Bonus: Dry vs Moist Critiques of Postmodernism

When archetypal numinosity enters the critical arena

“My argument is that the combat myth is archetypal. It is in everyone’s hard wiring. … It is inside all of us, and we must face it. When you are in the warrior mode, something will come up demonized, consciously or unconsciously. When you do not understand how the archetypal psyche relates to the ego, you will project the image of the archetypal enemy onto a human “other”. It might be onto Reagan, or Bush, or the “Evil Empire,” or the Jews, or the Muslims. In any case you are acting out an archetypal shadow projection. Once you demonize someone, you load that person with demonic numinous energy.” (Robert Moore, Facing the Dragon p.124)

Consider two books: Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks and French Philosophy of the Sixties by Luc Ferry and Alain Renault. Both books are critiques of so-called French Postmodern thinkers — Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Lyotard and so on.

“A drunken man has to be led by a boy, whom he follows stumbling and not knowing whither he goes, for his soul is moist.” — Heraclitus, Fragment 119

The Stephen Hicks angle is well-represented in the culture — Ken Wilber, Jordan Peterson, James Lindsay and every other cousin of the Daily Wire meme-complex tend to share this perspective.

But Luc Ferry and Alain Renault’s book is different. These are both right-wing thinkers — Ferry went on to become the Minister for Education in Jacques Chirac’s government. Theoretically, this might lead you to expect a similar perspective on the Postmodernists. But this intuition is mistaken.

With Ferry and Renault, the Postmodernists are dealt with in the same dry academic tone as one would find in a book on the Medieval Scholastics. They are dealt with philosophically. Their arguments are outlined and criticised. Dry is the operative word.

In contrast, the Hicksians couldn’t be more moist. They are positively drenched.

“A dry soul is wisest and best.” — Heraclitus, Fragment 118

Here’s the key difference: