A grotesque manifest

I just had a brief look at the (1,500 page!) ”2083: A European Declaration of Independence”.

No, I didn't read it. I don't have the time or the stomach for this kind of thing. I read parts though, and here's my preliminary summary of what I saw: hatred of multiculturalism, the "cultural Marxist" elite and the "Islamic colonization of Europe". A desire to strike a pessimistic, heroic tone: our only hope against the near-complete victory of "political correctness" are a few courageous resistance fighters. Time is running out. In a few decades we will have a Muslim majority. The 50's was an idyll: today violence and criminality rule the streets. 

The introductory pages are followed by a ”book” on the atrocities of Islam and the falsification of history. The next ”book” is about Europe and the EU’s deliberate project to islamicize Europe. He claims that western feminism paved the way for Islam. Apart from cultural Marxism, multiculturalism and feminism, he also resents global capitalism, labour migration, low birthrates, rap and black culture.

An interesting curiosity is his hatred of what he calls the Frankfurt school, which he claims was founded by Lukács. This nebulous school - of which he thinks Gramsci and today's deconstruction also form part - assumes central importance in his thinking as a sinister contemporary "cultural" version of the classical "economic" Marxism but just as intent on erasing Western civilization as the latter. Thinkers like Marcuse, Fromm and Adorno are introduced in Wikipedia-like entries (with pedantic but truncated lists of important works). This entire tradition of thought is summarily reduced to "revolution", resentment against Western civilization and Gulag. Much of the information is superficial, the argument is crude and the entire text is full of repetitions.

There is also an attack on sociology, entitled ”Why the discipline of Sociology must be completely removed from Academia” (If he hadn’t been a madman, I would have felt flattered).

Another curiosity is his appreciation of countries like Japan or South Korea that ”never adopted multi-culturalism” (very flattering to these countries indeed!).

In the second half of the long manuscript I discover what I can only describe as bizarre long passages with descriptions of armour, weaponry and shields, presumably things needed by Knights Templars to repulse Islam from Europe.

The most repulsive thing about what happened in Oslo and Utoya are of course the acts themselves, the deaths and the cruelty. What point is there in paying attention to the ideas expressed by the murderer? What strikes me, however, is how well this guy’s world-view accords with what is propagated by islamophobic or racist parties in Europe - the desire to defend an idealized idyll against outsiders, the hatred of a dominant "political correctness" which is equated with betrayal. These are parties which have recently made spectacular electoral gains in many countries and are now trying to gain a measure of respectability. If one removes the comical theoretical ornaments, the basic ideas are familiar. One can only hope that the horrible deeds in Oslo and Utoya will help make them less respectable again.