Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Individualism Part I 5
We Are All Special
The Entrepreneur on the Frontier 8
Swinging Individuals 13
Chapter 2 Individualism Part II 26
Big Man
Batman 36
Interlude I: How Can Wayne Be an Idea That Represents Reality and Yet Distorts It at the Same Time? 43
Interlude II: Externalization, Privatization, Embodiment 45
Calculating Agent 47
The Bad Men 53
Some Historical Complications with Individualism and Liberalism 60
Chapter 3 The New Commandments 67
Enjoy!
Be Famous 85
Chapter 4 Values and Virtues 100
Values in the Workplace
Values in Education 104
The Ancient Critique of Virtues 107
Bourgeois Virtues 109
Chapter 5 Knowledge 120
Enlightenment 128
The Scientist as Virtuous Hero 133
Chapter 6 Technology and Disruption 140
New Institutions under Agrarianism 146
Industrial Disruption 151
Chapter 7 Neo-Nietzscheans 155
Chapter 8 Ruling Ideas: The Past, Present and Future 178
The Imagined Political Past
The Present 202
The Future: Utopia and Dystopia 207
Chapter 9 The Holy Trinity of Conservative Thought: God - Nation - Family 212
God and Legitimacy 214
Nation and Race as Conservative Strategies 228
Family 241
Chapter 10 A Short History of the Modern Critique of the Ruling Ideas 251
Early Modern Heroes: Reason and the People as New Sources of Authority
Virtues and Problems of the Enlightenment 265
Roots of Today's Critique 272
Chapter 11 The Work of Patching Up: Being Fooled and Fooling Yourself 295
Patching Up Reality
The Trajectory of Fighting against Injustice: An Optimistic Reading 299
The Educated Class and Ruling Ideas 306
Nationalist Intellectuals 313
Racist Suture 316
Chapter 12 Why We Believe What We Believe 320
Myth vs. Science 323
Chapter 13 Forgoing Ruling Ideas 326
Religions and Political Ideologies
Living without Ruling Ideas 328
Cultural Narratives of Discovery 331
Decolonizing - Decarbonizing 335
Chapter 14 Alternatives to Ruling Ideas 342
Negation and True Contrarian Thinking 345
Alternative Ideas 354
Alternatives to Ruling Ideas II: Revolutionary Ideas 382
Endnotes 389
Bibliography 402
From the Author 405
