I went into the book praying that it would be better than Dugin's "Fourth Political Theory". As low a bar as Dugin is to cross, Faye genuinely impressed me with this work in a way that I find myself agreeing with more often than not. Faye is a professional intellectual from France, which immediately set off the ol' bells and whistles. The book's title refers to an archaic (not reactionary) societal organisation combined with futuristic technology (nuclear fusion, human augmentation).
The book's subtitle comes from Faye's prediction of a catastrophic combination of ethnic conflict, economic collapse and environmental crisis that will punctuate the 21st century. From time to time, he makes bold assertions and accepts arguments a priori without submitting them to reasonable scrutiny, though the points that are argued this way have little bearing on the rest of his theories which usually don't rest on the faulty presumptions. This said, however, there are very few points in the book with which I vehemently disagree, most of them are merely poorly argued.
Faye explains the necessity of a common racial bond in societies, the chaos that will be wrought by unsustainable spending of natural and human resources, and what a potential solution is for saving the culture and genetics of European people: it's essentially seclusion and self-improvement, until the rest of the world starves itself out.
Important insights regard the differentiation between ally, adversary and enemy; analyses on green politics that are anything but green, and the Spenglerian idea of Civilisation and its cycles. I'm pretty impressed by the book overall, and thought that the book would be much more esoteric. Some things may have been lost in translation and Faye's predictions likely will not unfold the way he envisioned, but this is a really solid read on Europe in the 21st century.
8/10
