The Return of Challenges

by Guillaume Faye

This is the first part of Guillaume Faye’s essay ‘The New Ideological Challenges’, published in 1988, in which he examines shifts in European ideological and political landscapes, highlighting the return of crucial debates at a time of public disengagement and a focus on individualism.

The ideological and cultural atmosphere in post-war Europe, a Europe tamed by peace and the longest economic boom to date, was exclusively dominated by the illusion of political appearances until the seventies. The thinking elites could do nothing but indulge in dreams, for they were deprived of challenges, of history, as they remained huddled in a cosy society without visible threats.