Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor Join Forces with Gil Durán on the New Fascism
In my essay one week ago, I focused on Gil Durán’s new book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, which lays bare the agenda behind the AI world as led by Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and other multi billionaires “obsessed with escaping democracy” (p. 10) and dream of taking over the world when billions of people (and millions of other species) are wiped out by climate change.
In my video that day, I cited Dan Houser who said that the people leading the push for AI are “not the most humane or creative…or fully rounded humans.” Might that statement qualify as the understatement of the year?
They are busy preparing for their Armageddon by creating their own cities from scratch before they emerge from their deep cellars and show up to inherit the Earth. Not exactly an echo of Jesus’ teaching: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the earth.” Indeed, just its opposite. Like “Christ” and “Antichrist” are opposites.
Naomi Klein, an author I strongly admire for her prophetic shoutouts, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate and No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need, has teamed up with film-maker activist Astra Taylor to write a fine companion book to Durán’s: End Times Fascism And the Fight for the Living World.
Guardian reviewer Daniel Trillingcalls it “a sharp analysis of the damage wrought by the reckless super-rich, and a progressive toolkit for repairing it.”* We are warned not to normalize what today’s politics, driven by the super-rich, is offering. Time to resist fiercely a president who “casually promises ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’” and his biggest megadonor patron, trillionaire Musk who “spreads racist conspiracy theories to a hitherto unimaginable extent.” And by ending USAID has killed hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people.
Klein/Taylor tell us: “The most powerful people in the world are preparing for the end of the world, an end they themselves are frenetically accelerating.”
A triple alliance is at work: First, religious fanatics eager to see new disasters as the coming of the end of days who link up with “secular demagogues who promise a glorious, prosperous future on the ruins of our present.” Christian Zionists support a “New Gaza” mirage arising “from the wreckage of Israel’s US-backed genocide.”
Second are the new tech barons preaching an AI “arms race” to save humanity. Forget the water and electricity demands that “scorch the planet”—they “dream of sitting out societal breakdown in remote fortified enclaves.”
Third come the “political entrepreneurs” promising “to turn their nations into bunkered garrison states.” An aggressive global scramble for natural resources ensues (take over Greenland?). This “new fascism” Klein/Taylor define as “capitalism with bared teeth.” (Recall Hildegard’s painting of the antichrist as a flying pile of dung complete with red eyes and steel teeth that destroys communities and societies.)
Trilling commends the authors for awakening people to what is happening around us and for empowering us to respond. A response requires dismantling “the concentration of wealth and power that got us into this mess in the first place.” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani demonstrates a new politics “rooted in an expansive, open-armed sense of neighborliness” that can counter “the right’s dystopian visions of the future.”
The fight is between an economic system “built on limitless growth, and on limitless wealth for the winners” who demonstrate serious sadistic tendencies vs the reality of an endangered planet.
Fighting for justice and equality wherever you may live is a guiding principle and the authors celebrate the rise of Minnesotans against ICE as well as Venetians rising up against Jeff Bezos using their city “as a backdrop for his grotesque display of wealth disguised as a wedding.”
To be continued.
* Daniel Trilling, “End Times Fascism by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor Review – The Fightback Starts Here,” The Guardian, September 14, 2026.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner Image: Vision for a New Gaza? The Dubai marina at night, UAE. Photo by David Pin. Wikimedia Commons.
Now that all images produced by the White House are copyrighted, go to this article by the New York Post to see fever-dream visions of a New Gaza.
Queries for Contemplation
How does your “vision of the future” respond to the twin visions spoken of in this essay, that of “an expansive, open-armed sense of neighborliness” or that of a dystopian vision of the future? What is the work—inner and outer—called for?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Times.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessing of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts For the Peoples of the Earth.
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors for Awakening the Sacred Masculine.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation.
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
