The Conspiracy against the Human Race - A Contrivance of Horror

Thomas Ligotti is a gifted and eloquent author, one whose works of fiction I admire. As far as his philosophy as a philosophy- as a lay reader I am not qualified to pass judgement. But this book has given me a lot to think about. I plan on reading it again. If you are new to his work, I would suggest reading his short fiction first, as he there introduces themes he develops effectively here.

Mr. Ligotti: "Remember, please, that your job is to increase the circulation of our paper. Suicide, it is only reasonable to think, must defeat this purpose." You'll not get fired this way. You'll not get transferred to the sports department. Suicide is your only way out. Or maybe a Mr. Doyle will put you out of your misery. There's always Bartleby's approach if you don't go in for things like rope or "Whisky and the boss's wife."

Nathanael West, Melville, and others have all made the same points more eloquently and without the philosophical hand waving.

I've not read Ligotti's fiction but fiction is, in my view, the only way to advance such nihilistic notions (I'll not say "arguments"). Not because fiction is a "safe" way to interact with the notions but because powerful. Notions in the garb of argument are easily dismissed when they aren't cogent (and Ligotti's, if considered to be arguments, are not cogent).

Don't misunderstand: I'm essentially an antinatalist, a pessimist (as here defined), and am probably more sympathetic than most to the notions in this book. But one simply cannot make the case made here with the tools here utilized. One cannot use logic to argue against logic, etc. An *argument* against existence will *always* be irrational. Self-consistent argument is a tool of existence.

"Others may disagree on this point as it pleases them, but they must accept that if they believe themselves to have a stronger case than the [writer], then they are mistaken."

Did I convince you with that statement? No. I thought not. Ligotti doesn't convince when he uses it either. But West's words might. Or Melville's. Or McCarthy's. Or...

West on willful blindness: "[The frog he accidentally stepped on] had filled him with pity, but when its suffering had become real to his senses, his pity turned to rage and he had beaten it frantically until it was dead." He doesn't just turn a blind eye - he annihilates the thing to stop himself having to witness its suffering - not out of mercy but rage.

"He stood quietly against a wall, trying not to see or hear... With the return of self-consciousness, he knew that only violence could make him supple. It was Betty, however, that he criticized. Her [ordered] world was not the world and could never include the [pitiable] readers of his column. Her sureness was based on the power to limit experience arbitrarily. Moreover, his confusion was significant, while her order was not."

Here's the Lawyer in Bartleby musing on the relationship between blindness and suffering: "My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity; but just in proportion as the forlornness of Bartleby grew and grew to my imagination, did that same melancholy merge into fear, that pity into repulsion. So true it is, and so terrible too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not."

Read Miss Lonelyhearts and Bartleby and a hundred other "pessimistic" works of fiction (Ligotti's, and, for that matter, West's self-defeating attacks on art notwithstanding) and you'll be better (or is it worse?) off. They are far more concise, affecting, eloquent... just better in every way. The two texts I've cited here have essentially the same view of humanity as Ligotti - but, of course, one must choose to see it. Which is the whole problem, no? One advantage those texts have over this is that they are much more likely to steal into your consciousness than this misguided effort. They are much less easily dismissed.

Or, perhaps, read Ligotti's fiction. If he employs the same tropes as he does here then it is likely more... enlightening. It must certainly be more convincing (or do I mean alluring?). I'll spare everyone the discussion of Sir Philip Sidney or Rorty but everything said here is better said in a story. Read one of them instead. Or watch an episode of Vice.

Those of us in what might be called "Death-Haunted Professions", like myself, can relate to these ideas. Those of us, myself included, who have had near-death experiences can relate to these ideas. Those of us who comprehend how much suffering of sentient creatures contributes to the continuation of the lives of other sentient creatures can relate to these ideas. If you're looking for an escape from the biggest questions of life and the brutal process of self-examination, this is not the book for you. But as Rustin Cohle says, people without guilt usually do have a good time.

He's not a true philosopher himself by any means, but this excellent horror writer (my very favorite author of the short story) does a great job of providing a great reading list of some of the most interesting pessimists out there, as well as providing his very own reasons as to why the world is such a terrible and unredeemable thing. Maybe it can be a little overly dramatic when argument runs thin, but do you expect much else from someone trained to work more in affect than argumentation? As an anti-natalist and pessimist who does not necessarily accept all of Ligotti's conclusions, I still highly recommend this, and furthermore, all of his work.

Thomas Ligotti's long-awaited "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race" is a concise and haunting expression of his thoughts about the nature of life, consciousness, and existence itself. It doesn't function as an organized work of philosophy, but more as a statement of a worldview. It works reasonably well in this regard, and the man has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of pessimistic literature past and present, which he incorporates into the various topics approached in this work. Add to this his elegant prose style and you have a work that is simultaneously a pleasure to read and yet at times very difficult to think about (it is worth noting that I was one of those people who valued the brief non-fiction snippets of his prose when he wrote introductions to his collections and such almost more than the fiction contained therein). This is a work of unabashed negativity and pessimism.

The work is less interesting as a statement of a worldview, however, than it is as a key to understanding the horror fiction of Thomas Ligotti. His stories have been called "intellectual horror," and indeed almost all of his literature is horrifying not because of any monsters or "scary things" contained within but because of the paranoid and suffocating worldview he creates through the atmosphere of his stories. Indeed, most of his stories are almost all atmosphere, implicitly conveying a worldview that can be understood on an intuitive level if you have any sympathy at all for Ligotti's obsessions and feelings. There are, however, a few stories, most notably the longest story in his collection "Teatro Grottesco" called "The Shadow, The Darkness," which convey his worldview and obsessions in a more literal and didactic manner, and these can be somewhat puzzling. A full and thorough reading of this work, however, will clear up any lingering confusion about the almost ritualistic repetition of certain images and metaphors in his stories as well as explaining the meaning of his more didactic stories. Thomas Ligotti isn't an obscurantist, but it can be difficult to approach some of his work if you don't understand where he is coming from intellectually and emotionally.

I've no doubt that ligotti is an intelligent man. He relates some insightful and substantive things. Did he use a keyboard or a psychedelic machine gun to compose The Conspiracy. Obfuscation ricochets wildly. I've heard that writers drink but some seem to prefer acid and coke. Thomas is way, way out there.

This was mostly a discussion of various authors and philosophers, giving a philosophic tone to the book. I was looking for a book that had more downbeat ideas about humanity and our future, but I was left disappointed. There were a few paragraphs of real gems sccattered through the book, so I gave it 2 stars.

This book is a primer in dark philosphy, and though it draws from many sources it remains absolutely original, both in perspective and execution. In the oddest way, it refutes its own arguement. If the human race can produce a writer this brilliant, it must be doing something right (if only by accident). Strong stuff -- decidedly not for the faint hearted or the slow witted.

What this book is: a fantastic summary of pessimistic thought spanning everything from buddhism to schopenhauer to obscure Norwegian philosophers alongside western literary classics and various horror stories. Ligotti's style is impeccable and if you are one of those people, like me, who is fascinated by pessimism and literature of a dark and morbid ilk, this book is a must have. Ligotti does a brilliant job of providing entertaining, insightful and illuminating commentary while weaving together all of the above topics into a coherent discourse. However my personal favorite thing about this book is the insight it gives into the authors world view and how it informs his writing of weird fiction.

What this book is not: A good introduction to the writings of Thomas Ligotti. This book is not a work of fiction and as such is not really representative of the type of writing that has brought Mr Ligotti his cult following. You could of course read this book and thoroughly enjoy it without reading anything else but I feel this would be doing it a great disservice. As I said above, for me what made this book amazing was reading it in the context of having read Ligotti's other fantastic short stories.

In summary, if you are an existing ligotti fan click buy right now, you won't regret it. If you are new to Ligotti I would buy Theatro grotesco, a collection of short stories which is in print and or the nightmare factory (not the graphic novel) if you can find a copy of it. Read one of those and if you find yourself obsessed come back and buy several copies for your friends (like I have done)

Tom is depressed and seeks to justify his whiny mood through a variety of half-baked philosophies. The idea that life is suffering and has no inherent meaning is not new. That's the central tenet of Buddhism. Difference with Tom's take on it is that he desperately craves meaning & immortality. He's like an old drunk at the bar railing against the s***ty beer he can't stop drinking.

If, as Mr. Ligotti dreams of in his philosophy , the human race is ultimately useless and should extinguish itself to avoid suffering, then one would wonder why one should suffer through this book? While I have long been a huge admirer of the author as a great writer of the weird, of a caliber of Lovecraft and Poe, I cannot really take him seriously as a philosophical genius and I would hardly surprised if he does either.

I did not find `Conspiracy' particularly profound or his arguments very convincing, although I did encounter a few amusing moments amongst the darkness and dread of this essay on uber-nihilistic existentialism.
It is a point of view that runs throughout all of Ligotti's works, but may not be ultimately essential to what makes his horror stories so good. As the author points out in citing Lovecraft on Horror: Mood is much more essential to story; And like Lovecraft, this is where Tom Ligotti, with his command of prose, excels; not in the plot, action, or yes, even philosophy.

In general I have not found philosophies very useful if they are not backed up with science. And since science in its current state may still be too primitive to fully answer the sorts of issues discussed in 'Conspiracy', then it becomes no more than a point of view like anyone else's. Having no factual basis to either reject or accept the Human Race as useless, I choose to assume there is a point and that in the final analysis there is something like justice. As to why, as the author argues, we must go through this charade of existence rather than getting to the point -- which he seems to believe is the mere ending of existence -- I would consider a philosophy more along the lines of Phil Dick: perhaps God makes mistakes. I think Mr. Ligotti would not disagree.

Nietzsche wrote about the strangest of guests knocking at our door. He was talking about Nihilism. Most people today have nihilism as an anchor. But I ask, how can this feeble brain, that aches at a little calculus, declare to know truth and conclude nihilism? The conclusion of nihilism, and pessimism, isn't contained in the premises.

Nietzsche eventually got bored of his master, Arthur Schopenhauer, because of the leaps from philosophy to outright doom and gloom which isn't contained in his original premises. This was a fatal flaw in Schopenhauer's writings on pessimism but those brilliant writings are still very popular. Thomas Ligotti suffers from the same flaws. He is a gifted writer, but he's all over the place quoting his favourite readings that only confirm his inner desire to be the No1 nihilist on the block.

If we are honest, most philosophers choose to become nihilist's first and then write about it.

To make matters worse, they then fish for examples. Karl Popper writes that fishing for examples to fit your theory, as we all do, will never lead to any kind of truth. You can pile on the examples forever and convince yourself, but this is circular evidence gathering, like a dog running after its own tail.

So Conspiracy Against the Human Race is very readable and brilliant like a death metal band or a horror film but to call this philosophy is analogous to calling the latest 9 11 truther book real politics all calling Star Wars science.

I don't want to give it 1 star because is very readable and Ligotti mentions unknown philosophers who are well worth checking out. It doesn't deserve 5 stars because of Poppers problem of induction, in other words, piling 'evidence'.

So 3 it is.

Should have been just a pamphlet. Your man goes on on about about the meaningless of life. He may be right, but 248 pages of this guy said this and that guy said that was overmuch.

If he really believes this, he might have done something about it. He must see some purpose if he spends so much time writing.

Biographical information states that he identifies as a socialist. How silly to write what he does when he subscribes to the ideas of a utopian ideology.

I was getting mighty angry with the relentless absurdity of this book until I noticed something that may explain it all. The author - Thomas Ligotti -hardly ever refers to real life. He is an avid reader and makes great recommendations - Jorge Luis Borges and Thomas Bernhard are now nestling splendidly on my shelves thanks to Ligotti. He also talks an awful lot about films, drawing "profound" insights from Sweeney Todd, Se7en, Dr Strangelove etc.

But.....

The actual world out there? You know - that thing you see when you go out your door? Or the news bulletins about, you know, actual events? No. Nowhere to be found in Mr Ligotti's tome.

In any case, Mr Ligotti has only the utmost contempt for all these mundane aspects of everyday life. And all those everyday people are mere combinations of chemical reactions. Of course Mr Ligotti himself is a combination of chemical reactions. But HIS chemical reactions are more "meaningful" than THEIR chemical reactions.

His conclusion from all his researches in paper and celluloid: life is a hideous thing and we should never have been born. But since we have, the sooner we die the better. He recommends non-existence. His non-existence is an attractive proposition as we find on page 47: "....forever lazing in nonexistence...." So there. Nonexistence is something you can LAZE in. Presumably with some cocktail drinks and plumped up cushions.

On page 246 he unequivocally states that there is nothing "inherently impressive" about the universe. It seems that the universe is not impressed by itself. Well - you wouldn't expect it to be.

But I'm being a bit unfair. Ligotti does mention some actual people: a curious group who have experienced "ego death" (p141). It happens like this: your ego dies. And you experience that. But obviously not via your ego. You experience this ego death via...something that isn't you. Therefore it isn't you that, in fact, experiences it. It must be someone else that experiences it. So it's not, in fact YOUR experience. So that....ummmm...let's just move on.

Anyway there's this group called the "ego dead" (yes, I know I didn't explain that bit but just accept that this group is there). The ego dead are fed up with UNintelligently submitting to Nature. They want to INtelligently submit. Why? So that "Nature's way would be restored in all its mindlessness..."....ummmmm....so they want to intelligently submit to mindlessness?

......

....let's just move on.

P151: Leo Tolstoy discovers the hideous truth: too much consciousness is a terrible thing. So he retreats into a peasant life. Contemptible, says Ligotti. But - consciousness is bad? Yes. So retreat from consciousness must be an improvement? No, that's bad. So, to recap....consciousness is bad and lack of consciousness is bad...let's move on.

P125: Humanity is forever unchanging. Except that we have changed ourselves. But we only changed ourselves because that's the kind of beings we were made to be i.e. beings who change themselves. So even though we changed we didn't change. The fact that we changed proved that we can never change. (Let's move....well, you know.)

Page 145 - All is revealed. Death. Decay. Such beautiful things. THAT is what we want. ...Well perhaps from an aesthetic point of view?....No! He's serious about making it REAL!

(Edging nervously towards the exit.) Move on. QUICK

This book is horribly written. He is all over the place. He is just rambling on and one and never gets to the point. I felt myself getting a headache so I had to stop reading. If you want a book on antinatalism, I would recommend "Better Never to Have Been" by David Benator. His book is more scientific and detailed, yet he sticks to the point. I would not waste my time or money on this particular book.

STOP! Read the title of this review again. Do you see what is going on here? The question answers itself. “What do you want?” Answer: “out of life.” Birth itself should be evidence enough to anyone as to having lost in the genetic lottery. The fortunate are the not-born though ‘they’ will never be aware of their good fortune. The unfortunates are those who are born and painfully aware of it - of birth and its consequences; condemned to both a life sentence and a death sentence; only human existence could contain and condemn us to such a tragic irony. Consciousness is a distortion of existence and creates an experience of tension and struggle. In terms of existence, consciousness is derivative, secondary and actually parasitic. This renders existence itself a burden. We are victimized by Fate, tyrannized by evolution and cursed by genetics. This tortured existence is the root of our tormented human experience.The only defense is not to be fooled by hope or to be made a fool out of by hope. Our best chance at ethics is when we see each other as the fellow prisoners thrown into a world that refuses to reveal itself to us and that will always retain some hidden features just beyond our grasp no matter how much we come to understand. In terms of the overall conspiracy, the only important feature of our existence revealed to us is the permanent inscrutability of our existence in a blank, anonymous and indifferent world. If you have read this far then I am sorry because you cannot unread this review or unlearn these most fundamental principles of human existence unless you prefer to live in state of self-deception (as most people need to do), so you might as well continue and read this book, explore the darkness and learn just how deep the conspiracy against the human race runs but you may not like what you find. Alternatively, it may confirm what you already suspect. On the bright side, at least the human race is not totally bereft and barren, it at least begets, confusion, contradiction and conspiracy.