Gnostic Fools

'With this new book, Horvath continues her inspired exploration of our contemporary condition by tracing today’s political and social predicaments to historical and anthropological developments long forgotten. After debunking the received wisdom surrounding the relationship between magic and science – positing full circularity where convention sees perfect opposition – Horvath brilliantly examines processes as seemingly disparate as the commercialization of life, transhumanism, and the rise of influencers, as part of the return – indeed, the coronation – of an ancient spiritual movement, that of Gnosticism. Drawing on Eric Vogelin, Horvath identifies the contemporary condition as the highest stage in that long process of spiritualization of matter which has lured humanity closer and closer to the abyss, and into the void, since at least the Ancient Greeks. She further exposes the face and folly of contemporary Gnosticism in trickster-like figures, gnostic fools, who emerge as today’s demiurges. It is difficult not to recognise in her penetrating account of these new magicians – dispensing endless streams of images, symbols, and drives, while fooling audiences no longer able to distinguish truth from lie – the world’s populist leaders of today. Horvath’s fearless prose casts a stark and original light on the genesis of the alienation, robotization, and methodisation of contemporary existence – as well as on the imperious and terrifying rise of a new age of ideology. Horvath’s latest work is not merely a book, but a dark prophecy: "nothing remains after this generation, just the void".'

Elisabetta Brighi, Assistant Head, School of Social Sciences, University of Westminster, UK

'This book on Gnostic Fools is bound to provoke, but for all the right reasons. It asks a radical question: what if our world of today is governed by gnostic fools? Building on Horvath’s pioneering work on trickster power and alchemical logic, this book takes one step further, providing a highly original reading of how the fool appeared as a major actor in history, linked to the history of the occult. The result is a strikingly new, if deeply worrisome, account of the rise of the modern world. It will leave no reader unaffected. It is not only a recommended read. It is a necessary read.'

Bjørn Thomassen, Professor in Global Political Sociology, Roskilde University, Denmark

'Modern people derisively dismiss study of the occult, knowing it’s not real, but our confident neglect of its texts and traditions leaves us vulnerable. We remain susceptible to its distinctive precepts, purposes, and operations—nothing supernatural required. In Gnostic Fools, Horvath continues her excavation of occult notions and machinations, discerning their continuing ubiquity, detailing magic’s infiltration into philosophy, theology, and science since antiquity. In modernity, occult influences are invisibly embedded in our environs and agendas. Ideological commitments fool us into thinking ourselves something we’re not, believing we’ll become something we can’t be, transforming us into something else for the empowerment of others. Experts employed like priests wield strange words and techniques to feign knowledge and manipulate morals, subjecting people unwittingly to enthrallment, depersonalization, and sacrifice. Who is more the fool: the Fool, or the fools who follow him? Join Horvath on a journey through underappreciated sources to find out.'

Travis D. Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Concordia University, Canada

'Variations in the descriptions of second realities and accounts of their genesis that human beings can imaginatively adopt are limitless. In the mid-twentieth century Eric Voegelin argued, as had been done a century earlier, that the ancient category of gnosis and the suitability of the term gnostic to describe its practitioners, also applied to the ideological politics of the modern world. Agnes Horvath has delimited a specific and particular shape of today’s gnostic, whom she described as the fool, (and of his cousins, the charlatan and the magician) for focussed attention. Once one grasps the subtleties and complexities of her argument, the evidence –from the widespread government response to the COVID-19 event to the opening “ceremony” of the Paris Olympics—falls into place in its obviousness as ideological fantasy. This is a major addition to contemporary political science.'

Barry Cooper, Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada

'In her inimitable and incisive style, Agnes Horvath yet again turns political anthropology into the mirror that our troubled aged so desperately needs. Gnosticism is not a long bygone way of life but feeds endless transformations, hybrids, and magical tricks that dominate our contemporary lives. The message that fools often appear in the guise of the wise, bright, and elegant may be somber. Still, Horvath's matchless scholarship pursues the ultimate aim - as always - of recovering the soul at the centre of being.'

Harald Wydra, Professor of Politics, St Catharine's College, Cambridge, UK