66 Chapter 3
But right-wingcomedianEvanSayet(b. 1960)agreeswithFoxman.Sayetdumpson
the eighteenth-centuryrationalphilosophes,as theyunderminedfaithandtriedto re-
moveChristiandominationfromthe publicsphere.Sarcastically,as Sayetwill say it, “The
Enlightenmentwasall about‘purescience.’ If somethingcouldn’t be measured,quan-
tified,or recreatedin the laboratory,thenit simplywasn’t true.” Consequently,one of the
few philosophersto standup to this worrisometrend—Jean-JacquesRousseau—“noticed
the highprice” thatcoldrationalityexactedon mankind.“Onlywhenthe Enlightenment
reachedits inevitablesoullessextremes—whenDarwin’s scientifictheoryof ‘the survival
of the fittest,’ untamedby the extra-scientificqualitiesof morality... manifesteditselfin
the Holocaust—did the Enlightenmentdisqualifyitselfas the philosophythat mightfinal-
ly bringpeaceanduniversalprosperity.To the contrary,the Holocaustsuggestedto
manythatreasonis the mostmonstrousof all of man’s faculties.” Sayetthenissueshis
ownperspectiveon the matter:“...it wasnot sciencethathadled to the Holocaust,but
ratherscienceuntamedby the extra-scientific—sciencewithoutGod—that had.But as the
shakenworldlookedto rise fromthe literalashesof the Enlightenment,” the secularists
still refusedto “resurrectGodas a meansof tamingpurescience.”^88 That,accordingto
Sayet,identifiesEnlightenment-erasecularismas the pathogenresponsiblefor modern
socialills.
InVoltaire’s Bastards:The Dictatorshipof Reasonin the West, businessman-turned-philo-
sophic-essayistJohnRalstonSaulsoundsmoreforcefulthanSayet.Employingreasonand
rationalityas pejoratives,Saulpropounds,“TheHolocaustwasthe resultof a perfectly
rationalargument.” He invitesreadersto contemplatethe “systematic,scientific” metho-
dologywherebythe gassingsof the Jewshad been“carriedout.... The massacrewas...
‘wellmanaged’” and an “act of purelogiccarriedout in a rationalmanner.. .” Observe
thatSaulequivocatesanythingthathe considersmethodicalor orderlyto berational, for
he lateradmitsthatthe massmurderfurtheredno self-interestedpurposeon the Nazis’
part.“Therewasno practicalreasonfor it. No propertywasgained,as it hadall been
expropriatedalready.No territorywasat stake.The killingswerea money-losingpropo-
sition—NaziGermanywas destroyinga slavepopulationcapableof greatproductionat a
timewhenAryanmaleshad beensentawayto fight.” ClearlySauldoesnot comprehend
the inextricableconnectionbetweenreasonandits justification,self-interest.Remember
fromBookOnethatthis is the samemanwhoproclaimedthe SpanishInquisitionto be
the consequenceof reason:“TheInquisitorswerethe firstto formalizethe ideathatto
everyquestionthereis a rightanswer.... Beingalreadyin possession” of whattheyheld
to be “the truth,theywereinterestedin the rationaldemonstrationof it by eachvictim.”^89
I findit utterlyshamefulthatCamillePagliapraisedSaul’sDictatorshipof Reasonas “a
rich,rewarding,highlyoriginalbookthat castsa freshperspective.. .”^90
JohnGray—a philosopherof the LondonSchoolof Economics,not to be confusedwith
the Americanpsychologistof the samenamewhoauthoredMenAre FromMars,Women
Are FromVenus—doesnot go as far as Saul;Grayarticulatesa morenuancedview.
Peculiarly,though,Graystill deliverssomepuzzlingproclamationsaboutthe Enlighten-
mentsomehowinfluencingNaziism.The“Naziprojectof racialhierarchy,” he writes,
“continuedsomeinfluentialstrandsof Enlightenmentthinking.Nazi‘scientificracism’
had precedentsin the Positivistplansfor a scienceof societygroundedin physiology,and
in theoriesof humaninequalityand eugenicspromotedby nineteenth-centuryEnlighten-
mentthinkerssuchas FrancisGaltonand(in moreexplicitlyracialterms)ErnstHaeck-
el.”^91 GivenGalton’s arbitrarypresumptionsaboutsuperiority,andHaeckel’s explicit
mysticism,Gray’s assertionthattheyare Enlightenmentthinkersringshollow.We will
delvemoreinto whythat is so, in chapter9.
Andwe also recallfromBookOnethatUniversityof LeedssociologistZygmunt
BaumanadvancedthisEnlightenment-caused-the-Holocaustinterpretation.We alsore-