/375/ From Hyperliberalism to the Grayzone
Added 2023-11-14 12:00:36 +0000 UTCOn John Gray's The New Leviathans.
[Patreon Exclusive]
We discuss the British post-liberal philosopher's new book, looking at his background, ideological journey, and why he might be of interest. We also ask:
- How does John Gray use Hobbes and the idea of a Leviathan?
- What is a "state of nature", and what would an artificial state of nature be?
- Is Gray right in this characterization of liberalism?
- Is hyperliberalism the product of liberalism's decay?
- What is postliberalism and how does Gray’s project fit with it?
Readings:
- The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism, John Gray
- Pseudo-Leviathans, George Hoare, Damage
Comments
First, I thought this was the same John Gray from “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” which was very confusing. More seriously, I was surprised that no one pointed out that the problem with current incarnation of liberalism is that it is built on work (you know The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism stuff). The encroachment of woke and other things onto our society is just an implicit realization that that work and productivity are no longer central to us. Capitalism can now accept all sorts of distractions to its original productive mission because it doesn’t need it anymore. That is why, for example, the CIA can recruit whoever to do the job that was previously highly skilled. We all know that it doesn't matter as the new recruits work or productivity is utterly irrelevant to the CIA overall position and efficacy. Liberalism in its capitalistic formulation revolved around work and once the meaning of work is threatened then we have a crisis of meaning. We are just finding out what will be the new regime of accumulation and that will change the social norms.
Knoroz
2023-11-23 09:42:34 +0000 UTCWokeness is the non-statist component of the liberal worldview (in essence it’s displaced emotive Christian heart) picked up (sublated?) by/into the secular post-liberal neo-hobbesian state. Does this work? Why? Window dressing to mask it’s essentially Hobbesian character, which the state’s gen-X narcissistic leadership class can’t bear.
Mark Neufeld
2023-11-20 14:37:45 +0000 UTC
