Against the New Paganism

There’s been much discussion of how “wokeness,” for lack of a better term, operates as a form of civic religion for the political left. Less discussed, according to Jack Butler of National Review, is the emerging form or forms of paganism on the political right. Most prominent among them is Costin Alamariu, a Romanian political-science Ph.D. from Yale, who goes by the moniker “Bronze Age Pervert.” Alamariu is the author of Bronze Age Mindset, which Butler describes as “an intentionally provocative, discursive, and ungrammatical “exhortation” outlining his thought.” In it, Alamariu laments the diminution of the authentic expression of masculinity and the masculine virtues, and the failures of political conservatism to preserve those virtues and whatever else is good about civil society. In ideas reminiscent of Frederich Nietzsche, Alamariu castigates the “bug men” or “human cockroaches” for their weakening of men and of society, and the need for a league of neo-ubermenches to rise up and reshape the world in their image. Butler contents that, wild as this all sounds, we should take the Bronze Age phenomenon and the rising new paganism seriously.  Today, Eric Kohn talks with Jack Butler about the rise of this new paganism on the left and on the right, and how he contends that only a reinvigorated Christianity in the public square can adequately contend with these new “pretender faiths of our time.” Subscribe to our podcasts Against the New Paganism | National Review Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.