H.P. Lovecraft transformed the horror genre, wrote 100,000+ letters to frens, and was, above all, a soulful aristocrat. Let's explore his attacks on democracy, his critique of our modern priorities, and what he believed civilization MUST aim at👇🏻
1/ A great society is only built when the most gifted contribute
And for their contribution, the aristocrats must be rewarded:
“Since the only human motive is a craving for supremacy, we can expect nothing in the way of achievement unless achievement be rewarded by supremacy”
2/ Civilization must create valuable “thoughts and objects” and aristocracy “alone” can do this
Democracies live “parasitically on the aristocracies they overthrow”
And over time, democracies use up “the aesthetic and intellectual resources which autocracy bequeathed them”
3/ Science & art trickle down from the top:
The ultrawealthy turn their surplus capital & attention toward the “full appreciation of beauty and truth”
“Most of the pleasures” felt by the average man wouldn’t exist if the wealthy didnt use their spare resources to cultural ends
4/ No aristocracy is permanently protected from democracy; no democracy is permanently protected from ambitious aristocrats
The masses eventually over run the palace
And then the aristocrats eventually take advantage of the indifferent, scatter-brained masses to win power back
5/ Lovecraft gives all governments a very simple task:
“Government need go no further than to safeguard an aristocratic class in its opulence and dignity so that it may be left free to create the ornaments of life and to attract the ambition of others who seek to rise to it”
6/ Aristocracies can’t be closed off:
“The healthiest aristocracy is the most elastic – willing to beckon & receive all men of whatever antecedents who prove themselves aesthetically & intellectually fitted for membership”
Make the aspirational life available to the deserving
7/ HP Lovecraft is spiritually opposed to the democratic reformer, the man who is obsessed with the “welfare of the masses,” who embraces their “mental-emotional point of view” & who’d “willingly sacrifice the finest fruits of civilization for the sake of stuffing their bellies”
8/ Highly evolved humans need great art, noble adventures, and the right to a sincere search for truth. These needs are only satisfied under the aristocratic conditions of wealth, luxury, high artistic & moral standards, generational missions, and protection from everyday fads
9/ Lovecraft on the difference between him and a democratic reformer:
“The reformer cares only for the masses, but may make concessions to the civilization. I care only for the civilization, but may make concessions to the masses. Do you not see the antipodal difference?”
10/ I love HP Lovecraft’s definition of art
The artist sees something important, good, or beautiful in the world - something invisible to others
Then he sets to work, using the mediums he’s best acquainted with, to bring his vision to the world
Full quote from a letter:
11/ How H.P. Lovecraft tried to balance his artistic and scientific sides
Lovecraft had a sensitive heart and a sharp mind
Here's how he balanced the two:
12/ Civilization should be set up for the production of beauty & greatness: “We advocate the preservation of conditions favorable to the growth of beautiful things — imposing palaces, beautiful cities, elegant literature, reposeful art & music, & a physically select human type”
Arm yourself against democracy's psyops
Here's my Reading List For Aristocrats:
• Emerson on why you need great men
• Nietzsche on what is greatness
• Carlyle's demand for a Superman
Ancient Rome was the world's most powerful empire for 500 years
At its height, Rome boasted of roads, public baths, and much else that was close to miraculous for the rest of the planet
Then came the Great Fall...
What happened has lessons for the world TODAY
A thread👇🏻
1/ In his book The City In History (1961), Lewis Mumford explains how Rome went from "Megalopolis to Necropolis." This great city set up its own demise in two ways: Panem et circenses. That is: "bread and circuses." Mumford: "Success underwrote a sickening parasitic failure."
2/ As Ancient Rome became prosperous, it became an unsustainable welfare state
Mumford writes that "indiscriminate public largesse" became common
A large portion of the population "took on the parasitic role for a whole lifetime"
> When you realize your libtard worldview leads to hellish architecture and if you say anything to defend it, then Tucker will hit you with his loud autist laugh
Ted Kaczynski’s IQ: 167
Harvard admission: At 15
Youngest ever math prof, UCB: At 25
Money spent by FBI to find him: $50+ mil
The manifesto attacks modern civilization like nothing else before or since
13 best insights from a Philosopher-Terrorist👇🏻
1/ Kaczynski lists the 4 big problems with modern civilization:
- “Excessive density of population”
- “Isolation of man from nature”
- “Excessive rapidity of social change”
- “The breakdown of natural small-scale communities such as the extended family, the village, the tribe”
2/ The big difference between the primitive civilization and our contemporary world is that before, individuals had a lot of autonomy while the state was largely powerless to penetrate into the everyday life of people
Kaczynski argues that modern tech suddenly flips this balance
In D.H. Lawrence’s hypnotic and powerful short story SUN (1928), Juliet, a sick woman, is prescribed sun therapy by her doctor. She starts sunbathing naked and magical changes happen in her body, psyche, and being. The “cold dark clots of her thoughts” start dissolving. A thread:
1/ Juliet’s sun-bathing sessions turn her into an aristocrat:
She develops a “contempt for human beings altogether”
Why?
Because they are “un-elemental” and “unsunned”
As if they are “graveyard worms” - always “innerly cowed” and afraid of the “natural blaze of life”
2/ Why was D.H. Lawrence obsessed with the sun? His father was a coal-miner, spending most of his time in the dark underground. Lawrence didn’t want that fate. He wrote: “The sun is to us what we take from it. And if we are puny, it is because we take punily from the superb sun.”