The Kingdom of No Ideas

“…when thought is non-existent, it is non-free into the bargain. There has been a lot of freedom of thought over the past few years, but no thought.” -Simone Weil, The Need for Roots

Simone Weil wrote this in the 1940s, but now, almost 100 years later, it could not be more relevant. Freedom of thought has been much praised during the last few years—as a reaction against woke thought policing—but though woke thought policing is obviously bad, the free thinkers opposing it seem heavy on the freedom, and light on thought. But with freedom of thought, freedom is secondary to the thought itself—if the thought is non-existent, then it isn’t free. For thought to enter the realm of freedom, it has to exist first—and that is what is left behind today, it seems to me, in all the talk about the importance of freedom of thought. Freedom is a secondary quality in this equation—it is a good attribute for thought to have—but if the thought itself doesn’t exist, then it can’t have any qualities or attributes at all.

As wokeness has been defeated, and MAGA populism, dissident right-wingers, Elon Muskism, etc., have become ascendant and dominated culture, media, and politics, all we hear about is the importance of freedom of thought—but with very little thought being offered. What actual ideas have been promulgated by all of these dissidents, who have triumphed over neoliberal wokeness? I can’t think of any—because it’s all about freedom of thought, without any actual thought. This amounts to a kind of radical nihilism—the quality of a thing (freedom) being fetishized, without that thing itself (thought) actually existing.

Today we have valorized and fetishized freedom of thought—it is our King—but it is a freedom without any content: a kingdom of no ideas.