Second in a series of sketches exploring Zionism: Tracing lines from the Pale of Settlement in Ukraine to Palestine, where the celestial metaphor of nationalism meets the grounded reality of conflict.
Kevin - great article. Sorry for the delay but just got around to reading it. I currently have a great YouTube channel playing in the background called "Jerusalem Walker". Similar to the other ubiquitous "walking" channels, he has multiple channels where he just walks around Jerusalem and other cities in Israel and films normal life. I must admit that modern Israel is a pretty remarkable country and that Modern, Orthodox Jews (i.e. not Hasidim) have really found a successful balance between modernity and "archaism".
Anyways, not to get off topic but what are your thoughts on the future of Christianity in the West, including Russia? Do you see a Zionist type rebirth? I'm actually quite pessimistic. In Russia, for example, WW2 has taken on a spiritual meaning there and seems to resonate more with the people (look up Immortal Regiment marches in St. Petersburg or visits to the huge monument in Volgograd). It really huge taken on a religious level of significance. From a distance, I actually don't see that level of passion in Christianity at a truly spiritual level. Perhaps we are in the early process of forming a new religion in what was formerly Christendom? Happy to hear your thoughts.
Thanks William and that is a super interesting YouTube channel, I have never been to Jerusalem so it is great to get in there at street level and walk around.
Besides being a fascinating historical “object,” you’re sensing why I’m drawn to Zionism: it serves as a case study for what Europe itself may soon confront. Zionism was wildly successful, and though it cannot simply be imitated, understanding its dynamics offers lessons in how a people might attempt rebirth—how the past can be transmuted into a future through something like cultural alchemy.
I hesitate to comment on Christianity, because its collapse has been so vertiginous it defies easy contextualization. Within my own lifetime it has gone from an unquestioned presence to a punctured balloon—vanishing almost overnight. I live in a community that is still culturally Catholic, still sincerely believing, but they are truly the last of the Mohicans.
One premise I’d begin with is that all humans have an instinctual need for spirituality. That need takes many forms, one of them organized religion. Zionism is fascinating precisely because it represents a people’s renaissance, yet it was primarily a secular movement—indeed, condemned as heretical by many orthodox Jews.
When I eventually write about Ze'ev Jabotinsky, for instance, his project was to create a “New Jew,” opposing the pathetic “Yid” to the heroic “Hebrew,” an archetype Zionists were to embody. I can imagine some analogous effort emerging among Europeans—a legendary reclaiming of their pagan past, since Christianity, being universalist, offers little basis for a specifically European rebirth. Michel Houellebecq even floated the provocation in Submission that Islam, paradoxically, might serve as the most viable spiritual vehicle for a future Europe.
Like you, I am not optimistic about Christianity. Yet after two millennia of flourishing, it feels strange to witness its sudden disappearance from Europe. And yet, that is precisely what seems to be unfolding.
Hi kevin great article. Sorry if my request doesn't relate to this article but i recently fthink i found and article of yours talking about the "technofeudalism" or "neofeudalism" and why was it wrong to use that term to describe the actual sistem. the roblem is i dont know where to find it, could you direct me there please? i would appreciate it, thanks
Thanks! I’ve added two links below. I touch on the “techno-feudalism” concept briefly in Tech Bro Spring, but only in passing — I didn’t dig into a full critique.
I remain very skeptical of the claim that we’re “regressing” to feudalism. It’s a strange framing, and it reflects some of the ambivalence within the Marxian tradition itself. Remember: in Marx’s stages of history, feudalism is the great enemy, while capitalism is the indispensable vehicle that carries us toward communism. Marxian thought isn’t “anti-capitalist” in the sense of wanting to reverse course; it wants capitalism to run its course to its paradisiacal conclusion. In that sense, Marxism is capitalism with a happy ending.
Ironically, I could imagine something close to that happy ending emerging in China in the next 30–40 years: a robotic, post-scarcity society of abundance—though one likely to stumble into the “rat utopia” trap of dystopian degeneration. Western capitalism, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to have such a bright trajectory. So to preserve the image of progress, some critics cast the present moment as a regression, coining “techno-feudalism.” It’s the intellectual equivalent of saying capitalism can’t fail—it can only be betrayed.
But the analogy doesn’t really hold. Much like Christian eschatology, Marx foresaw collapse and crisis before the dawn of a better order. What we’re living through now looks less like feudalism reborn than a novel form of techno-totalitarianism. That term captures the dynamics of surveillance, platform monopolies, and state-corporate fusion much better than the feudal metaphor.
And besides—I can’t help but admit sympathy for some elements of feudalism's "idiocy of rural life."
Ok i finally found it, my bad. It wasn't your article but Alex Hochuli in wich he @ you. "techno feudalism vs total capitalism". i had no time to read it but surely will, thanks and keep it up with the series!!
Monotheism of Abraham birthed Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abraham’s offsprings. And not surprisingly, the children are always fighting amongst themselves.
A polytheistic world probably makes sense. No God can be all knowing as well as present: omnipotent. Even gods need a division of labor!
Beautiful, poetic summing up of the raw and heartbreaking reality on the ground for Jewish and Palestine peoples, leading to the first Nakbha. With so much blood spilled, can it still be considered Holy ground? It seems unfathomable.
Time will tell, the next few centuries will clarify how and when the peoples can live in Peace. I sure hope so. Because globally, bloodshed must end for all of us, to maintain our sacred connection, and the future of humanity. Detailed and poignantly written essay Kevin, keep up the hard work!
It may seem paradoxical, but blood does not desecrate the sacred; it constitutes it. In antiquity, holiness was inseparable from sacrifice, from the altar upon which animals—or at times humans—were slain. The Hebrew Bible, the Christian Eucharist, and the Islamic rites of Eid al-Adha all testify to this same logic: sanctification comes only through blood. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Holy Land, the greatest altar in world history, where violence, beginning with the jousting empires of the Bronze Age and intensifying over millennia, has been precisely what made it holy. Sacrifice is what makes the sacred.
This is not like other borderlands of conflict; Jerusalem and its surroundings are unique because they were the birthplace of monotheism itself. Pagan religions, with their polytheistic pantheons, generally tolerated multiplicity: your god could live beside mine, shrines could coexist, and conquest could mean incorporation rather than annihilation.
Monotheism, by contrast—emerging out of Egypt, radicalized in the Hebrew exodus, and crystallized in the first commandments—introduced exclusivity into the sacred. One God meant all rival gods were false, and thus every loss of the land became a cosmic defeat, every defense of it an ultimate necessity. In this sense, the Holy Land is not just desperate ground in the military sense, but metaphysical desperate ground, where retreat is impossible because existential legitimacy itself is at stake.
Thanks, Kevin! Even your reply is poetic history, and seemingly a kind of yearning to find out, and philosophize on how mankind ended up here. In these circumstances, in 2025. What is it? Greed, envy, need for power, or, a knowing to be right about spiritual and historical "rights"?
I've been on MoA today, incredible comments on Banksy, and ofc, globalists. Why we can't have common sense and peace. Animal studies were quoted. It is absolutely fascinating to me how most people cannot look behind the curtain, at the brick wall. I just don't get it.
I will never know if am truly free, within the system. Freedom of thinking, of reasoning, of evaluating, yet not judging mankind. But I feel free, and discover these jewels of words, of the people on the other side, like you, MoA, Global Research, Strategic Culture Foundation etc.
Like, there isn't the computational power in the world, to stop people waking up. They cannot censor or destroy every website, or scare you with NSA, Patriot Act and surveillance. If we look at the way the world is, and how much goes awry, in even the simplest projects, isn't it just intimadation to believe the spy satellites and servers keep records of every email, search, comment, and phone call?
I have a habit of joking in a comedy set; hey, 1984 wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual. What if we are the people living in a 1984ish world? However, what if it's all bullshit? Were 1984 and Brave New World scare stories? Is the government even capable of harvesting so much material that it could incriminate us? They can't even built AI centers, Microsoft just cancelled a 130 million dollar project in the Northeast. And our electrical grid is already effed.
The people in power want a nice home, possibly a yacht, great food, holidays, a summer cottage or two, drugs, cars, private jets, hot girls and boys. Anything to distract from death, despair and especially, destitute people who are poor. Are these people even capable of organizing what would be needed to surveil everyone? I'm mostly talking about the US. In the UK, could most incidences be exagerated, so others don't get haughty ideas? To scare you, exactly as they did with the plandemic. Like, oh wow, 500 pensioners were arrested.
It is tyranny, if it is all true. But there is another way of looking at it. That comedian that got arrested. All that expensive manpower, by a broke ass nation, to arrest one man tweeting a joke, rol an opinion. Does that even make sense? Are they trying to create dissidents, or are they dissuading people from expressing themselves?
If TPTB have full control over MSM, why did the story go viral? Because they do not have full control over the journalists and editors, or because they do not have all the power? Or, the computing power to change the course of history.
Anyways, I'm just thinking aloud, on paper. We know we are being lied too, and those who want the truth will find it, about the Holy Land, the real cause of WW1 & 2, and how we are encouraged to remember 3000 dead Americans when the US, the Global American Empire, has killed millions since WW2. The actor puppets who present the MSM news have sold their soul. There's no coming back from their disgrace, deceit and distortian of reality.
I may be a peasant or serf to TPTB - not that they spend a second thinking of real people, since we hardly exist as human beings inside their small, miniscule matrix brain - but seeing through their bullshit and having your own unique thoughts, inspiration and a clear vision of past, present and future, is their defeat. Our contentment, kindness, search for truth, and finding purpose in life will be their downfall. Because we did not sell our soul. Amen!
Kevin - great article. Sorry for the delay but just got around to reading it. I currently have a great YouTube channel playing in the background called "Jerusalem Walker". Similar to the other ubiquitous "walking" channels, he has multiple channels where he just walks around Jerusalem and other cities in Israel and films normal life. I must admit that modern Israel is a pretty remarkable country and that Modern, Orthodox Jews (i.e. not Hasidim) have really found a successful balance between modernity and "archaism".
Anyways, not to get off topic but what are your thoughts on the future of Christianity in the West, including Russia? Do you see a Zionist type rebirth? I'm actually quite pessimistic. In Russia, for example, WW2 has taken on a spiritual meaning there and seems to resonate more with the people (look up Immortal Regiment marches in St. Petersburg or visits to the huge monument in Volgograd). It really huge taken on a religious level of significance. From a distance, I actually don't see that level of passion in Christianity at a truly spiritual level. Perhaps we are in the early process of forming a new religion in what was formerly Christendom? Happy to hear your thoughts.
Thanks William and that is a super interesting YouTube channel, I have never been to Jerusalem so it is great to get in there at street level and walk around.
Besides being a fascinating historical “object,” you’re sensing why I’m drawn to Zionism: it serves as a case study for what Europe itself may soon confront. Zionism was wildly successful, and though it cannot simply be imitated, understanding its dynamics offers lessons in how a people might attempt rebirth—how the past can be transmuted into a future through something like cultural alchemy.
I hesitate to comment on Christianity, because its collapse has been so vertiginous it defies easy contextualization. Within my own lifetime it has gone from an unquestioned presence to a punctured balloon—vanishing almost overnight. I live in a community that is still culturally Catholic, still sincerely believing, but they are truly the last of the Mohicans.
One premise I’d begin with is that all humans have an instinctual need for spirituality. That need takes many forms, one of them organized religion. Zionism is fascinating precisely because it represents a people’s renaissance, yet it was primarily a secular movement—indeed, condemned as heretical by many orthodox Jews.
When I eventually write about Ze'ev Jabotinsky, for instance, his project was to create a “New Jew,” opposing the pathetic “Yid” to the heroic “Hebrew,” an archetype Zionists were to embody. I can imagine some analogous effort emerging among Europeans—a legendary reclaiming of their pagan past, since Christianity, being universalist, offers little basis for a specifically European rebirth. Michel Houellebecq even floated the provocation in Submission that Islam, paradoxically, might serve as the most viable spiritual vehicle for a future Europe.
Like you, I am not optimistic about Christianity. Yet after two millennia of flourishing, it feels strange to witness its sudden disappearance from Europe. And yet, that is precisely what seems to be unfolding.
Hi kevin great article. Sorry if my request doesn't relate to this article but i recently fthink i found and article of yours talking about the "technofeudalism" or "neofeudalism" and why was it wrong to use that term to describe the actual sistem. the roblem is i dont know where to find it, could you direct me there please? i would appreciate it, thanks
Thanks! I’ve added two links below. I touch on the “techno-feudalism” concept briefly in Tech Bro Spring, but only in passing — I didn’t dig into a full critique.
I remain very skeptical of the claim that we’re “regressing” to feudalism. It’s a strange framing, and it reflects some of the ambivalence within the Marxian tradition itself. Remember: in Marx’s stages of history, feudalism is the great enemy, while capitalism is the indispensable vehicle that carries us toward communism. Marxian thought isn’t “anti-capitalist” in the sense of wanting to reverse course; it wants capitalism to run its course to its paradisiacal conclusion. In that sense, Marxism is capitalism with a happy ending.
Ironically, I could imagine something close to that happy ending emerging in China in the next 30–40 years: a robotic, post-scarcity society of abundance—though one likely to stumble into the “rat utopia” trap of dystopian degeneration. Western capitalism, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to have such a bright trajectory. So to preserve the image of progress, some critics cast the present moment as a regression, coining “techno-feudalism.” It’s the intellectual equivalent of saying capitalism can’t fail—it can only be betrayed.
But the analogy doesn’t really hold. Much like Christian eschatology, Marx foresaw collapse and crisis before the dawn of a better order. What we’re living through now looks less like feudalism reborn than a novel form of techno-totalitarianism. That term captures the dynamics of surveillance, platform monopolies, and state-corporate fusion much better than the feudal metaphor.
And besides—I can’t help but admit sympathy for some elements of feudalism's "idiocy of rural life."
https://www.beyondwasteland.net/p/tech-bro-spring
https://revistasupernova.com/nota/los-tecnofeudatari-de-la-gran-america-otra-vez
Ok i finally found it, my bad. It wasn't your article but Alex Hochuli in wich he @ you. "techno feudalism vs total capitalism". i had no time to read it but surely will, thanks and keep it up with the series!!
Monotheism of Abraham birthed Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Abraham’s offsprings. And not surprisingly, the children are always fighting amongst themselves.
A polytheistic world probably makes sense. No God can be all knowing as well as present: omnipotent. Even gods need a division of labor!
Beautiful, poetic summing up of the raw and heartbreaking reality on the ground for Jewish and Palestine peoples, leading to the first Nakbha. With so much blood spilled, can it still be considered Holy ground? It seems unfathomable.
Time will tell, the next few centuries will clarify how and when the peoples can live in Peace. I sure hope so. Because globally, bloodshed must end for all of us, to maintain our sacred connection, and the future of humanity. Detailed and poignantly written essay Kevin, keep up the hard work!
Thank you so much Kaatje!
It may seem paradoxical, but blood does not desecrate the sacred; it constitutes it. In antiquity, holiness was inseparable from sacrifice, from the altar upon which animals—or at times humans—were slain. The Hebrew Bible, the Christian Eucharist, and the Islamic rites of Eid al-Adha all testify to this same logic: sanctification comes only through blood. Nowhere is this clearer than in the Holy Land, the greatest altar in world history, where violence, beginning with the jousting empires of the Bronze Age and intensifying over millennia, has been precisely what made it holy. Sacrifice is what makes the sacred.
This is not like other borderlands of conflict; Jerusalem and its surroundings are unique because they were the birthplace of monotheism itself. Pagan religions, with their polytheistic pantheons, generally tolerated multiplicity: your god could live beside mine, shrines could coexist, and conquest could mean incorporation rather than annihilation.
Monotheism, by contrast—emerging out of Egypt, radicalized in the Hebrew exodus, and crystallized in the first commandments—introduced exclusivity into the sacred. One God meant all rival gods were false, and thus every loss of the land became a cosmic defeat, every defense of it an ultimate necessity. In this sense, the Holy Land is not just desperate ground in the military sense, but metaphysical desperate ground, where retreat is impossible because existential legitimacy itself is at stake.
Thanks, Kevin! Even your reply is poetic history, and seemingly a kind of yearning to find out, and philosophize on how mankind ended up here. In these circumstances, in 2025. What is it? Greed, envy, need for power, or, a knowing to be right about spiritual and historical "rights"?
I've been on MoA today, incredible comments on Banksy, and ofc, globalists. Why we can't have common sense and peace. Animal studies were quoted. It is absolutely fascinating to me how most people cannot look behind the curtain, at the brick wall. I just don't get it.
I will never know if am truly free, within the system. Freedom of thinking, of reasoning, of evaluating, yet not judging mankind. But I feel free, and discover these jewels of words, of the people on the other side, like you, MoA, Global Research, Strategic Culture Foundation etc.
Like, there isn't the computational power in the world, to stop people waking up. They cannot censor or destroy every website, or scare you with NSA, Patriot Act and surveillance. If we look at the way the world is, and how much goes awry, in even the simplest projects, isn't it just intimadation to believe the spy satellites and servers keep records of every email, search, comment, and phone call?
I have a habit of joking in a comedy set; hey, 1984 wasn't supposed to be an instruction manual. What if we are the people living in a 1984ish world? However, what if it's all bullshit? Were 1984 and Brave New World scare stories? Is the government even capable of harvesting so much material that it could incriminate us? They can't even built AI centers, Microsoft just cancelled a 130 million dollar project in the Northeast. And our electrical grid is already effed.
The people in power want a nice home, possibly a yacht, great food, holidays, a summer cottage or two, drugs, cars, private jets, hot girls and boys. Anything to distract from death, despair and especially, destitute people who are poor. Are these people even capable of organizing what would be needed to surveil everyone? I'm mostly talking about the US. In the UK, could most incidences be exagerated, so others don't get haughty ideas? To scare you, exactly as they did with the plandemic. Like, oh wow, 500 pensioners were arrested.
It is tyranny, if it is all true. But there is another way of looking at it. That comedian that got arrested. All that expensive manpower, by a broke ass nation, to arrest one man tweeting a joke, rol an opinion. Does that even make sense? Are they trying to create dissidents, or are they dissuading people from expressing themselves?
If TPTB have full control over MSM, why did the story go viral? Because they do not have full control over the journalists and editors, or because they do not have all the power? Or, the computing power to change the course of history.
Anyways, I'm just thinking aloud, on paper. We know we are being lied too, and those who want the truth will find it, about the Holy Land, the real cause of WW1 & 2, and how we are encouraged to remember 3000 dead Americans when the US, the Global American Empire, has killed millions since WW2. The actor puppets who present the MSM news have sold their soul. There's no coming back from their disgrace, deceit and distortian of reality.
I may be a peasant or serf to TPTB - not that they spend a second thinking of real people, since we hardly exist as human beings inside their small, miniscule matrix brain - but seeing through their bullshit and having your own unique thoughts, inspiration and a clear vision of past, present and future, is their defeat. Our contentment, kindness, search for truth, and finding purpose in life will be their downfall. Because we did not sell our soul. Amen!