Gnostic death cult

 

Is the left a Gnostic death cult? Somewhat surprisingly, Irish Traditionalist Keith Woods answers "no" to the question. Very interesting content!

Apparently, it´s a popular notion in some Christian circles that the contemporary left (including trans-humanists and, judging by context, trans-people) are a "Gnostic death cult". This modern form of Gnosticism is said to resemble the ancient original in its hatred of the material world, with the modern version trying to transcend it through genetic engineering, AI, and the like. This reminds me of the idea that the Axial Age (said to begin perhaps 2,500 years ago) replaced immanent-animistic paganism with religions preaching transcendental salvation from a material world seen as hopelessly flawed or even evil. The Upanishads, Buddhism, Christianity and Gnosticism are seen as examples of this, but so is the modern idea of progress, which also wants to "transcend" an imperfect world. 

Woods, by contrast, believes that these resemblances are purely superficial. Trans-humanism isn´t about transcending anything, it´s simply the usual individualist-hedonistic-materialist worldview taken to its logical extreme, where "the freedom of choice" (really the freedom to choose your own hedonistic pleasure) is extended into infinity through science fiction technology. In contrast, Gnosticism was about true transcendence, not just in the (obvious) sense that they wanted to "leave this world", but in the sense that the Gnostics weren´t seeking to satisfy their desires, but reach an entirely different plane of being altogether as pure spirit. 

Woods interprets Gnosticism as a hierarchic worldview, in which humanity is seen as forever split into three different classes, with the vast majority of "hylics" being completely mired in matter and beyond redemption. Also, while every human has a telos (goal or purpose), everyone doesn´t have the same telos. Thus, men can´t become women, humans can´t become animals, and so on. The denial of an objectively definable telos leads straight to an anarchic view of "individual rights", where everyone (seemingly) can become everything he wants, and get all his non-teleological desires satisfied. 

The clip also contain a discussion on Ascenders and Descenders, Plato and Aristotle, and so on. Surprisingly much material for a relatively short presentation!