The “intellectual darknet” is a term coined by economist Eric Weinstein to represent intellectuals who don’t fit neatly on either side of the left-right divide in our social conversations. An Australian fan of this concept took up Weinstein’s Twitter challenge and created a guide to better understand what this loose movement entails. qualities these thinkers share include:
- willingness to engage in conversations with people who have different beliefs and political views
- ideas worth listening to
- respect for freedom of expression
- rejection of identity politics
- people who do not want them to tell their truth
The following is a list of ten books that I think fit into this category. each invokes uncomfortable truths about who we are as animals and cultures; we each peek behind the curtain of our inner workings, regardless of how we advertise. They are not always easy to read, but these ideas are worth considering, even if they are not always agreed upon. disagreement is part of the growth process if progress is to be made.
You are reading: Intellectual dark web books
james hillman
American psychologist james hillman’s career spanned the pulitzer prize-nominated review of psychology to the all-time bestseller soul code. While Hillman leaned toward the metaphysical—his faith in archetypes began with his 1964 debut, Suicide and the Soul—A Terrible Love of War is physical to the core. As with the reporting by Chris Hedges and Sebastian Junger, Hillman reminds us of the joy of battle and the meaning it brings to soldiers. war, he writes, is a mythological force. While Steven Pinker noted that we have become a less violent world, populist uprisings across the planet today are painting a different picture. While it’s impossible to see where the consequences of recent ballot decisions will lead, Hillman reminds us that escaping our biological heritage will take a lot of work.
It is not the enemy that is essential to war and what war imposes on us, but the imagination… once the enemy is imagined, one is already in a state of war.
richard hofstadter
American historian Richard Hofstadter’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book keeps coming back. The last week alone has given us the interview blunder of betsy devos and a climate change skeptic on the verge of becoming our nation’s top diplomat. Hofstadter began his career to the left of center, but eventually shifted to the consensus story, which disparages arguments that lack complexity. when knowledge is democratized, he writes, the consequences include anti-intellectualism and utilitarianism. he does not single out democracy alone as promoting these traits. Hofstadter knew that American culture is more indicative of them than democracy alone.
There has always been in our national experience a kind of mind that elevates hate into a kind of creed; to this mind, group hatreds take a place in politics similar to class struggle in some other modern societies.
neil postman
It fascinates me that media theorist Neil Postman’s 1985 book hasn’t been discussed more often in the trump era. He begins by comparing Huxley to Orwell, stating that we are a society oppressed by our addiction to entertainment, not one ruled by state control. if only the postman had experience on twitter (he passed away in 2003). While his prediction that computers would never have much of an impact on our culture was wrong, his ideas about what we deliver in our quest for fun and distraction are a perfect prelude to smartphones and social media. The Postman wrote in the Reagan days, when an actor had become president. now imagine a non-actor pretending to act pretending not to act on television achieving that position.
what orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, because no one would want to read it. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and selfishness. Orwell feared that the truth would be hidden from us. Huxley feared that the truth would drown in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared that we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared that we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the porgy orgy, and the centrifugal bumble puppy.
ernest becker
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Cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker received a Pulitzer Prize two months after he died of colon cancer in 1974. As with the work of Joseph Campbell, Becker became more famous dead than alive. Although our understanding of neuroscience, biology, and psychology has evolved since his days, Becker makes a simple point: civilization is an elaborate defense mechanism against mortality. Though consumed by the mundane struggles of physical and cultural existence, through our imaginations we envision a potential to transcend the biological reality of death. As he draws on Otto Rank, Soren Kierkegaard, and especially Sigmund Freud, the threads of this mindset continue in our quest for immortality (or, as Becker put it, “immortality project”) with artificial intelligence and “reverse aging.” while maintaining a certain distance from mortality improves one’s quality of life, it also sets us up for conflict and aggressive behavior, which manifests itself in intolerance and racism and, if left unchecked, in wars and genocide .
The neurotic chooses to get out of life because it is difficult for him to maintain his illusions about it, which proves nothing less than that life is only possible with illusions.
kurt andersen
American novelist and radio host Kurt Andersen set aside a fiction project to ask a question: what makes Americans so prone to fantasy? It began with the colonization of America, showing that even the story of our creation is a myth. Traversing half a millennium of Protestant influence, Andersen shatters the romantic golden age of our history, showing that little by little we have created an illusion of identity based on magical thinking. although not a relaxing ride, this one is essential. (listen to my talk with kurt here.)
Remember when viral was a bad thing and was just about spreading disease? the same goes for what you read, watch, and believe.
ayaan hirsi ali
when dutch-somali activist ayaan hirsi ali was elected to parliament, she had lived a dozen lives. her autobiography takes the reader through somalia, saudi arabia, ethiopia and kenya in her initial appeal to an islamic. since her publication, she has greatly expanded her platform, causing critics to label her as Islamophobic and fanatical. however, she ali she defends the rights of women by pointing out the brutal patriarchies under which many continue to live today.
by declaring our prophet infallible and not allowing ourselves to question him, we Muslims had established a static tyranny. the prophet muhammad attempted to legislate all aspects of life. By adhering to his rules of what is permitted and what is prohibited, we Muslims suppress the freedom to think for ourselves and act as we choose. we freeze the moral perspective of billions of people in the mentality of the Arabian desert in the 7th century.
margaret atwood
Looking through my book collection for this column, I wanted to include at least one work of fiction that wasn’t 1984 or Brave New World. The hardest part was choosing which Margaret Atwood book to include. the futuristic (but not unrecognizable) dystopia he creates in this trilogy made it easy to offer three titles from this creative genius. Comprised of Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and Maddaddam, Atwood moves the narrative forward without sacrificing the importance of complex themes like social freedom, feminism, and environmentalism. sometimes serious topics need humor to remind us of the importance of humility.
Nature is to zoos what God is to churches.
sam harris
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After moving to Los Angeles in 2011, I quickly saw how much faith the locals place in philosophies of life (“everything happens for a reason!”) so far removed from anything I had previously experienced. on the other hand, we all interact with and learn from our environment in different ways. Neuroscientist Sam Harris understands that ideologies are local, although we are not necessarily tied to their historical symbols. what I really wanted to know is: can we create a science of morality that helps the most people and hurts the fewest? In the future, Harris believes we will systematically measure well-being, which could help create policies that promote fairness and equality. Although we are still a long way from that reality, Harris took the brave first step in considering such an idea.
if our well-being depends on the interplay between events in our brain and events in the world, and there are better and worse ways to ensure it, then some cultures will tend to produce lives more worth living than others; some political tendencies will be more enlightened than others; and some worldviews will be wrong in ways that cause unnecessary human misery.
jonathan haidt
while social psychologist jonathan haidt’s forthcoming book, pampering the american mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure (co-written with greg lukianoff), will likely help define the essence of The Dark Intellectual Web, Right Minded states that our beliefs arise first from intuition. only later does rational thought justify what we already believe. the neuroscience on this topic holds up, as antonio damsio recently explained. the cliff between liberals and conservatives is difficult to cross due to the inability to consider the other’s point of view. As long as it remains that way, it will be impossible to unite a nation torn apart by culture wars.
The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.
naomi klein
i remember reading social activist naomi klein’s tirade against neoliberal free market policies near the end of the bush era, shaking my head in anger and disbelief at how we had been duped. a decade later, it seems that era was only a prelude to the themes of this work. While Klein showed off the “shock and awe” playbook used to justify the invasion of Iraq, today we are experiencing numerous such tremors on a daily basis. In an age of global populism and sprawling dictatorships, this book is a field guide to navigating the noise.
This is what Keynes meant when he warned of the dangers of economic chaos: you never know what combination of anger, racism and revolution will be unleashed.
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derek beres is the author of whole motion and creator of clarity: reducing anxiety for optimal health. Based in Los Angeles, he is working on a new book on spiritual consumerism. stay in touch on facebook and twitter.
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