The Ideology of Tyranny: Bataille, Foucault, and the Postmodern Corruption of Political Dissent

by Guido Giacomo Preparata

The book ascribes the late state of paralysis affecting dissent in America to the adoption of a peculiar gospel of divisiveness, which was promoted in the Eighties by importing from France the "theories" of philosopher Michel Foucault.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy

276 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2007

Reviews

[Matthew James Dodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Preparata's sucker punch against the onslaught of post-modernism from the left and neo-conservatism from the right makes a cogent and well-documented argument that both strains of the two wings of modern thought are spawns of the same anti-humanist, elitist and occult views of French philosopher and pornographer Georges Bataille. Rebellion and self indulgence packaged as freedom and uniqueness, Preparata argues that Western elites have adopted Bataille, his leftist offspring Foucault and rightist Straus as a means of disarming both the anti-globalist proletariat and complacent but problematic bourgeoisie.

Less convincing is Mr. Preparata's answer to the self-destructive individualism and sarcasm of postmodernism: the obscure writings of proto-leftist Thorstein Veblen, who advocates for some strain of non-Marxist socialism that seems as arcane and unworkable as Marxism itself.

Despite the moribund solution offered by Preparata, his analysis of the problem facing modern theorists with regard to the modes of power and governance is spot on and worth reading on its own.

[Ok · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written and covers an astonishingly wide range of material(deep/parapolitics, Middle Eastern geopolitics, occultism and esotericism, the ''greatest hits'' of continental philosophy, etc.) but it's central thesis-that the ideas of postmodernist philosophers like Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucalt (and their intellectual antecedents in militaristic, extremist figures like Georges Bataille and Ernst Junger) have somehow been fully assimilated into the American political establishment-is bizarre and erroneous. Regardless, it is a great read.

[Frederick Heimbach]

Interesting ... but I lack the ability to evaluate these claims, and at some point I decided I had got what I was going to get from this rather hard to read book and I decided to move on. There are simply Too Many Books.