. Millennial Woes followed shortly, and now I listen to everything you guys put out including guest appearances elsewhere along with Endeavor, The Distributist, Frodi, Imperium Press, Lambda, etc. I'm under-educated and unread but have been thoroughly enjoying listening along and reading the articles, and it's making me want to read up on the canon. You can thank yourself for shilling for Morgoth's Substack because it persuaded me to sign up, and I thought I may as well subscribe to yours while I was at it and support you both. Thanks for everything and keep doing what you do, cheers from across the pond.
And, of course, clear them out.
Someone who I think should feature in the Dissident Right Canon is C S Lewis (as well as Tolkien). His philosophical writings, beyond Narnia, are based. I'd love to see a Cigar Stream on his short essays 'The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment' and 'Is Progress Possible', both in his book 'God in the Dock' - in many ways they pre-empt where we are now and explain why we have got here.
Tolkien, Lewis and Chesterton (haven't read and cannot comment on Belloc) are all utterly essential to the fiction and non-fiction canon of the Dissident Right. The question is which of their works are essential and which are unessential.
For instance, Chesterton's "The Flying Inn" and "The Ball and the Cross" are both relevant and prophetic in their depiction of elites wielding lawfare and immigration as weapons against the populace and the pathologizing of the normal, respectively. "The Man Who Was Thursday," on the other hand, is of interest primarily for those who want a good book, rather than ideas.
Similarly, Lewis is usually cited for "The Abolition of Man," but not for "God in the Dock." If we want that in the canon, we'll have to promote it.
Lewis will be helpful when we formulate the Faith part of the canon, which I firmly believe will develop. I do not think he will be in it, per se, but his writings will shape the thought on how Christianity will play a part in the DR. Christians in this movement will have to reconcile the 'hardness' that will be required to which is in conflict with liberality most of the faith has fallen into; Lewis will help us start, but I don't think he will cross the line with us.
Largely agree that Lewis will be a formative influence. That said, in his Perelandra series he seems to advocate a hard response against our enemies i.e. massacres in Minecraft.
Fiction, though?
Step over, but do so kindly.
I will confess to invoking 'booklord' from time to time. I insist someone needs to. More is demanded than reading a ton of books from someone that would presume to tell me about them. In any case thank you for introducing me to all these works; it would have been a pity had I died before I read them and sank into Hell being wrong about everything.
The time to measure men will come, perhaps, when we have ran out of books.
The issue for us plebs though, is that a great many of the academics and experts, have completely ignored the evidence and distorted "science TM" to suit their own agendas.
The ones that didn't were smeared, silenced and sacked.
Academics supporting lockdowns, masking, toxic jabs, global warming, Orange man bad and not allowing any dissenting voices, has made me realise that having lots of qualifications and ability to read lengthy texts, counts for nothing when they frequently lack the smallest grain of common sense.
Most of the academics I encounter are incredibly left leaning and fully supportive of the tyranny that has been forced upon us for the last two years.
Naturally I'm only defending rightwing intellectuals and scholars here.
I think a reference to Intellectuals & Society wouldn't go amiss in this text, though.
I agree I would see scholarly research as a form of action in itself . However I do understand the frustration some people have with the inability the dissident right has, when it comes to raising money and building institutions, but Rome was not build in a day.
"Certain computer programmer types disparage ‘The Great Read’ believing that – in what must be the height of total stupidity – old books have nothing to say to our present moment. But these are also people delusional enough to believe that they will overcome the CIA, MI6, Google, and the United States military with, wait for it, network analysis. Let me offer a reality check: that is not happening; least of all when you spend the rest of your time repeating tired Boomerisms no one wants to hear while trying to ‘deradicalize’ the youth. Let me make it simple to anyone reading this: that person is not your friend and is nothing more than a timewaster."
Is there a particular person in mind here? Also what are the great reads?
A wonderful article! AA, you yourself are a great example of how scholarship and serious engagement with the canon can greatly develop and hone a person's views even in the span of just a few years.
I have followed other people (Stefan Molyenux comes to mind) who seem to have moved absolutely nowhere and said nothing new in years. And I believe that not doing the scholarly work in an honest and serious way is at least part of the reason.
Nice