This is a guest post from the notorious James Knox. You can check out his Substack here. I asked him to write an explanation of his philosophy at its core.
This is it.
“They are not yet tired of war. Far from it. Do you know the ancient Nord word for war? ‘Season unending’... so it has proved.”
-Arngeir
Decadence
When reading Plato’s Republic people are often quick to point out that it is much more akin to a spiritual guide than an outline for the ideal state. As Sectionalism Archive put it:
“Republic is more of a fantastical approach to society because it is an allegory for the soul, while the Laws is a more brass tacks book about what society should be run like”1
Republic speaks to the soul of the people and is the foundation for further statecraft. This is because no state can be successful if the People are spiritually unwell. The People, being the lifeblood of the state, are necessarily integral to its function. The People compose the body of Hobbes’ Leviathan,2 and the monarch the head. Together, they become the Leviathan, or state.
But what happens when the People are unwell?
What happens when the People no longer act in accordance with Plato’s Republic? What happens when they become decadent and diseased? Certainly, this sort of thing is to be expected. Culture ebbs and flows and, while humans are not nearly as decadent or degenerate3 as many people would think, the threat of decay is always present.
We’re going to come back to this later.
Progress
In what I would consider perhaps his greatest work, Lionel Verney discusses the nature of progress:
The process continues until all other values that can be traded off have been – in other words, until human ingenuity cannot possibly figure out a way to make things any worse.
This is Moloch, and he’s holding the starting pistol to the civilizational race to the bottom.4
To “win” the game of life, humanity must give up some part of its soul. The essence of our very being must be torn asunder because, if it is not, we will die. We will die because someone else has made Faust’s bargain. Someone else has achieved “progress.” Someone else has made a deal with Moloch. And they are stronger for it. Better? No, hardly. But they are stronger, and that’s all that matters. Might does not make Right, but it does make Right irrelevant. “At least we have our principles,” we mutter as the Chinese grunt pistol whips us for not digging our own grave fast enough.
We must tear out our own heart because it is the only logical thing to do. Because it is the only moral thing to do. Maybe, at the very least, we will be able to prevent greater evil from occurring even as we tear apart our own soul. And so we sign the contract, even as Moloch eyes our children with a pernicious hunger.
Toil
Recall the first section, when I asked what happens when the People are unwell; when they no longer act in accordance with Plato’s teachings.
The answer is that we have two choices. The first choice is to accept our decay and die a slow, agonizing death. Wither away as decadence spread throughout your civilization like gangrene, rotting and festering and blistering away your history, culture, and people. The second choice is to sell your soul to Moloch, as the Romans did.
Note that Plato’s Republic is titled “Republic”. The Republic is the ideal government, as agreed on by virtually all philosophers of note. But the Republic can only exist when it is supported by a pious, virtuous, and stalwart people. Just as the Roman Republic fell due to decadence, we too will fall. But Rome survived, in a sense. As Roman conservatives like Cato the Elder were quick to point out, Rome lost an essential component during the birth of the Empire. But it was the only way to save Rome; the only way to save Rome from itself. Roman culture never recovered but the shell persevered. By restricting the voice of the People, Augustus prevented them from greater harm in the same way a father spanks a child for trying to climb into the oven. It was the only way.
To lead, one must be ever vigilant. James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States and the greatest President of all time5 understood this:
Friday, 29th December, 1848
Many matters of minor importance and of detail remain on my table to be attended to. The public have no idea of the constant accumulation of business requiring the President’s attention. No President who performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise the whole operations of the government rather than entrust the public business to subordinates, and this makes my duties great.6
Your work must be tireless, flawless, and thankless. Your attention must be all-encompassing. You must be perfect at everything. Failure risks death on a civilizational level. You may not live to see the destruction your wrought, but it will come nonetheless. Above all else, the People cannot know. The People cannot know simply because they can not know. It is beyond their ability to understand, and if they tried they would only make things worse for themselves.
I have a secret. I like the SCP universe. Or more precisely, I used to like it. To be even more specific, I like the idea. The motto of the SCP Foundation is “We die in the darkness so you can live in the light.” This is the most profound revelation a leader can come to. Everything they do must be hidden away. The people cannot know the horrors you have stayed off. They cannot be allowed to peek behind the veil and learn just how bad things really are. They cannot know just how bad things have always been. It would destroy them.
To lead, you must constantly make decisions which will determine the fates of untold billions, among the living and among the unborn. As the great philosopher Matt Shultz once said “There ain’t no rest for the wicked” and so to will there be no rest for you.
You must stave off decay. You must sell your children to Moloch. You must seal the fate of civilization. And you will receive no thanks. If you do not do these things, your people will slit their own throats. Your people will be trampled underfoot by the industrial power of a foreign civilization; by an enemy and competitor. You must dance with the Devil, and you must win. But you can’t. Not really. Because even if you do win, the next person may not be so skilled.
You are Atlas: The World rests upon your shoulders.
You are Prometheus: you shine the beacon that lights the way Forward.
But most of all, you are Sisyphus: everything you do is in vain.
This is the duty of a true leader. It is a grand and intoxicating proposition which I cannot properly describe to you in words. It is impossible. If you don’t feel an insatiable hunger at this challenge—a fire deep in your belly—I can’t explain it to you. You aren’t cut out for it. You aren’t Augustus. You aren’t Polk. That’s ok.
In the comments of: James Knox. “Stumpside Chats #19: Stare Decisis” in The Knox Papers (09/13/2024).
Lionel Verney. “The Moloch Post” in Rumors of Armageddon (03/02/2024).
James K. Polk. The Diary of a President 1845-1849: Covering the Mexican War, the Acquisition of Oregon, and the Conquest of California and the Southwest, edited by Allan Nevins (Longmans, Green and Co., 1952), 360.
Well written. A core feature of the USA’s Old Republic, one who’s existence can be proven in the absolute but has been erased from seemingly almost all curriculums, was its core assertion, from the reign of the Jacksonians until some point during the decades following WW2, that the banking, finance, monetary sphere must be at once a national whole while also being semi-fragmented, it can not be allowed to be deeply centralized, the national government must be kept at arms length from it all, and the economy must never be allowed to be financialized. Deep enough during a descension of the historical rabbit hole one comes across different variants of the same statement being made by people all around the world, that the USA has a unique national financial paradigm that is very politicized and rigidly enforced by widely and deeply held popular sentiment, as if it were a devoutly held religion. Despite the the 1913 date being so often cited, it was not undone until the 1970s with advent of the so called Neoliberal Era, and things have gone just as the theory of the Old Republic predicted they would.
While interesting writing, the basic premise is flawed.
"Note that Plato’s Republic is titled “Republic”. The Republic is the ideal government, as agreed on by virtually all philosophers of note."
You've literally ignored every philosopher from Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and the whole hundreds of Middle Age Philosophers.
Why?
What is so abhorrent to you about the past, about what built up Christendom, and did so upon the ruins of Rome? You talk about not being able to defeat Moloch - yet reject the very opinions, lifestyle, governments, culture, religions, and philosophies of people that have proven how to do so!
Stop worshipping the Romans, and fearing death.