Archeofuturism Hardcover – August 26, 2010

We are accustomed in the West to "conservatives" on television who are basically liberals who really love capitalism and want us to conquer most of the world to "spread freedom."

This situation exists because, since 1945, conservatism has been in disarray. Its fundamental idea is to learn from the past and what works (e.g. ends before means) instead of what is morally or politically correct, which is the foundation of liberalism.

As a result, conservatism endorses some things that are not very polite. It endorses nationalism, or delineation of nations by self-ruling ethnic groups; it supports a caste or class hierarchy; it endorses social Darwinism, or giving more wealth to those who are more competent; finally, it denies social equality, that "freedom" is a definable goal, or that we can all get along.

To a modern person, conservatism is apostasy and a denial of all the television, rock stars and Hollywood stars, writers, friends and gurus tell us is true.

While we might see modern television conservatives as essentially liberals with the methods of the right, the New Right is an attempt to make conservatives with the values of the right and the methods of the liberals. However, it has taken many years to flower and even be defined; Guillaume Faye's "Archeofuturism" is an attempt not only to define it, but to give it a creative ideal toward which to reach.

The book starts by re-capping the history you will not find in textbooks, namely that liberalism started in 1789, causes two centuries of wars trying to establish the nation state and now, thanks to atomizing individualism, has created societies where no one has anything in common and so chaos is the norm and heavy Nanny State enforcement is necessary.

Faye posits that as ongoing time proves that liberalism has not delivered on its promise of a world of peace and equality, and this causes further inner instability, we will face a "convergence of catastrophes" in which the ill-guided policies of liberalism show their consequences. For example, overpopulation, pollution, climate change, racial strife and proliferation of nuclear weapons will, in Faye's view, come due at about the same time.

Against this Faye posits "archaeofuturism," or a belief system that applies the values of the past to a forward and creative goal. This in itself is a big step for conservatism, which has essentially been a rearguard action since 1789 when politics fragmented with the French Revolution.

This book is an engaging read and, while it will offend most modern readers, is hard to deny as far as a realistic look at politics on the one thousand year scale, instead of the four-year election cycle. It is engagingly written, thoughtful and witty, as well as being informative to those of us who grew up on the filtered pro-liberal media.

Whether you're left or right, this is a "different" view of history that does not have the failings of the official-and/or-popular view. It may even portray a world we'd rather live in.

Archeofuturism
One of the leading proponents of the European New Right, Faye has never
before been published in English. Because of this, it is certainly
interesting to see someone getting around to making his work available to
the English-speaking world.

The book is a mish-mash of analysis, points-of-view, criticisms and
suggestions for the future. Faye has a sharp eye, and is certainly
creative. Sometimes he seems to go a bit overboard in various directions -
possibly the price one pays for an imaginative mind - but even this
contributes to making Archeofuturism a worthy read. One may question
Faye's views on biotechnology, futurism and (perhaps especially) love and
sexuality, but this also makes for an active reading. This is not written
in order that politically inclined groups or individuals can agree with it
wholeheartedly, it is written to spark discussion and engender thought.

Faye's vision for the "post-apocalyptic" age is at once compelling and
disturbing. It is summarized in the last part of the book in the form of a
fictional short-story, which paints a picture of the world not as Faye
thinks it would be, or perhaps even as he would want it to be, but as it
could becpme - should disaster strike, and the Archeofuturistic ideals be
implemented in full.

A worthy read, to say the least.

I love metapolitical thinking, but metapolitical writing can can be boring. I really enjoyed both the easily digestible organization of Archeofuturism and Faye's bold, dynamic writing style -- perfectly suited for a futurist manifesto.

Faye tells us we should dream of the future and plan for the future, but temper this futurism with archaism, which he defines not as backward-looking nostalgia, but an understanding of and respect for the “founding impulses” of human social organization.

Using what is known about evolutionary psychology and tried forms of human social organization to inform humanity’s march into the future corrects the built-in mistake of modern life — which is truly driven by greedy commercialism and merely rationalized and pseudo-sacralized by “progressive” neophilia. In what passes for “social science” today, there is a tendency to throw out any traditional idea about human nature which cannot immediately be explained by scientific inquiry — some quick “study,” or the current perception of the barely understood brain — in favor of some theoretical form of social organization completely untried and unknown to our species.