The Politics of Götterdämmerung
The Final Christian Generation, the Twilight of Literacy, and the protagonists of World History
Richard Wagner was always my favorite composer, long before I could articulate his musical fingerprint or understand the politics surrounding him. In 1848, as revolutions rocked Europe, portending the doom of the old order, Wagner wrote this masterpiece, where he put to music what our people have had in our hearts from of old. The last philosopher, Nietzsche, writes of the man “Through Wagner modernity speaks most intimately, concealing neither its good nor its evil—having forgotten all sense of shame.”1 He further states “Wagner sums up modernity, There is no way out, one must first become a Wagnerian.”2
Götterdämmerung is a translation of the old Norse Ragnarök, which would be rendered to us as Twilight of the Gods. It stands, basically, for the end of the world. And for the Palefaces, the end of the world is endlessly fascinating, following us like a shadow through paganism and Christendom, wilderness and imperium, through thick and thin. In the Poetic Edda Völuspá,3 a seer whispers to Odin the fate coming to the world.
Brothers will fight and kill each other,
sisters' children will defile kinship.
It is harsh in the world, whoredom rife
—an axe age, a sword age —shields are riven—
a wind age, a wolf age— before the world goes headlong.
No man will have mercy on another.
One could be forgiven for finding it familiar, somehow. The Apocalypse has been with us now so very long we can scarcely fathom a world without it. But what is the apocalypse? A severalfold answer is necessary.
Nick Land’s opening salvo since his return reminds us, on the subject of the English Canon — “It is not, at all, that Scripture has apocalypse as its object, still less as an object among others. Scripture is the apocalypse. Already, we inhabit it.” He further elucidates “English literary supremacy, as Kenneth Clark observes most popularly, is rooted in the iconoclasm of Protestant revolution. Milton’s literal blindness dramatizes this. Our words arise amid the crashing fall of idols. An idol is a mask seen as something other than a mask.”4
And here the emancipation of authorship makes itself known. As I’ve previously quoted Andrey Miroshnichenko as saying,
“In a little while long-form reading can turn into something similar to Latin, a dead language of the great antique culture accessable to a few. This cultural transition, in and of itself, even if we disregard political and social changes, is capable of destroying and will destroy the old civilization.”5
Anglo Protestantism, while long in incubation, burst onto the stage of world history with the advent of the printing press, and it is the printing press that has made the dissemination of the English Canon possible, and that has to a significant degree helped create the English Canon. This is our civilizational apocalypse, the forces of Beowulf, of Ruskin, of Holst, of Conrad, of Faulkner, marshaled for our Götterdämmerung in the final Christian generation. The Millenials and early Zoomers, and precious few of both, will be the last to read in long form save the choicest few in the future. The symphony too, glistens in its twilight. There is as much hope in reaction as there ever was — which Odin knew — and yet we are no less to play our part, to sally forth into darkness under the banner of light.
Outside the Canon wars there remains an even larger specter in the ether of our apocalypse. There are idols whose judgment Solemn Providence has decreed as surely as ours, and they will sink beneath the sands of time. Our Götterdämmerung is not yet truly ecological, but this looms large. The teeming masses of the world, artificially swelled by the great innovations and charity of the last century, will eventually experience a downturn whether economic or environmental which will demand Western governments throw open their borders, and welcome tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions. In this way, you will be asked, perhaps all at once, to give up civilization. You will be asked to surrender your inheritance, to blot out forever any memory of us or our way of life. The fate of the downtrodden will be in the balance. You must refuse.
The observation has been made many times before—in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king—and this carries true for those of us who are able to hang onto what remains of the old civilization as the flood comes to wash it away. Holy Scripture speaks plainly, that the Elect are the light, light in a dark world, and salt, in a world we can see has lost its taste.6 Ragnarök is not a curse, it is the very reason we are here. Götterdämmerung demands you fight, and fight not with mere flesh and blood but with all the skill and on all the fields. Wise as serpents, innocent as doves. We march towards this destiny defiant, secure in the knowledge that this apocalypse is ours.
The Case of Wagner, Nietzsche. Walter Kaufmann Translation. Preface
Ibid.
Dronke, Ursula (Translation) (1997). The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems. Oxford University Press. p. 18
Land, Nick. Why We Need the Canon Wars. 21 February 2023, Compact Mag
Miroshnichenko, Andrey. The Emancipation of Authorship. p. 220
Matthew 5:13-14 (ESV)
“Ugh there’s nothing exciting to do today, no wonder men are so weak. I wish I was born in a different time so I could be an adventurer or something cool.”
Gentlemen, we are at the end. No time could be more exciting.
Gird your loins. You’re gonna love what comes next.