Review of "Prometheus and Atlas" by Jason Reza Jorjani

2/20/2018

In lieu of a blog post today, I present my review of alt-right “intellectual” Jason Reza Jorjani’s Prometheus and Atlas, a book that, before his ouster from AltRight.com and retreat from public life, Jorjani had promoted as the intellectual foundations for the alt-right movement. I have covered aspects of the book on this blog because of Jorjani’s prominence among the white nationalist right, where he partnered with white nationalist leader Richard Spencer and delivered a speech a pro-Trump rally where fascist salutes were given. Recently, Jorjani joined a nonprofit dedicated to “Aryan cultural revolution” called Iranian (Persian) Renaissance, where he theorizes that Iran will deliver the “completion of human evolution” by reinstituting an “Aryan” shah.

I wrote this piece for the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture last year. Its publication was delayed, but the journal has graciously made the review available for free. Now, whenever a student tries to find scholarly information about Jorjani, it will be my evaluation of him that they find. Below is the first paragraph. The remainder is available to read on the journal’s website.

Jason Reza Jorjani’s Prometheus and Atlas takes its title in imitation of Nietzsche’s division of tragedy into the Apollonian and Dionysian in Birth of Tragedy; however, while Nietzsche used his mythic references to link art to the divine, Jorjani has selected his Titanic title for a darker purpose, to link the human condition to those immortals victimized by the gods of Olympus. In myth, Prometheus is vivisected for giving fire to mankind, while Atlas must hold the heavens for rebelling against the Olympians. Jorjani wishes humankind to emulate the Titans’ stand against oppressive deities, but it is emblematic of the problematic nature of his scholarship that he conflates the Titan Atlas with the same-named son of Poseidon who was king of Atlantis (Plato, Criti. 114a), and then proceeds to build his framework atop that faulty identity, imagining the conflated Atlas as a ‘world-colonizing’ hero.

36 Comments

Pax

2/20/2018 09:43:32 am

Speaking of alternative history supporting a racist agenda; New Wolter post. Here he details how the Rune Stone museum and cafe' refused to let Neilson study the stone in person. Sounds like a conspiracy to hide the truth. funny. Sounds like what he accuses the Smithsonian of. Now apparently Prometheus is a alt right standard bearer along with Venus. I'm sure they will next find a way to make Sara the Egyptian girl white and from Germany.

Machala

2/20/2018 09:46:34 am

Very well written, and interesting review. I have not read Jorjani's book but rather suspect that your review was more coherently written and your arguments more cogent than his would ever be.

I have often wondered, if this mythic obsession with the Übermensch, is not just an adolescent, that was never outgrown, but also a deep seated psychological dislocation rooted in sexual insecurity and penal envy.

Certainly, many of the builders of the German Third Reich would fit that psychological profile . It seems to me, that the alt-right, neo-nazis, white supremacists, and fringe pseudo-scientists do, as well.

Americanegro

2/20/2018 02:56:59 pm

"He who smelt it dealt it."

"I have often wondered... a deep seated psychological dislocation rooted in sexual insecurity and penal envy" applies equally well to people spewing such armchair analysis..

Machala

2/20/2018 07:54:20 pm

I was thinking specifically about Himmler,Göring, and Borman in Hitler's inner circle and their occult obsessions.

The Tweeter in Chief, the ex-Grey Eminence Bannon, and the Naked Emperor's Right Brain Miller might be 21st Century parallels.

As for meself. I can honestly say that while I may not be the brightest candle on the birthday cake, and am definitely a tad disconnected, I've by and large been pretty comfortable in my own skin and at ease with my own sexuality.

Americanegro

2/21/2018 12:38:42 pm

That's exactly what someone with "a deep seated psychological dislocation rooted in sexual insecurity and penal envy" would say.

Machala

2/21/2018 01:01:29 pm

Are you speaking about yourself, Dr. Freud ?

To paraphrase MacBeth " Methinks,the lady doth protest too much ! "
My innocent question seems to have set off some deep-seated dislocation. Sexual insecurity ? Penal envy ? Or is it simply a desire to play the contrarian troll ?

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 01:29:20 pm

@Machala:

> Or is it simply a desire to play the contrarian troll ?

Good point.

T. Franke link

2/20/2018 11:20:10 am

Ah ... Jorjani is of Iranian descent. I have had some troublesome encounters with some Iranian-born people in Germany: They wanted to tell me that "they, too, are Aryans, as the Germans". Errrr ....... and they did not realize any problem with that .... for them it was just normal "knowledge".

Somehow this whole Nazi shit is still alive in the Middle East, much more than in our Western countries. And there is a reason for this: Nazi Germany flooded the Middle East with its propaganda, especially by radio broadcats, and financed certain allies there, against the British, and "the Jews".

The founder of the Muslim brotherhood, Hassan Al-Banna, was influenced by this, as well as Ayatollah Chomeini, the founder of Iran's theocratic system of today. And Arafat's uncle (or otherwise close relative?) met with Hitler and helped install a Muslim SS division, and asked for gas chambers for the Middle East.

Jorjani seems to be just another byproduct of these tragic interconnections.

Hmmmmm, Wikipedia deleted all hints to a connection of Al-Banna to Nazi ideology. You only find something about it in the Talk page. Rewriting history happens before our eyes.

T. Franke link

2/20/2018 11:38:00 am

PS: I looked for some sources and found e.g. this:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Hate-Radio-Nazi-Propaganda-in/49199

Khomeini (in a German source) is said to have listened to the German broadcasts but to have condemned Nazi ideology (maybe because the racist approach of "Aryans" played into the hands of the "Aryan" shah's secular regime?).

Americanegro

2/20/2018 03:07:37 pm

I hate to dilute the "Scott Wolter is an idiot" meme, but...

T. Franke is an idiot.

Machala

2/20/2018 01:10:49 pm

"Ah ... Jorjani is of Iranian descent. I have had some troublesome encounters with some Iranian-born people in Germany: They wanted to tell me that "they, too, are Aryans, as the Germans". Errrr ....... and they did not realize any problem with that .... for them it was just normal "knowledge"...."

And your point and/or your problem is ?? Jorjani IS of Aryan descendant, according to his lights and Iranian tradition. The name refers to those peoples who spoke the ancient Indo-European language and were believed to have settled ancient Persia and the northern India subcontinent.

That the terminology was hijacked by white supremacists, nazis, neo-nazis, and the alt-right doesn't alter, who it was originally intended to designate.

Short comprehensive read for those confused by the nomenclature....

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aryan

T. Franke link

2/20/2018 01:25:28 pm

@Machala:

To consider Germans and Iranians to be of common "Aryan" racial origin would have met your point in the 19th century, maybe. But we are in the 21st century ...

... and please .... the idea of Iranians being descendents of "Aryans" is not (!) an Iranian tradition, but a late European idea which many Iranians obviously accepted for themselves and still have not got rid off until today.

You should have read your Web link.

Machala

2/20/2018 01:58:53 pm

@T.Franke

" and please .... the idea of Iranians being descendents of "Aryans" is not (!) an Iranian tradition, but a late European idea which many Iranians obviously accepted for themselves and still have not got rid off until today. "

What are you afraid of ? That your pure Germanic blood might be tainted by ( heaven fore fend ! ) someone of Persian ancestry ?

From a linguistic standpoint, Aryan is still the preferred terminology for those sharing common Indo-European language roots. It has nothing to do with the fraudulent Germanic/Nordic myth, of a race of Übermensch.

And yes, I did read my web link which, among other things that you chose to ignore, did state:

In Europe the notion of white racial superiority emerged in the 1850s, propagated most assiduously by the comte de Gobineau and later by his disciple Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who first used the term “Aryan” to mean the “white race.” Members of that so-called race spoke Indo-European languages, were credited with all the progress that benefited humanity, and were purported to be superior to “Semites,” “yellows,” and “blacks.” Believers in Aryanism came to regard the Nordic and Germanic peoples as the purest members of the “race.” That notion, which had been repudiated by anthropologists by the second quarter of the 20th century, was seized upon by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and was made the basis of the German government policy of exterminating Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and other “non-Aryans.”

T. Franke link

2/20/2018 02:43:07 pm

@Machala:

Now this is interesting. I was talking against this "Aryan" bullshit, and your reaction is to impute a racist motivation to me. Strange.

Your Britannica article says, that in linguistic terminology, "Aryan" is used only for Indo-Iranian languages, nowadays: "It is now used in linguistics only in the sense of the term Indo-Aryan languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family."

This clearly means that "Aryan" is not used for German(ic) languages. Thus, your statement is wrong: "From a linguistic standpoint, Aryan is still the preferred terminology for those sharing common Indo-European language roots." -- Simply wrong.

Therefore, you should start to realize that my encounters with some Iranians brought to light a racist usage of "Aryan", not a linguistic usage. They made this quite clear, I can tell you.

And when Mr Jorjani talks of "Aryan", he too does not point to a linguistic aspect, only, You can be sure of that.

David Bradbury

2/20/2018 03:42:49 pm

Beware of looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
The Aryans were a people living in the eastern part of the Persian empire, referred to by Herodotus among others. Such classical references long postdate the era of the "proto-Indo-European" language which would once have been spoken in roughly the same region, but "proto-Indo-European" is not as catchy as a name which came to mean "noble" in Sanskrit.

Americanegro

2/20/2018 05:33:16 pm

Dammit! Wish I could edit but meant to point out that according to T, Franke Herodotus gets a lot of stuff wrong and again according to T. Franke that is evidence that Herodotus is a reliable source.

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 08:23:56 am

@Americanegro:

Define "reliable"! Contrary to you and your fellow pseudo-scientists, I do not fall for all-or-nothing approaches. There are many grades and shades of reliability and types of mistakes. Any approach which wants to be called academic is aware of this.

And contrary to your credulity, I heavily doubt that Herodotus wrote about "Aryans". Herodotus wrote about "Persians", not "Aryans". You maybe find translations from the 19th century where the translator wrote "Aryans" when Herodotus wrote /Persoi/.

Can we use HTML here? Test: <I>Persoi</I>

David Bradbury

2/21/2018 02:29:12 pm

Herodotus wrote, in Book 7 of the Histories, about the various contingents within the Persian imperial forces, including:
"ἄριοι δὲ τόξοισι μὲν ἐσκευασμένοι ἦσαν Μηδικοῖσι, τὰ δὲ ἄλλα κατά περ Βάκτριοι. Ἀρίων δὲ ἦρχε Σισάμνης ὁ Ὑδάρνεος"
(no unambiguous equivalent of "y" in the Greek alphabet, so "the Arians, for bows, were equipped like the Medians, but for everything else Bactrian style. The Arians' leader was Sisamnes son of Hudarnes.")

David Bradbury again

2/21/2018 02:51:29 pm

PS: The cuneiform inscription on the tomb of King Darius Hysaspes at Naqsh i Rustam calls him "Parsa Parsahya pucha Ariya Ariya cicha" which apparently means "a Persian, son of a Persian; an Aryan of Aryan ancestry"

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 03:03:00 pm

@David Bradbury:

Great! Substance! Finally! Thank you!

The name /Arioi/ is mentioned in Herodotus VII 62 and 66. In Herodotus VII 62 we even learn that also the Medes once called themselves /Arioi/ before they chose to be called Medes. And we learn that the Indians are simply called Indians, in Herodotus, not /Arioi/.

There is a big question now: Are the /Arioi/ of Herodotus really the same as the "Aryas" from the Indian scriptures? I dare to doubt it. I see a mere similarity in words here, not an identity for which reasons can be given.

And Herodotus obviously sees the /Arioi/ only as a people in Iran, not in India, and not elsewhere. This quite clearly speaks against an identity of /Arioi/ and "Aryas".

Ok, it is valid to see an Iranian as descendant of the /Arioi/, yet this is a different thing to an "Aryan" race comprising Indians and Germanics. But this is what Jorjani, Tikal and others are talking about.

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 03:16:29 pm

@David Bradbury:

According to Wikipedia, scholars indeed see an identity of Persian Arians and Indian Aryas. But only a cultural and linguisitc one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan

Therefore, we are right where we were: "Aryan" as a cultural (or linguistic) depiction for an ancestral people in the Indo-Iranian region, yet no ethnic-genetic connection, and no connection at all to the wider Indo-European civilizations.

What I did not know is that Persians saw this ancestry, and in accordance with Indian scriptures. I obviously was wrong on this.

But it changes nothing for our case. Who draws a connection from Iran to Germany under an "Aryan" perspective, and who sees Iranians and Germans together as "Aryans" as the better people by birth, is on the way of racism, a way pathed in the 19th century and not in Iranian or Indian scriptural traditions.

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 03:32:54 pm

On Jorjani,

revealing his idea of Aryans in two Blog entries:

https://jasonrezajorjani.com/blog/2018/2/7/persepolis-and-jerusalem

"... despite my mother’s Uber-Aryan ancestry, Protestant on her Scandinavian and German side, and Catholic on her Irish side (not that it would bother me in the least if I really were the son of a Jewish mother)."

=> So, for Jorjani Scandinavian, German, Irish is "Uber-Aryan ancestry".

https://jasonrezajorjani.com/blog/2018/1/24/why-i-am-an-iranian-zionist

"What the Germans failed to do, despite the genius of German Jews ..., is something that Iran has long been destined for: the transformation of Aryan consciousness in response to the Shekhinah, which is the completion of human evolution."

=> So, for Jorjani the Germans failed on "the transformation of Aryan consciousness", he says.

Americanegro

2/20/2018 06:20:16 pm

Ah ... Jorjani is of Iranian descent. I have had some troublesome encounters with some Iranian-born people in Germany?"

Are you TRYING to sound like a racist?

Machala

2/20/2018 07:56:20 pm

That's the way he came across to me - hence my comments !

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 08:56:42 am

@Americanegro:
@Machala:

What exactly "sounds" like a racist, in this statement?

I talk of this statement:

"Ah ... Jorjani is of Iranian descent. I have had some troublesome encounters with some Iranian-born people in Germany: They wanted to tell me that "they, too, are Aryans, as the Germans". Errrr ....... and they did not realize any problem with that .... for them it was just normal "knowledge".

Somehow this whole Nazi shit is still alive in the Middle East, much more than in our Western countries."

Americanegro

2/20/2018 05:29:48 pm

But remember that T. Franke is an idiot. Someone needs to read Tilak's Arctic Home In The Vedas.

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 08:38:26 am

@Americanegro:

I had a look at Tilak's Arctic Home in the Vedas, to do you a favour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arctic_Home_in_the_Vedas

Tilak just repeats the outdated science from the end of the 18th century. French scientists claimed in this time that humankind had its origin in the north, or on the highest mountains. The background is simple: They started with the idea that the hot earth cooled down at the poles, first, or, that the great flood went away on the hightest mountains, first. Of course, these old scientific ideas had become pseudo-science already in Tilak's age, and lived on as pseudo-science, only.

Where can you read an analysis of all these things? Guess where! In my book of course: Thorwald C. Franke, Kritische Geschichte, 2016. Tracing back all these weird ideas to their origins. And these origins are NOT Indian or Persian (or Germanic) myths and traditions, but 19th century European pseudo-scientific ideas. Especially French scholars, to be precise, in these times.

By the way, my book does not talk of Tilak. Why? Because it ends a detailed analysis with the year 1896 and continues with summaries for the 20th century. Already then, in 1896, all these ideas where there. What came later was only a continuing pseudo-scientific exploitation of what had already been there. Tilak is an interesting author, because he is Indian, yet he is not the originator of any of these ideas.

But I am only an idiot. According to you. I feel honoured! Bearing Amercanegro's first class medal of idiotism in gold on my breast makes me so proud!

Americanegro

2/21/2018 12:25:11 pm

Looking at a wikipedia article on a book is not reading a book you racist idiot. The fact you had to look it up speaks volumes. The only source you can cite is yourself.

Sitting in a bunker here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come
In perfect isolation here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come
We're waiting to succeed and going to convene
outside Brixton Town Hall where we're going to be
Waiting to cut out the deadwood
Waiting to clean up the city
Waiting to follow the worms
Waiting to put on a black shirt
Waiting to weed out the weaklings
Waiting to smash in their windows
And kick in their doors
Waiting for the final solution
To strengthen the strain
Waiting to follow the worms
Waiting to turn on the showers
And fire the ovens
Waiting for…

T. Franke link

2/21/2018 12:58:25 pm

Dear most friendly Amerianegro,

you keep on insulting me, you keep on providing no substance while ignoring the substance I provide, and again you call me a racist for no reasons, and saying never thankyou for me trying to answer your requests.

... and yes, there are books about which you do not have to know much, because they just recycle utter nonsense, and a Wikipedia article is fully sufficient to realize this. It is rather YOU who is not capable to judge how this book fits into the Geistesgeschichte of humanity, as it seems.

Does your opinion about this book look much differently than mine? Could it be that you think the theses of this book are true?! Come on, tell us, would be interesting .... it is time that YOU start to provide some substantial statements, here!

Americanegro

2/21/2018 09:54:27 pm

And you keep on citing only yourself. Go piss up a rope, won't you?

T. Franke link

2/22/2018 06:02:45 am

As you can see above, I cited not only myself but e.g.

- Herodotus VII 62 and 66 (with thanks to David Bradbury).
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aryan (with thanks to Machala)
- Jorjani's blog (2 times).
- https://www.chronicle.com/article/Hate-Radio-Nazi-Propaganda-in/49199
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arctic_Home_in_the_Vedas

=> Even in your most simple claims, you are wrong.

What is the purpose of your behaviour?

Operation Jellyfish

2/22/2018 08:02:41 am

I wasn't going to comment on this thread, until I discovered that not only does Americanegro apparently takes wiffle-waffle of the babbling fool Jorjani seriously (and it's real struggle to take anyone who flip-flops randomly between Nazism & Zionism like a stranded fish seriously), but also takes the pseudoscience of Tilak's Arctic Home In The Vedas seriously. Archeology has long since dragged itself out of the 1920s and everyone with even a rudimentary education (and who isn't Alt-Right/Nazi) knows that Indo-Europeans, much less 'Aryan/Zionist' Iranians, did not come the Arctic. It seriously baffles me that anyone could take Jorjani's waffling seriously, as it is is just pompous jargon and completely vacuous of both consistency and content.

Machala

2/22/2018 09:57:57 am

Ah, that poor Jorjani kid is just misunderstood. His flip-floppery comes from having a conflicted childhood.

( Am taking tongue out of cheek, now...)

Operation Jellyfish

2/22/2018 09:50:31 pm

@ Machala.

Can't wait to see what murderous political regime he promotes next under the pretense of philosophy. Jorjani hasn't done Communism yet, perhaps 'Gulags & The Marxist Spectral Revolution' will be next?

Machala

2/22/2018 10:19:44 pm

Jorjani could, of course, take his left turn by writing a treatise on the economic acuity of Nicolas Maduro and his Venezuelan success story, boldly entitled: " We Don't Need No Loaves and Fishes ! "

Ashley Carter

2/27/2018 03:36:11 am

I don't have to jump but I will protest from a uniquely American perch: My dad's people arrived in Virginia before 1650. They ended up connected with Nate Bacon for the 1670's fight with the Crown over no protection against Indian incursion. It was a collection of blacks and whites against the natives. Now look at the cards YOUR CRITIQUE HANDS JORJANI. Do you want, need or EXPECT ME, to handle the "problem" and FOR WHOM?

A) I'm a girl
B) I can argue that I've been so badly damaged by henious abusive CULTURAL ARROGANCE from Men & Women that I deserve PUNITIVE compensation for MY LACK and absence of marital opportunity
C) Not only does your critique not help me with my facts, neither does HIS.

#RealTalk #JustSayin

D) Journalism involves investigation as does academics. Neither is a branch of law enforcement. For this reason, both rely on value assignment to produce consumer interest and goods.

E) Anyone else notice WikiLeaks briefly seems to have.... Misplaced their mission statement thanks to #Pizzagate?

I'd love to read an article from you Jason on Wilhelm Reich. I was disappointed Assange seems to be struggling with the limitations imposed by his short sightedness in more than one arena. Reich it might be argued, is parallel to a pantheist/panentheist game of Surrealism.

I appreciate you generosity in writing for a magazine that makes it's content available for free, if only for a time. Even as my own fatalism requires me to sleep it off, I do appreciate reading your comments.