A prophetic warning against the foolishness of crusades, John Gray's Black Mass challenges our belief in human progress. Our conventional view of history is wrong. It is founded on a pernicious myth of an achievable utopia that in the last century alone caused the murder of tens of millions. In Black Mass John Gray tears down the religious, political and secular beliefs that we insist are fundamental to the human project, examines the interaction of terrorism, declining world resources, environmental change, human myths of redemption and a flawed belief in Western democracy, and shows us how a misplaced faith in our ability to improve the world has actually made it far worse. 'Brilliant, frightening, devastating' John Banville, Guardian 'A brilliant polemic ... Gray's most powerful argument yet' J.G. Ballard, Guardian, Books of the Year 'Causes vertigo when it does not cause outrage' Sunday Times 'Exhilarating, invigorating' Literary Review 'Savage. Gray raises profound and valid doubts about the conventional plot of modern history' Financial Times 'A load of bollocks ... could hardly be more bonkers if it was crawling with lizards' Sunday Telegraph John Gray has been Professor of Politics at Oxford University, Visiting Professor at Harvard and Yale and Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics. His books include False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism, Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals and The Immortalization Commission: The Strange Quest to Cheat Death. His selected writings, Gray's Anatomy, was published in 2009

Samizdat selection, one that broached a rasher of interests. Inconclusive for sure, it was still provocative. ( )

Gray is a masterful debunker of all utopian projects for world transformation--of both the left and right varieties. In addition to demonstrating the debt owed by modern movements as varied as Communism, neo-liberalism, and Nazism to millenarian ideas present in "Western" society since the birth of Christianity and particularly prevalent since the middle ages, Gray also argues that there is an "illiberal" core of the Enlightenment, and that the periodic violence and repression that attends putatively enlightened movements and projects is thus not accidental but necessary. The main mistake made by all utopian projects, according to Gray, is that they believe the ends/needs of humans are harmonizable, not in fundamental conflict, and can thus be achieved by the one, same system everywhere (or almost everywhere). Gray takes this to be clearly an absurdity, linked not to any rational conclusion but to humanity's need for myth.

The book is well-argued, though it becomes one-sided at certain points due to an overly polemical orientation. Another minor criticism is that the chapter on the American wars of the 2000s and the misinformation strategies feels a bit out of place in the book.

In any case, I find much of what Gray writes to be convincing, in spite of my wish at certain points to disbelieve him. Nevertheless, Gray's underlying skepticism of our capacity to A) change things for the better, and B) live at least MORE if not TOTALLY satisfying societies is, I think, ultimately over-stated. Given that these are the main undercurrents of the book, I suppose that I take what Gray writes to heart, but am not totally persuaded. ( )