More About Jorjani

My first impression about Jorjani was that he sounded like Heidegger.

I'm happy to report that my instincts did not betray me: he cites Heidegger as in influence in this strange article: https://www.righton.net/2016/11/05/world-religion-of-the-future/

As you can see if you follow that link, the article appears on a website called "RightOn" which proudly calls itself reactionary, promising to put the "action" in "reactionary."

Let's use this to look at Jorjani a bit. The article is called "The World Religion of the Future." It kicks off with Heidegger, and a story about a Japanese student of his, who in 1919 introduced Heidegger to
aspects of Zen Buddhism.

Then there's a long bit in which Jorjani is just quoting and sometimes paraphrasing Leo Strauss on Heidegger, without giving us any clue whether he thinks Strauss was right. Then we're really just trying to hold on tight as a train of thought zigs and zags through the mountain passes. The Indian caste system, Descartes, Nishida Kitaro, Dostoevsky, etc. All signifiers of "I've read everything and thought about everything."

But if I understand it at all, the key points of the article can be phrased simply:

1. There will be a single global state -- the fact is inevitable, resistance is futile;
2. The single global state will need a single globally dominant religion;
3. This ought not to be any of the three religions that trace themselves back to Abraham, because they have all sold themselves out to a "soulless global marketplace."
4. In order to devise a world religion that has some soul and can serve in a market-transcending way the need of the coming global empire, one needs to syncretize Japanese traditions involving Zen with the Indian caste system and the German culture as reflected in Heidegger's work.

Thoroughly ugly stuff. Of course, Japan and Germany were once allied in a struggle for world domination. India? Well ... throwing in India helps sanitize the swastika, and the reference to the caste system suggests that some people are just naturally better than others, born that way: which presumably will be recognized by the world religion of the future.

India was of course part of the British Empire when Japan and Germany were allied. There was a strong Independence sentiment at the time, and independence would become a fact not long after the war. So yes there were Indians who out of principled pacifism and/or a refusal to serve their own colonial overlords, refused to co-operate with resistance to the Japanese.

Nonetheless, there were also many Indians who fought bravely against the Axis powers, notably in the two-week battle of Kohima and Imphal. This battle (or these two simultaneous battles -- as the name indicates that's a matter of interpretation) represented Japan's furthest push westward, and the moment when the rising sun were thrown back below this particular horizon. This was the "Midway" of the BIC theater. And nearly all the troops throwing the Japanese back were Indian.

Relatedly, perhaps, there are two different sorts of swastika, a fact Jorjani doesn't mention. The crooked arms can turn in one direction or the other.

And, yes, the idea of a single global state can and should be resisted. In large part it must be resisted because of the reasonable fear that people like Jorjani and his idols will end up running it. There must never exist the concentration of power such a presumption implies.

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