The Most Harmful Idea of Modernity

Just how self-assured does one have to be to look at people living traditional lifestyles—observing taboos and rituals, working, raising children—and conclude that it is all nothing more than a whim or an imposed delusion? To assume that everyone, just like you, lives only for pleasure, and that beyond pleasure and your own life there is nothing of value in nature.

Even if you know nothing about their motivations, seeing others work toward something while you idle away your time should give you pause. A normal person ought to think: "Maybe there's something I don't know."

The argument that traditionalists simply do not know any alternative does not withstand scrutiny. Even the Amish are given the opportunity by their community to live in the city and decide whether they want to stay there. And what a brilliant idea it is: "You should just live for your own enjoyment, and what happens after your death doesn't matter." Do you seriously think this never occurred to anyone before, and that only you have gained access to some secret knowledge?

Nietzsche explained similar attitudes through ressentiment. But this is something even worse. These people do not think this way out of spite, nor do they convince themselves that they are "superior, just in a different sense." They genuinely believe it. For the first time in history, man has been completely persuaded that he is winning when in reality he is surrendering every position. The best way to win a war is to convince your opponent that no war is taking place — at least not beyond the lifespan of his own body.

In their minds, they have reached the summit: they work a comfortable job with labor protections, then go home and play video games, watch television series, and eat delicious chicken masala delivered to their door, cooked by a Pakistani kindly imported by the local government. What more could one possibly want?

Of course, this formula does not work without a measure of ressentiment: what if someone wants something greater? For that eventuality, an entire system of cancellation and accusations of fascism, racism, and capitalism has already been prepared. But for most Europeans, it seems the thought that something better might exist no longer even occurs. In their minds they are happy; they are the masters. They may even be highly educated, well-versed in history and philosophy, familiar with Nietzsche's ideas, and fully aware of where everything is heading—that soon their people may cease to exist. Yet one simple idea — "What happens after your death does not matter"—outweighs all of that.

No, it does matter. Your will does not die with your body. Your worldview, your genetics—all of this continues in your descendants, provided that you do not allow yourself and them to sink into the swamp of hedonism and moralism. The idea that the person you are today and the person you will be tomorrow are the same individual, while your children are something fundamentally different, is a relic of the Christian concept of the soul—only made even more rigid through pseudo-scientific, pseudo-materialist foundations. It is precisely this idea that we must oppose relentlessly, and it is precisely this idea that we must strike at.

PS: The two pillars on which modern European ideology rests:

1. “I am my consciousness and my descendants are no longer me. Everything that happens after the life of my consciousness is irrelevant.”

2. “Genes have no meaningful influence. Why have children if there are already enough people? Any person can be raised into anything.”

In my view, the second idea is obviously false and far more fragile, but it is needed to support the first. Break one, and the other starts to lean. So we should not forget to attack the second as well. To begin with, we need as many people as possible to stop being ashamed of openly rejecting it, especially within the scientific community that liberal hedonists place so much faith in.