Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia

Gray is a modern day Pareto and Schopenhauer combined, turning a razor sharp axe of dis-idealized realism to contemporary political religions and pieties.

Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia, John Gray, is not for everyone. Here's a short list of people who probably shouldn't read this book:* Supporters of the Iraq war -- you'll be distressed to see all of the justifications ripped to shreds and various lies and contortions of "logic" laid bare.* Opponents of the Iraq war - you will be distressed all over again.* Religious fundamentalists - if you think religion (any of them) has the answers to the world's problems, you will be distressed.* Rational humanists - if you think science (particularly social evolution) and rational thought can answer the world's problems, you will be distressed.Also likely to be distressed: political theorists in general, neo-cons, liberals, the far right, the far left, people who think America (or Great Britain, or any country, for that matter) has a special significance in the world, communists, rapid climate change deniers, supporters of the war on terror ... actually, it might be easier to list the people who will like this book: realists.John Gray does his usual fine job building a case that untangles the threads of philosophy, social and religious history and human hubris, identifying the driving forces behind the worlds many historic and current missteps. In this particular book, he traces a peculiar strain of apocalyptic, end of the world Christianity and how it shapes, and continues to surface, in political and state systems including the Enlightenment, communism, Islamic fundamentalism and the current (he wrote the book in 2007) neo-conservative religio-political thought gripping America and driving the gloriously misguided Iraq invasion.At heart, all of these systems and many more are motivated by a belief that a glorious utopian "end of history" is coming and can be hastened by things like human-guided wars of democratization. Gray does a great job of explaining, patiently but with a hard edge, why they are all mistaken. It's a short but fascinating trip through the soaring excesses of the human experience as defined by a sense of precious -- and undeserved -- exceptionalism. It's a belief system that blinds us from obvious truths - we are part of history, not masters of it.Here are a few of the jewels he throws out:* (Concerning the Iraq war): No constitution can impose freedom where it is not wanted or preserve it where it is no longer valued.* (Concerning why conflict seems to be ever present in the human condition): Nothing is more human than the readiness to kill and die in order to secure meaning in life.* (Concerning the myth of collective progress) "...humanity cannot advance or retreat, for humanity cannot act: there is no collective entity with intentions or purposes, only ephemeral, struggling animals each with its own passions and illusions.* (Concerning the human condition and the role of realism) The cardinal need is to change the prevailing view of human beings which sees them as inherently good creatures unaccountably burdened with a history of violence and oppression.Clearly, this is not a book designed to make us feel good about ourselves or the future, but it should be required reading for realists, and for anyone who wonders how to rise above our own short sighted obedience to an impossible "harmony of ethics" or utopian future in which struggles miraculously cease (despite centuries of examples to the contrary).I didn't enjoy this quite as much as Straw Dogs, but still rank it very highly and hope his particular brand of realism comes to shape political thought.

Reading Gray's books is entering another intellectual village altogether. He is deeply erudite and yet seems completely original. His insights are not matched by anyone else I have read.In this book, Gray describes the modern utopian projects and their roots in Christian eschatology: Communism, Nazism, neoliberalism, and neoconservatism among them.Your first reading of Gray is only a pretext to re-read it later. His bibliographies are master courses in political philosophy in and of themselves. And you'll learn what it's like to think about the world without cobwebs and blinders.

I found John Grey's book after reading his review of Fukuyama's new book. It explains that liberalism and Marxism are both utopian faith-based projects of the Enlightenment and the expectations of progress to a better world whether by Washington consensus, revolution, ethnic cleansing, or jihad. Now I understand why ISIS has less to do with Islam and more as a consequence of political decisions and trends in the West.

Like all books by John Gray, Black Mass is a compelling example of the power of an overwhelming and logical examination of vital events. At this point, I would classify Mr. Gray as one of the five top philosophers in the English language. In addition to the impeccable quality of his reasoning, he writes in an accessible and beautiful Englsih, without all the word-splitting typical of philosophers, particularly of the French breed. Kudos!

"With the death of Utopia, apocalyptic religion has re-emerged, naked and unadorned, as a force in world politics." (p. 3) Among the few errors by Mr. Gray is his identification of only the Christian millennialists as apocalyptic. In orthodox Christianity all the exchatologies, premillennial, postmillennial, and amillennial, await the consummation of human history in the return of Christ. There are two differences. The first difference is how the series of events that take place around His return are structured. The second difference is whether the kingdom is established (either initially [amillennial] or completely [postmillennial]) before or after (premillennial) His return.When it comes to current events this work should definitely be taken with a grain of salt. His perspective on current issues, esp. the character of U.S. involvement in Iraq, reads like a partisan talking points paper instead of an objective analysis of the greater situation. (p. 100-104)For Mr. Gray there is no consistent end. His case is not a simple one. He makes very clear the failure of our liberal world to accomplish its utopian goals, the mutual failure of nation-states to fully encompass the needs of the whole society, and the lack of freedom within totalitarian systems. But his solution does not yield a fruitful result. His appeal is a Randian reach to reason and science, and that is his sense of realism. What remains is the physical world; there is nothing transcendental. His realism is without ontology or teleology, reflecting his abandonment of any apocalyptic ends. This is a position of ultimate naturalism that ends with a high level of frightening consistency. By excluding anything metaphysical he excludes ethical considerations from the political process. In this he reads more like coherent Nietzsche.The matter of ethics brings out a serious contradiction in Mr. Gray's thoughts. One the one hand he sounds like the teleological Christians whom he criticizes when he promotes the best virtues of societies that help the needy and minorities. On the other hand, he sounds like just another despotic scientific atheist as he promotes a system driven by reason and science. The result is that Mr. Gray is not only unable to escape the enlightenment liberalism that he maintains has failed but he is also unable to escape the Christian character and ethic that clearly affects his position.It is works such as this which present the greatest philosophic dangers to political and social systems. It is a system without an ethic but pretends to appeal to an ethic for the benefit of society. Such is the arbitrariness of proposed totalitarian solutions, and a fundamental motivation for the Christian, especially the evangelical, to pursue a place for the Christian ethic in civic life.Without a view toward the future, without some sort of apocalypse or similar terminus, there is no possibility for progress. There is no political solution to the human condition.***In short, this is a *useful* book for its history but a *poor* work for its tendency to use history and theology for his own covenience.

Man's search for meaning has been the cause of triumph and despair. We, of the "Western Intellect" want a narrative, a place in the grand scheme of things, a reason for being. Why else the suicide bomber or the American/British invasion of Iraq? History moves toward a grand design understood by secular society as Heaven on Earth and the Religious community as Heaven Beyond. Why believe either? Why do we have to understand our place? Why does religion have to be separate from our everyday existence? Why does everyone have to be the same? Is that even possible? Is a capitalist economic system under liberal democracies the "End of History" or just naive speculation? These are all questions addressed by Mr. Gray who describes how the religious and secular movements of today are essentially the same, visions of utopia. Prophesies, he says, are immensely destructive to our collective well-being. Realism may not be utopia, but it is an alternative. Black Mass is a dense, very satisfying read with every page providing new and exciting revelations worthy of contemplation.

This book has an incredibly original take on culture, religion and national politics which attempts to elucidate the foundations upon which today's thought, political rhetoric and beliefs stand.I will keep this review short and simply say that you do not need a guidebook to take you through his ideas - his writing is clear and compelling. This takes you on a journey through history looking at how ideas of social idealism, utopianism, action, intervention etc. have "developed" (or perhaps "changed" might be a more appropriate term). Implications for today's world are clear in each word, but are drawn out skillfully throughout the book. This should be of interest to anybody interested in social issues from international/ cultural conflict to language, politics to philosophy.This is one of the most important texts I've read in years; one that is important to read in order to understand the world, our ideals and our differences - and to problematize them all. A classic which will inform social, historical, philosophical and political theory for the foreseeable future.*Additional point responding to other reviews (years later)* This book is more about social continuations of thinking and orienting thought, regardless of whether they're 'religious' 'scientific' or anything else. Some reviewers clearly find it hard to accept the concept of underlying rhetoric and socially performed/constructed orientations towards problems & solutions, evil & good, beginning & end, knowledge & mysticism, and other such polemics. Gray puts forward a compelling argument - not understanding it, or even disagreeing with it, doesn't make the book 'bad'. There are some very silly low reviews here that only serve to say "I didn't get it, but I am arrogant enough to shout my opinion from the Amazon roof-tops"!

これは大変な作品です。簡潔ながらわかり易い英語でかれています。でも中身は、どっしりした作品です。政治学、政治哲学、アメリカ政治論、国際政治学そしてイラク情勢やテロへの戦いをめぐる政策論までカヴァーする底の深い作品です。モティーフは西欧の思考に潜むキリスト教の直接的、間接的な影響の解明です。それは歴史に終末（end)と目的（end)を求める黙示録的終末論的な思考方法です。この考えの下では、複数存在する諸価値（自由、平等）の間の両立性が楽観的に前提されています。共産主義、ナチズム、ネオコン、liberalismそして市場原理主義までがキリスト教に由来するこのユートピア的な思考方法に影響されていることが明らかにされています。そしてイスラム教とキリスト教も、終末黙示論的な意味では、同じ性質の問題であることが提示されます。この解明のプロセスの中では、多くの政治哲学者（hobbes, leo strauss,　carl schmidt)の考え方も現代のネオコン（fukuyama)との関連の中で、明確に整理されますが、この作業は見事なものです。悲しいながら若いころから今まで私が読んできた作品が、ここまでひとつの明確なテーマの下に整理されると、自分自身の無能さが痛感されます。結論は限りなく限定的なリアリズムの薦めです。明確な結論や進歩なるものは幻想であり、人間自体は本質的に変わるものではなく、政治の世界に魂の救済や理想の実現を求めるアプローチは否定され、問題の解決（solve)ではなく対処(cope with)を促す真の現実主義が力説されます。そして直接的ではないものの暗黙のうちに非キリスト教世界のアプローチの先進性が示唆されています。

Gray's thesis in Black Mass is that it is that the dangerous and deluded aspects of traditional monotheistic religion that seek to bring about utopia are retained in post Enlightenment secular movements such as Communism, Nazism, Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism. Gray believes that such permanent changes in humanity these movements seek to bring about are not possible, therefore any attempt at this is futile, and as history shows, often catastrophic.It appears that Gray rejects not only the possibility of utopia but also the theory of human progress. Evidently the ancient, medieval and modern worlds are vastly different in belief and worldview, but none can be said to have produced a utopia. Rather than our problems being solved, they merely morph and rear their heads in other ways. Gray treats this as as self evident without really fleshing out his argument. Are all attempts to bring humanity up to a better standard out, or only those that see utopia as their end goal? How does Gray propose to differentiate the two? What is the realism that Gray advocates, and what are some examples of it being practiced in human history?The fact that Christian ideas are carried through into modern liberalism which claims to be rational actually works against Gray's thesis in the sense that the shift from Pagan ideas to Christian ones has become far reaching and permanent - a progression of sorts, and a testament to their enduring power.Black Mass makes the sweeping statement that Christianity and Islam are militant faiths that seek to convert the world. While there are non militant strands in these religions, Gray still treats their fundamental character as militant. Gray does acknowledge that some strands of Christian thought are utopian and some not, however ('The kingdom of heaven is not of this world'). A very interesting comparison is made between a Christian heretical movement (the Anabaptists in the 1500s) and the Bolsheviks and Communists of the 20th century. This comparison is also made in 'Seven Types of Atheism', another book by Gray.While communism and certain strands of Christianity are undoubtedly apocalyptic in thinking, Gray sees parallels in Nazism, Neoliberalism and Neoconservatism, however this is somewhat of a stretch as it is dubious to say that these other ideologies believe in permanent and fundamental change in humanity to nearly the same degree.Perhaps due to the era in which Black Mass was written, at the height of the Iraq war, Gray spends several chapters delving deeply into Neoconservatism and the follies of trying to export democracy to the heart of the middle east through invasion and regime change. It is interesting to note that the philosophy of Leo Strauss, founder of Neoconservatism, who saw liberalism inevitably leading to nihilism, was not formed in America but his experiences in Weimar Germany. While this appears to be an anti utopian view, that liberalism is a fatally flawed idea to base a civilisation on, the later Neoconservatives would embrace utopian thinking when it came to American Exceptionalism and Iraq.One of the weakest points of Black Mass is the paucity of analysis on Neoliberalism and Thatcher, which only occupies a few pages and reads more like an afterthought. There is no or little mention of Reagan or Neoliberal 'Think Tanks', and no mention of the origins of Libertarianism or Ayn Rand's Objectivism, which would have added important background to the ideology. Granted, there are contradictions and unrealistic myths in Thatcher's Neoliberalism, but making the leap to utopianism is questionable.Black Mass is a bold book and is not afraid of going places most fear to tread. It is also very thought provoking, but stretches the idea of 'humanity never progresses' to the extreme, and perhaps sees utopianism in places where it isn't.

John Gray has indeed shed a strong shaft of light into the millennial beliefs of societies and world leaders in ancient and modern times. He has exposed these beliefs for what they are, comforting human constructs, but he has also debunked the idea that if only the right formula or religion is followed humans will change their nature and all will be harmony. Going back to the earliest writings to the present religion has existed and probably always will and Gray bases this as a human need for purpose in life. As with evolution, things will constantly change and stasis will not occur. I shall look forward to reading more.