In the shifting landscape of modern politics, new and strange philosophies are emerging from the shadows. The critic asks about the "Dark Enlightenment" (sometimes called Neoreaction or NRx), a movement often associated with Silicon Valley billionaires and certain fringes of the dissident Right. This philosophy argues that democracy is a failed experiment, that equality is a lie, and that society should be run like a corporation by a sovereign CEO.

The critic assumes that because Christians oppose the "woke" Left, we must therefore be allies of this "Dark" Right.

This is a dangerous category error. The Christian vision of society is as opposed to the Dark Enlightenment as it is to the Progressive Left. Both are forms of materialism. Both deny the central truth of the Imago Dei.

The Two Materialisms

The Progressive Left is a materialism of the Victim. It seeks to reorder society by tearing down hierarchies and elevating the marginalized, often by denying the reality of nature (gender, biology) to achieve equity.

The Dark Enlightenment is a materialism of the Victor. It worships competence, IQ, and power. It views the "masses" not as souls to be saved, but as biological units to be managed by a cognitive elite. It rejects the "slave morality" of Christianity which champions the weak.

For the Christian, both are heresies.

We reject the Left because it denies the order of creation. But we reject the Dark Right because it denies the dignity of the person. A philosophy that despises the weak, the slow, or the unproductive is a philosophy that despises Christ, who chose to be born in a manger and die on a cross.

The Temptation of the CEO-King

The Dark Enlightenment argues that the only way to save civilization is to embrace a "formalism" where absolute power is held by a competent sovereign -- a CEO-King who owns the state.

This appeals to those tired of the chaos of democracy. But it is a trap. It is a return to the pagan idea of the State. In the Christian view, power is not property. Power is a trust. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, not the private instrument of the ruler.

The Christian king (or president) is not a CEO. He is a steward. He is under the law, and he is under God. The NRx desire for an unconstrained "sovereign" is just another form of the "Freedom of Indifference" -- the belief that the Will of the ruler should be the only law. Whether that Will comes from the Mob (Left) or the Monarch (Right), it is still tyranny.

On "Banning" and Public Order

The critic also accuses the Right of wanting to "ban LGBT+ stuff." Here we must distinguish between persons and propaganda.

The Christian does not seek to ban the existence of persons. We do not want a secret police hunting down sinners. That is the method of the Gulag, which we have already rejected.

But we do seek to regulate the public square. A healthy society has the right to decide what is taught to its children and what symbols dominate its culture. To say that "drag queen story hour" does not belong in a public library is not "banning people." It is curating the culture. It is asserting that there are norms of public decency that protect the innocence of the child.

The Dark Enlightenment might ban these things out of a desire for "order" or "hygiene." The Christian opposes them out of a desire for Truth. We want the public square to reflect the reality of the human person -- male and female, created for life.

The True Enlightenment

The "Dark Enlightenment" claims to offer a "red pill" that wakes us up to the harsh realities of the world. It tells us that equality is a myth and that power is the only truth.

But Christianity offers the True Light. It wakes us up to an even deeper reality: that the harshness of the world is not the final word. It teaches us that the weak have a strength that the strong do not know. It teaches us that the ultimate power in the universe is not the ability to crush, but the ability to love.

We do not need a Dark Enlightenment. We need the Light of Tabor. We need to see the human person transfigured by grace. The "Dark" path leads to a cold, efficient hell where the weak are discarded. The Christian path leads to a messy, difficult communion where the weak are carried, and in being carried, they save the strong.