An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

How do you shift a nation's culture? How do you shift the predominant culture of the world? Do we have to destroy to rebuild, to regain eternity? Some, perhaps, from Washington, Russia, London and Brazil, appear to be trying, playing a very long game indeed.

The author describes this text as existing in the 'the blurred space between that method and investigative journalism' and blurred is certainly the description I would give to his astonishing book. It gives us a glimpse into the religious, ideological/political background of some of the major conservative thinkers - not dull academics - but those who appear to the quietly present as advisors and counsellors (not elected representatives) to major, yet shadowy political figures across the globe.

And blurred is a great description of this book. It almost had the feeling of a fever dream, with the major figures speaking in mythic, almost apocalyptic language, but always slightly unsure as to whether it should all be taken literally or as a one great big mind-game to mystify liberals and to keep one step removed from the prying eyes of the world, and the author.

The author details the concept of Traditionalism, a highly obscure esoteric spiritual-political movement that looks to the end of the modernity and what might come after - that as human history moves in cycles, traditionalists hope for the end of one cycle and the beginning of the next, and perhaps even to speed up the shift. This movement sees a spiritual potency in the working class that has been ignored and forgotten and can be potentially harnessed as 'an army of spiritual soldiers for a war against modernity.' Traditionalism seeks to offer against the individualism of the West, immanence and transcendence, that every man is to be - in premodern language - a merchant, a warrior or a priest - someone who can contribute something of authenticity to their nation/civilisation.

"Treat humans as if they are more than bodies. Treat them like souls shaped by history and dreams and embedded in a spiritual lineage, the products of a deep context rather than a universal blank slate to be relocated without consequence. Do that, and perhaps it will be easier to awaken others to the boundaries that move invisibly through the universe, to see even how physical space holds metaphysical properties to which we owe our obedience."

The author is a professional ethnographer, and so we journey with him, across the globe and through the decades, as he tries to tie together the 'hidden ideas and partnerships operating in the global far-right populist revolt.'

The adherents of this movement appear to use occult and mystical terms freely combined with political discourse committed to the rise of nationalism and populism, liberalism, globalism and secularism on one side and on the other, tradition, patriarchy and spirituality. It is a coincidence that these various figures all use the same language and concepts (but not identically), or is it part of some broader, all-consuming movement involving the collapse of the Global West? I don't think we, or the author, get an answer, but the book is tantalising - yet profoundly unsettling - in the glimmers and hints that it provides.