Analysis of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia

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Analysis of Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia        

Is modern politics merely part of religion, is utopia a real farce but still a true and constant goal in the world of politics?  John Gray would argue so; the novel black mass is suggestive and descriptive of how the as a human race, there is a theme that has been central to Black Mass, he gives the argument a twist. He suggests that virtually all politics, is an inherently impossible feat, and therefore corrupting. Black Mass is a very detailed timeline of recent history and different movements that preceded the current politics of the world; mostly the western aspect of civilization.  Also, the various political factions that shaped the world and the inherent problems behind them are chronicled, from monarchism to Nazism to soviet Leninist-Marxism and nearly everything in between.  One of the most striking themes of the book is that in every description of a movement or a faction can actually be compared together by examining the nature of the groups’ collective goals.  The novel examines the different movements and policies, but ultimately only attempts to discredit them all by proving their ‘true insanity’ and apocalyptic link.

        The first portion of the novel is a quantification of the death and origins of utopianism, from how for as long as humans have been around, there has been the idea of a perfect world.  Utopianism in itself is a primarily religious reference to a ‘pure’ world where everyone exists in harmony, doing the exact same thing.  The dissipation of the religious idea of utopia was at the beginning of the Nazism and Soviet Communism movements, “which claimed to be based on science” (1).  For the past 7000 years since the advent of Abrahamic religion, the idea was that as reiterated by roman Emperor Augustine utopia is that “the kingdom of god existed in a realm out of time, and” (8) through a human “inner transformation it symbolized could be realised at any point in history” (8).  The beginning of the ‘new’ “apocalyptic utopianism” (27) was created by the “anti-Cromwellian movement” (23) known as “The Fifth Monarchists” (23) who believed that the world order would collapse “in 1666” (23).  A true revision of the religious beliefs of the utopian movement came when heeding the Marxist ideals of an alternative to capitalism where everyone was equal and no monarchy existed or even religious hierarchy lead to the “Russian Revolution” (24).  The death of any form of utopianism or the creation of another is based on the rationality of “apocalyptic myths” (23).

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        Next, comes the idea of the “enlightenment movement” (28) and the “terror” (28) that it caused as a movement merely by deviating from the traditional idea of religious utopianism lead by a divine head of state.  An example that the book uses to examine the result of a lessened involvement of religion in utopianism, and the increase of collective idealism and enlightenment is” when the Bolsheviks seized power” (47), and how despite the goal of utopianism, Marx and Engels are clear that terror will be an integral part of the revolution” (46); but idealism is not always what results, and ...

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