This post is part of a series covering BRONZE AGE MINDSET. This post is a bit of an off-shoot, covering a philosophy that I consider BAP-adjacent- today we’ll be taking a look at THE DARK ENLIGHTENMENT.

If BRONZE AGE MINDSET can be reduced to its main theme, and the number one take-away, it would be that BAP considers the emergence of the bug-man to be the central ill of modernity and rallies against all the bug stands for: total consumption. This complete disregard of all that is traditionally masculine has allowed for a neoliberal system to reign over mindless, idiot consumers.

Bronze Age Mindset was published in 2018- in 2020 we're seeing an intense acceleration in this system taking hold and destroying all enemies. Speech is more highly regulated by tech company oligarchs, and a strict belief in the inherent goodness of equality- as measured in the equality of outcomes- are all but made mandatory by gunpoint.

In this post, we'll take a quick overview of the origins of this slipperly slope that will get hot as fucking hell over the nect decade- for this, we'll need to start at the Protestant Reformation.

Conservatives are lame idiots. You may know this already, or you may think conservatives are the good guys fighting for all that is good and right. Conservatives will often spout rhetoric about taking America "back to the 50s," but I ask you this- were the 50s truly different enough? Were things already set in motion that would always, inherently, inevitably lead to what we see today? The Dark Enlightenment is anti-conservative- when we say we want to "take things back to the 50s," we mean the 1450s...

Sounds crazy, right? Weren't people uneducated savages back then?

Let's start with what the Protestant Reformation changed. Martin Luther (1481-1546) was the first progressive! His idea was that the church should not be a hierarchy of clergy but a "community of believers." Instead of a descension of authority from God --> Church --> people, Luther suggested that all Christians should have their own, individual, direct connection to God, thereby deconstructing social hierarchy and establishing the first notions of equality!

Now, what's that they say about a slippery slope?

Following Luther, the puritans gained influence in England- think of them as the Social Justice Warriors of their day. Very strongly anti-monarchy- which paved the way for Oliver Cromwell, a general who signed the death warrant for King Charles in 1649. This was not something done prior to the Protestant Reformation. But suddenly, the idea of rigid hierarchy (the only kind with legitimacy!) fell out of fashion- and, suddenly, if people didn't like the King in charge...... well.

Fast forward about a hundred years, and we get to talk about the naughty children of the American Revolution. The actual conflict of the revolution was Whigs, who favored democracy, and Jacobites, who were loyal monarchists. What they don't tell you in high school was that there were "heroes on both sides," to grab a line from the Episode 3 crawl... in other words, the sides weren't exactly black and white, America vs. England- each side had their share of Whigs and Jacobites- most notably, British General William Howe was a known Whig. Hmmmmmm!

I am not an expert on the hidden details of the American Revolution, but I just ordered the book Moldbug recommends as a starting point: "The True History of the American Revolution"- so this will be an issue I'll revisit.

Coming out of the American Revolution was, of course, the Declaration of Independence- featuring the line "All Men are Created Equal."

Boy are slippery slopes super slippery! In a few hundred years we went from solely our relationship with God being universal and equal, to all men being created equal. See where this is going?

A C C E L E R A T I O N

Next up, kids, we have the French Revolution (1789-1799)! And, what do we know about the French Revolution? OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! The French Revolution was about the abolition of the French monarchy. The core tenants of the French Revolution were Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity- or, in other words, the ideas stemming from the Enlightenment. During the French Revolution we see a formal declaration of the rights of women (where could this be going? hmmm).

Comparatively, the American Revolution almost comes across as adorable. The French punished dissidents with death. Sound familiar? And we've still got two-hundred years to go!

Quick break first, though- two questions. What end-goal does Darth Vader want Luke to help him accomplish in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)? And who is the biggest genocidal, mass-murderer in Star Wars? Let's come back to this a little later.

Next we have the Russian Revolution, which overthrew the Czar of Russia and further pushed a Social Justice agenda. Homosexuality was decriminalized here and Feminism was more formalized with the introduction of "International Woman's Day" in 1917! Now you can make friends at work by telling them you refuse to celebrate a Communist holiday! (no, don't really do this).

Shortly after we had World War 2 which established the Soviet Union and the United States as the world's superpowers. Promoted as polar opposites- but, I wonder, were they really? The Soviets were revolutionary marxists- more of a hot culture war- but over in America, we had the kettle simmering on low with cultural marxism- a cold culture war.

THE RELIGION OF P R O G R E S S IV IS M

The eventual fall of the Soviet Union brought us to where we are today- what started with the Protestant Reformation has become the new Religion. Understand this, a religion does not need to have a God-figure sitting at the head of the table- way too much hierarchy in a religion of equality! The God-figure of the Progressive religion is the ideas of universal equality, democracy, and diversity. Say what you want- do what you want- but these principles cannot be questioned.

Like old religions, the religion of progressivism has transgression, sin, and heresy! The original, unwashable sin of progressivism is to be white, male, and heterosexual.... was the old, prior to May of 2020 way of thinking. Looks like white chicks are on the shit list now too!

Like old religions, there is also the need for purity and redemption. Bizarre rituals to cleanse one's self of whiteness.

Like old religions, there are heresy accusations. We see viral videos used as public scarlet letters- which result in all but formalized exile. Unpersoning from social media platforms, and video services, without government intervention (despite having OMG HITLER X 1000 sitting on the throne.... oh, now don't you wish it were a throne!?).

W E L CO ME TO H E L L

In our modern, globalist neoliberal world that took hold after the collapse of the Soviet Union- we are not ruled by a King or an explicit aristocracy, but one that is implicit and hiding in plain sight. This conglomeration of modern oligarchs have been referred to as The Cathedral because they are only theoretically separate entities that have the same ideology and end-goals- they are the government (the least important of the grouping, ironically), academia, the media, and corporations/tech. Although "separate" you will see these entities acting in unison. It was only in 2008 that Barack Obama was against gay marriage... and now.

Think of it like this- ten years ago, could you imagine losing your job for a tweet? And now? This is where we are, right now- the wrong move, in public or private, will unperson you and all but kill you... the next step is imprisonment for "hate speech," and then death.

The Right always loses. Hope this isn't new for you, but if it is, let's talk Star Wars instead. What's Darth Vader's end-goal- what makes the Empire so evil? He wants to bring order to the Galaxy. Order. What was the start of all of this? What was identified as the true evil of the world, and started off this slippery slope which resulted in blood-shed and thought control. A distaste for order... hierarchy. This is, and always has been, considered the true modern evil of Progressivism.

And who is the true mass-murderer of the galaxy? Well, of course, it's a tie! The Empire had its hand pushed to destroy Alderaan- who knows what ultimate chaos (the opposite of order!) the galaxy would become without the structure of the Empire?! It was collateral damage! But how many people did Luke kill when he blew up with moon-sized Death Star? Maybe not quite as many, but certainly in the tens of thousands. Do we spent even a frame of Star Wars considering how many people Luke has killed? No! We're more concerned with a walking dog not getting a medal!

The lesson: There is no morality- ideology is the only morality (actions are not judged, only ideologies are judged).

Remember this as we all head to the gulag or the guillotine- whichever comes first.

If you're interested in further reading, I highly recommend Moldbug's excellent "An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives"

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