It’s a claim the more educated fascists like Richard Spenser make, that the essence of the west is found in a kind of seeking after “forbidden knowledge,” and a disregard for boundaries and tradition – i.e., that the west is like Goethe’s Faust. (In Goethe’s play, Faust ultimately attains salvation as a result of his striving). Which is to a certain extent fair, because the west does have this spirit; even Marx possesses it. But the fascists like to identify a “Faustian spirit” in all kinds of stupid things, like shopping malls and the 80s Top Gun movies, and thus claim that dumb American pop culture is somehow transcendent and boundary-breaking. That’s sort of what I was referencing.
Is this that “Faustian Western spirit” that fascists won’t shut up about?
The what?
It’s a claim the more educated fascists like Richard Spenser make, that the essence of the west is found in a kind of seeking after “forbidden knowledge,” and a disregard for boundaries and tradition – i.e., that the west is like Goethe’s Faust. (In Goethe’s play, Faust ultimately attains salvation as a result of his striving). Which is to a certain extent fair, because the west does have this spirit; even Marx possesses it. But the fascists like to identify a “Faustian spirit” in all kinds of stupid things, like shopping malls and the 80s Top Gun movies, and thus claim that dumb American pop culture is somehow transcendent and boundary-breaking. That’s sort of what I was referencing.
Thank you for the explanation!
I think the core essence of the Western Spirit is best described by Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale