The Shattered Illusion of Human Rights
Constantin von Hoffmeister
Eurosiberia
The French New Right thinker Alain de Benoist, unafraid to confront the abyssal truths that our so-called civilization dares not face, delivers a clinical dissection in his book Beyond Human Rights. It is not merely a critique but an incantation that unveils the unspeakable void behind the established justifications of so-called “human rights.” He beckons us to peer into the eldritch depths where the facade of human dignity disintegrates, revealing a cosmos indifferent and malevolent. His dreadful revelations can be encapsulated in several horrors:
Human rights, he reveals, are indefensible relics of a bygone era. The ancient talismans — invoking God, nature, and reason — have lost their potency. The notion of a divine creator fashioning humans in his likeness and bestowing upon them unique dignity is now the belief of a dwindling cult. Normative conceptions of nature crumble into dust, unable to sustain the illusion of a harmonious ideal or else painting only a brutal, survivalist order. And reason? It does not inexorably lead to the belief that all humans are entitled to equal rights. As Lovecraft might claim, mankind’s conceit is an affront to the ancient cosmic order, a mere flicker in the yawning chasm of infinity, where no such rights or dignities exist.
Universal human rights? They are more akin to a cultural hallucination, an insidious delusion spawned from the ancient and arcane traditions of the Stoics and Christians, yet alien to the vast, non-European realms of existence. This is not mere happenstance but the result of the human rights doctrine being fundamentally anti-political — supplanting the political with the juridical and moral — and intensely individualistic, exalting the individual above the community. Alien cultures gaze upon this with bewilderment, sensing the inhumanity in this misplaced idolization of the self.
The idea that human rights are practicable is a fool’s hope. De Benoist’s contempt for Christianity sharpens his focus on the anti-political and individualist strains within the human rights ideology. To him, this ideology annihilates what it professes to safeguard: freedom and human dignity. By emphasizing arbitrary freedom and conflating rights with “claims,” while failing to reconcile human rights with human duties, the proponents of human rights destroy the very foundation of rights themselves. It is a dark irony that the shrine erected to protect human dignity has become its tombstone.
The significance of de Benoist’s objections cannot be dismissed. His thought traces back to the dark thinkers of the Counter-Revolution, the eternally vigilant champions of classical Republicanism, the undogmatic Left, and the communitarians. It seems de Benoist aligns most closely with the communitarians, who emphasize the importance of community and social cohesion over individualism, advocating a society where collective values and communal bonds take precedence in shaping political and social structures. This book fits seamlessly into his reflections on culture and the concept of organic democracy, which envisions a harmonious and hierarchical society, where governance evolves naturally from the cultural, historical, and social fabric of a community, rather than being imposed through abstract principles or external forces.
Amid this discourse, we must heed the ominous warnings of Julius Evola, who denounced human rights as an insidious force undermining the sacred hierarchies of tradition and transcendence. Evola’s criticism intertwines with de Benoist’s, amplifying the dread that human rights are but the harbingers of societal decay. Evola saw human rights as a facade, concealing the erosion of the metaphysical order and the enthronement of materialism. He believed that the emphasis on egalitarianism and individualism dismantles the noble structures of ancient civilizations, leaving a void filled with chaos and spiritual emptiness. His visions of a hierarchical world, rooted in sacred traditions and warrior aristocracies, clash violently with the democratic and humanistic values that underpin human rights doctrines. This collision conjures up a dark prophecy where the erosion of these hierarchies leads to a world adrift, devoid of meaning and order.
The French New Right, in its dark “enlightenment,” has long extolled the virtue of isolationism, a noble ideal that proves as elusive as it is alluring. The European Faustian nature prevents such seclusion, driven as it is by an insatiable quest for expansion and dominance. De Benoist seems resigned to this, yet he continues to grapple with constructing this alternative political order. The foundational units he might consider are disintegrating; another form of homogeneity is a bleak prospect, and the notion of anchoring a new order in religious beliefs is dismissed. In this void, de Benoist calls for a multipolar world, reminiscent of the Hyborian Age where Conan roamed — a realm of diverse kingdoms and tribes, each with its own strength and character, coexisting in a tenuous balance of power. This struggle reveals the core dilemma: the collapse of traditional structures and the impossibility of a cohesive new framework leave a chasm where old paradigms no longer suffice, and new ones have yet to be forged, much like the barbarian kingdoms of Conan’s time, striving for dominance in a savage and untamed world.
One can almost hear the chatter in William Burroughs’ Interzone, where the surface of human rights crumbles under corruption and control, revealing the hollow rhetoric used to maintain the status quo while the masses remain ensnared in a web of deceit and power plays. De Benoist invokes the specter of Carl Schmitt, yet cautiously avoids engaging with Schmitt’s assertion that all political ideologies are fundamentally theological in nature. To unearth the hidden religious foundation within the doctrine of human rights, one must wield a conviction in the supremacy of rational thought or endeavor to supplant the rotten structure of ancient beliefs with a potent and revolutionary new doctrine.
De Benoist’s disdain for reason is palpable, his alternate belief system a shadowy labyrinth of uncertainty and rebellion. This matters, oh how it matters, in a world where the sanctity of human rights is questioned, twisted, and used as a puppet in the theater of war and politics. Skepticism festers and grows like a wild weed in the garden of our supposed freedoms, and de Benoist’s enigma only feeds the chaos, the beautiful, maddening chaos. The more we try to grasp it, the more it slips through our fingers, a reminder of the fragile, tenuous threads that hold our convictions together.
Recent imperialist crimes by the West — such as the devastation wrought by NATO’s intervention in Libya, the prolonged chaos in Syria, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen exacerbated by Western arms sales — further reveal the naive belief that human rights can be upheld by mere adherence or through an authoritative body like the United Nations (in reality not “united” at all).
As we plunge deeper into the decaying empire of the West, we cannot ignore the disillusionment etched by William Burroughs in Naked Lunch: the West, an empire of addiction and lies, where control is the ultimate narcotic and the cover of human rights is just another instrument of oppression. In the Interzone, the illusion of freedom, the hollow promises of dignity, are revealed as tools of the powerful, maintaining their grip while the rest scramble in the ruins of shattered ideologies. Burroughs’ Interzone is not unlike de Benoist’s review: a world where the true naked lunch is served — a repast of raw, horrifying truths, where no comforting untruths remain.
Oswald Spengler’s foreboding visions also resonate in de Benoist’s analysis, always bringing to mind The Decline of the West. Spengler’s inevitable cycles of culture and civilization foretell a depressing fate for our age, where the twilight of Western hegemony casts long shadows over the ideals of human rights. The cyclical nature of Spengler’s history suggests that our current plight is but a prelude to a darker epoch, where the once-vaunted principles of universal human dignity are but relics of a forgotten era, crushed under the weight of their contradictions.
Lovecraft, in his dismal view of mankind, would recognize in de Benoist’s work a kinship of thought, a recognition of the insignificance of human constructs in the face of an uncaring cosmos. Lovecraft’s tales often depict mankind as a brief anomaly in the vast, indifferent universe, where ancient, powerful entities lie in wait to reclaim their dominion. In this light, de Benoist’s lambasting of human rights can be seen as a reflection of this cosmic nihilism, a reminder that our grandiose beliefs and institutions are nothing but fleeting illusions, destined to be swept away by the tides of time and chaos.
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