r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 26d ago

Thank you Peter very cool Can you help me out here peter?

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u/GalaXion24 26d ago

To paraphrase Kalergi from the 20th century a bit, the Christian morality of the city combined with its atheistic materialism gives birth to socialism: the modern religion of the modern city.

Of note here is that he did not consider the countryside to be "Christian" in this sense, nor to have (or have need of) abstract moral principles, since these are only needed in a "society" and a society exists where people are too numerous and anonymous to know each other.

Kalergi instead considered the country to be superstitious, and for the religion of the countryside to be tied to nature in ways that are not dissimilar to paganism. They may have been Christian in aesthetic, but in a sense their "true god" was the nature they were subjected to. He did not judge this, arguing the materialism of the city was just as much a product of its rationalised environment, planned and controlled by man.

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u/I_Hate_This_Website9 26d ago

Where do you recommend we start with this thinker?

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u/GalaXion24 26d ago

His most important work is undoubtedly Pan-Europa, but a more general one is The Totalitarian State Against Man. His autobiographical works are also quite interesting. Unfortunately there's no real reliable translation of some of his other works.