https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=LmJEt-8RpRs
In the past few years we’ve seen in certain circles, both right-wing and left-wing, we’ve seen a resurgence of something we could call accelerationism, which is the desire to participate in the breakdown of society or the breakdown of structures in order that something new will occur. And so push things to their extreme so that a new system will occur. Now this appears both on the left and the right, and many people have asked me what I think of this and if I think it’s a viable solution to the problem. This is Jonathan Peugeot. Welcome to the symbolic world. In a lot of meme culture and a lot of the chaotic stuff that we’ve been seeing coming out of the Chans, out of the Reddits, the kind of bubbling up of crazy imagery and especially some recent memes that we’ve seen, the idea of accelerationism has become more and more popular. And people have asked me symbolically what I think of it and what I think if I think it is a possible solution to the problem of Western civilization as we see it now. In order to answer that question, we need to remind ourselves something that I insist on constantly, which is that there is a deep analogy between the personal structure and the social structure. That is, there is a strict analogy between the human being and the communities in which that human person participates. And one of the problems of accelerationism is somehow to think that those two things are separate from each other. That you could somehow participate in the destruction of society, that you could somehow accelerate chaotic elements of society and somehow remain unsinged in yourself from doing that. And I think that it is a very dangerous game to play because as we want to push certain factions, certain elements that we find decadent or certain elements that we find dangerous for society in order to to quicken the collapse of everything in the hopes that something better will be born. We are also engaging on that road within ourselves. It is very few people who can legitimately rise above the fray and act, could act in that way without themselves falling into the very things or being taken into the very things on their own fringes that they want to encourage on the fringe of society. You know, I do believe that a lot of the things that we’re seeing happen today are a playing out of the Christian story. I’ve often said in my videos that within the Christian story, it is important to see that the death of Christianity is part of it. The death of Christ is part of the Christian story and the death of Christianity is part of the Christian story itself. The Christian story seems to be a process by which, as Christ says, all things are revealed. And for all things to be revealed, it means that both the wheat and the tares grow up at the same time. It means that as you uncover things, you uncover both the mysteries and the scandal at the same time. And those two things are inevitable as the world moves towards the resolution of the Christian story. And so I think that Christ himself put it the most succinctly when he said that in his own coming, in the consequences of his own coming, that scandal must happen. But he also then says, woe to those by whom it happens. And I think that in that statement is the deep understanding that it is normal that what we see around us is happening. This upside down world, the chaos, the degeneracy that we see around us. This is something which is inevitable in the cycles of history and inevitable in the big story of the Christian revelation, you could call it. To play a part in bringing about the end of Western civilization, to play a part, you know, you’ve seen some evangelicals in, you know, in recent times doing things in order for Christ to return, to provoke the return of Christ. This is an old way of acting. You know, you saw this all the way in the Middle Ages where certain people acted in certain ways, especially during the time of the Crusades, in order to restore, to bring about the return of Christ. An example, a very strange example of that is Christopher Columbus himself, who in one of his ideas was to go out and when he found the lost, when he found North America, one of his goals that is not publicly known very well was actually to find the Garden of Eden. And finding the Garden of Eden was, in his idea, was to bring about, you know, the end of times, to bring about the return of Christ. You see several people have that approach and I think that it is the very idea that we would act in a way to provoke, you know, a kind of chaos or to provoke a breakdown so that, you know, that the story will resolve itself. I think it is very dangerous for society and it is very dangerous for ourselves. What we need to do is to do what Christ told us to do, is to become just, to become like Christ, to emphasize the virtues and to become little lights. And those little lights, you know, no matter how dark it gets, those little sparks, those little lights will have enough. We need to trust that they will have enough light to carry us through the flood, to carry us through the chaos and to be little lights into the coming darkness. And this not only for society as a whole, but for yourself, for your own spiritual development, for your family, for those around you, if you let yourself embrace the cynicism that it requires to become an accelerationist, you will find that it will have negative consequences on yourself, on your family and those around you. And it is, no matter what we think, it is embracing a kind of nihilism, even if it is not, even if you do believe that by doing so, you will bring about some new order, some new thing in the actions that you pose. It is an embracing of nihilism. And I don’t think that most of us can say above that fray. I hope you enjoyed my discussion. In ending, I would like to give a special thanks to Matthew Wilkinson. Matthew Wilkinson is a friend of mine. I stayed at his house in fall when I carved this very large stone monument. And he has written for me this amazing outro, which is based on the introduction to my videos, the Russian Eastern Overture by Rimsky-Korsakov, but which is ultimately based on the paschal hymn. I’m very grateful to him that he did that for me. And you will hear it from now on at the end of my videos. And so guys, thanks again for your attention. And I will see you soon.