Just Finished Reading: Black Mass – Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia by John Gray

Being described by the Sunday Telegraph as ‘a load of bollocks’ – quite an accolade from such a right-wing paper - as well as that it ‘could hardly be more bonkers if it was crawling with lizards’ how could I possibly resist picking this up and reading it cover to cover in three days? OK, so I was recovering from a nasty bug during a week off work but it’s not like I didn’t have anything else to read.

Anyway, I would already regard myself as a fan of Gray’s work so it should come as no surprise that I immensely enjoyed his latest book. He has a way of looking at the world that is at the same time refreshing and shocking. He’s certainly not afraid to see things differently and has the communication skills to convey his ideas in such a way as to make them seem obvious. Gray’s underlying argument rests on his idea that Enlightenment thinking rather than being a rejection of Christianity was in fact an outgrowth of it especially with regard to the perfectibility of both Man and his environment. This rather inevitably leads, in Gray’s opinion to the mistaken and highly dangerous idea of Utopia. Examples of this dangerous idea can be found throughout history but Gray concentrates on two examples from the 20th Century – that of Nazism and Communism. Both of these ideologies are, Gray asserts, outgrowths of the Enlightenment which was itself an outgrowth of Christianity, deeply infected with unrealisable utopian beliefs and, therefore, doomed to bloody failure. Gray however saves most of his ire and probably half of his book to a polemic against what he sees as the latest example of deeply misguided utopian thinking – the belief that democracy and free-market capitalism can not only be exported successfully to the rest of the world but that, once established, will usher in a Golden Age of peace and prosperity. Grey is not afraid of upsetting apple carts nor is he afraid of roasting sacred cows over the fires generated by his plainly evident wit and wisdom.

Maybe strangely for a book of political philosophy this is a real page turner. Gray has the ability and skill to see through to the heart of things and the devastating power of critical thinking to dissect policies exposing their rotten cores for all to see. Like a previous work Straw Dogs this book has the power to change the way you see the world. There are few enough of those books around so those that exist should be cherished. This is one such book. Highly recommended – despite what the Telegraph would have you believe!