Archeofuturism

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Archeofuturism
cover
Cover
Author(s) Guillaume Faye
Cover artist Andreas Nilsson
Country London
Language English
Genre(s) Politics
Publisher Arktos
Publication year 2010
Pages 249
ISBN 978-1-907166-10-5

Archeofuturism: European Visions of the Post-Catastrophic Age is a book by the French writer and political thinker Guillaume Faye. The book was first published 1997 in French and an English edition was brought out by the publisher Arktos in 2010. The foreword of the English edition is written by the political thinker Michael O'Meara.

In the book, Faye calls for a synthesis by the will to restore the traditions of the West, and the "most daring" technological and social advances, as well as an Empire encompassing most of the Eurasian continent.[1]

The book has been praised as original and important,[2] but also been criticized heavily on account of its sometimes fanciful ideas of genetic manipulation and 'man-animal chimeras,'[3] as well as its uncritical promotion of unity between Europe and Russia.[4]

Meaning

Archeofuturism is the attitude that approaches the future in terms of ancestral values, believing that notions of modernism and traditionalism need to be dialectically transcended.

Archeofuturism opposes both modernity and conservatism, seeing them as versos of one another and believing that modernity is backward-looking, having failed to realise either its ideals or great projects. Techno-science, for example, is incompatible with modernity’s humanitarian and egalitarian values. The Twenty-first century will see the resurgence of struggles that bourgeois and Western cosmopolitan ideology thought it had long ago buried: identitarian, traditionalist, and religious conflicts; geopolitical fissures; ethnic questions posed at the planetary level; battles over scarce resources. . .no need to develop the concept here, since I’ve devoted an entire book to it — Archeofuturism — to which one can refer.

(see progress, progressivism)

Cover text

Archeofuturism, an important work in the tradition of the European New Right, is finally now available in English. Challenging many assumptions held by the Right, this book generated much debate when it was first published in French in 1998. Faye believes that the future of the Right requires a transcendence of the division between those who wish for a restoration of the traditions of the past, and those who are calling for new social and technological forms - creating a synthesis which will amplify the strengths and restrain the excesses of both: Archeofuturism.

Faye also provides a critique of the New Right; an analysis of the continuing damage being done by Western liberalism, political inertia, unrestrained immigration and ethnic self-hatred; and the need to abandon past positions and dare to face the realities of the present in order to realise the ideology of the future. He prophesises a series of catastrophes between 2010 and 2020, brought about by the unsustainability of the present world order, which he asserts will offer an opportunity to rebuild the West and put Archeofuturism into practice on a grand scale.

This book is a must-read for anyone concerned with the course that the Right must chart in order to deal with the increasing crises and challenges it will face in the coming decades.

Guillaume Faye was one of the principal members of the famed French New Right organisation GRECE in the 1970s and '80s. After departing in 1986 due to his disagreement with its strategy, he had a successful career on French television and radio before returning to the stage of political philosophy as a powerful alternative voice with the publication of Archeofuturism. Since then he has continued to challenge the status quo within the Right in his writings, earning him both the admiration and disdain of his colleagues.

'Archeofuturism is thus both archaic and futuristic, for it validates the primordiality of Homer's epic values in the same breath that it advances the most daring contemporary science.' --Michael O'Meara, from the Foreword"[5]

Opinions on the Book

"These are the lines of catastrophe which Faye expects to converge in about the second decade of this century. His prophecy is reminiscent of Andrei Amalrik’s 1969 essay Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984?—which, of course, proved uncannily accurate. Still, the wise reader will not want to overstress Faye’s time frame; much is clear about the crisis we face, but not even the angels in heaven know the day or the hour.

The author emphasizes that the impending meltdown presents us with opportunities: “When people have their backs against the wall and are suffering piercing pains, they easily change their opinions.” The stormy century of iron and fire that awaits us will make people accept what is currently unacceptable. The right today must position itself to be perceived as “the alternative” when the inevitable crisis hits. This means discrediting leftist pseudo-dissent, which is merely a demand for the intensification of official ideology and praxis. It also means acquiring the monopoly over alternative thought: not by imposing a party-line, but by uniting all healthy forces on a European level and abandoning provincial disputes and narrow doctrines."
- F. Roger Devlin, on Counter-Currents[6]

Books by the same author

See also

Publication data

  • Archeofuturism: European Visions of the Post-Catastrophic Age, Guillaume Faye, 2010, Arktos, ISBN-10 1907166092, ISBN-13 978-1-907166-09-9


References

External links