Eumeswil
Eumeswil, apparently a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, is in fact a full synthesis of Ernst Jünger's mature ideas, with a special emphasis on new and feasible kinds of individual freedom in a technologically monitored and governed postmodern society. In this chapter, Jünger thoroughly develops his idea of the anarch, the internally liberated and outwardly pragmatic man who lives contentedly in the heart of Leviathan while retaining his uniqueness and independence. Eumeswil is a novel composed of brief passages and fragments that follow the thoughts of Martin Venator, a historian living in a futuristic city-state governed by a dictator known as the Condor. Jünger offers a broad and uniquely insightful analysis of history from a post-historic perspective through Venator, the prototypical anarch, while also presenting a vision of future technological developments, including astonishingly prescient descriptions of today's internet (the luminar), smartphone (the phonophore), and genetic engineering. Eumeswil continues to speak to the tensions and opportunities inherent in our twenty-first-century reality, as both a study of adaptation to dictatorship and a libertarian vision of human freedom.
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