Cosmic#
This essay is rich with contrasts and insights, deepening the philosophical dimensions of what this book has dealt with to this point by weaving Nietzsche’s crisis of identity into the narrative.
The reality is more brutal: such unifications often require assimilation that borders on annihilation—cultural genocide in all but name.
– Isaiah 2:2-4 & the Mirage of Pluralism
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and the Perils of Perfected Narratives#
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a maestro of narrative. Her story—a flight from Somali tradition, a confrontation with radical Islam, and a phoenix-like rise in the West as a champion of Enlightenment values—is irresistibly compelling. It appeals to a Western audience hungry for clear moral arcs in an age of ideological ambiguity. Her mastery lies in tokenizing her lived experiences into symbols of resistance, liberation, and moral clarity. Yet therein lies the problem: the perfection of her narrative erases nuance, creating a sleek product that conceals complexities beneath its polished exterior.
---Nietzsche’s Shadow: The Crisis of Identity#
To critique Ali’s narrative is to step into Nietzsche’s abyss, where modernity’s “death of God” creates a void of meaning. Nietzsche didn’t envision Islamists when he declared that the Enlightenment would destabilize the bedrock of identity, but the resonance is striking. The “killing of God” is not the literal dethroning of a deity but the collapse of the transcendent structures that anchor collective identity. For Ali, the rejection of radical Islam as a cornerstone of identity is clear, but what remains in its place? A vacuum filled with Enlightenment ideals that, while powerful, are not universally resonant.
Ali’s narrative emerges as a kind of Übermensch project—a personal triumph over inherited systems of oppression. But unlike Nietzsche’s Übermensch, who creates meaning from within, Ali relies on external validation from the very West that Enlightenment philosophers feared would succumb to nihilism. Her story, while inspiring, risks becoming a blueprint for tokenized individualism, leaving the question of collective identity unanswered.
The Power and Problem of Narrative#
Ali’s personal journey, as recounted in works like Infidel, functions as a compression layer—a distillation of complex sociopolitical and cultural dynamics into a digestible story. This narrative efficiency flattens intricacies: the interplay of individual agency, cultural history, and the evolving nature of belief systems becomes binary—enlightened West versus oppressive East, secularism versus faith, individual freedom versus collective tyranny.
Ali’s critiques of radical Islam, while valid and necessary, veer into the universalist territory Nietzsche might have critiqued as the tyranny of singular truths. Her framing demands assimilation into Enlightenment values, an act Nietzsche might have likened to a herd mentality disguised as liberation. This dynamic mirrors the brutal reality Isaiah 2:2-4’s vision of pluralism fails to confront: unification often demands the annihilation of difference.
N’Golo Kanté: A Counter-Narrative#
Contrast this with N’Golo Kanté, the devout Muslim and unassuming footballing superstar. Kanté embodies a narrative antithesis: the absence of narrative mastery. His life and career are defined not by loud declarations but by quiet, consistent excellence. Kanté’s faith, central to his identity, is lived rather than performed. It doesn’t demand validation or center-stage acknowledgment, making him an intriguing foil to Ali’s public-facing polemics.
Kanté’s humility resists tokenization. His story could be framed as a testament to immigrant values, hard work, or the virtues of quiet faith, but he offers no such narrative. He exists in the world as an anomaly: a figure of genuine niceness in an industry and era where performative virtues are the currency of fame. In Kanté, we glimpse what Nietzsche might have hoped for—a man creating his own values, grounded not in universal prescriptions but in embodied action.
Isaiah 2:2-4 and the Mirage of Pluralism#
Ali’s narrative and Kanté’s life also illuminate the tension in the oft-repeated hope that immigrants can adopt the values of their host countries. Isaiah 2:2-4’s vision of nations converging under a singular moral order—beating swords into plowshares—is hauntingly beautiful but deeply flawed. It presupposes that convergence can occur without coercion, an assumption history consistently disproves. The reality is more brutal: unifications often require assimilation that borders on annihilation—cultural genocide in all but name.
Ali’s advocacy for Western values as a pathway to pluralism assumes value systems are modular, easily swapped like interchangeable parts. Kanté, by contrast, quietly defies this paradigm. His integration into European society without abandoning his Muslim faith offers a model of coexistence that is neither assimilationist nor adversarial but iterative—a dynamic Nietzsche might have embraced as an affirmation of life’s complexity.
Show code cell source
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import networkx as nx
# Define the neural network structure
def define_layers():
return {
'Pre-Input': ['Life','Earth', 'Cosmos', 'Sound', 'Tactful', 'Firm', ],
'Yellowstone': ['Genealogy'],
'Input': ['Evil', 'Good'],
'Hidden': [
'Islam',
'Narrator',
'Judeo-Christian',
],
'Output': ['Deeds', 'Warrior', 'Transvaluation', 'Priest', 'Ascetic', ]
}
# Define weights for the connections
def define_weights():
return {
'Pre-Input-Yellowstone': np.array([
[0.6],
[0.5],
[0.4],
[0.3],
[0.7],
[0.8],
[0.6]
]),
'Yellowstone-Input': np.array([
[0.7, 0.8]
]),
'Input-Hidden': np.array([[0.8, 0.4, 0.1], [0.9, 0.7, 0.2]]),
'Hidden-Output': np.array([
[0.2, 0.8, 0.1, 0.05, 0.2],
[0.1, 0.9, 0.05, 0.05, 0.1],
[0.05, 0.6, 0.2, 0.1, 0.05]
])
}
# Assign colors to nodes
def assign_colors(node, layer):
if node == 'Genealogy':
return 'yellow'
if layer == 'Pre-Input' and node in ['Sound', 'Tactful', 'Firm']:
return 'paleturquoise'
elif layer == 'Input' and node == 'Good':
return 'paleturquoise'
elif layer == 'Hidden':
if node == 'Judeo-Christian':
return 'paleturquoise'
elif node == 'Narrator':
return 'lightgreen'
elif node == 'Islam':
return 'lightsalmon'
elif layer == 'Output':
if node == 'Ascetic':
return 'paleturquoise'
elif node in ['Priest', 'Transvaluation', 'Warrior']:
return 'lightgreen'
elif node == 'Deeds':
return 'lightsalmon'
return 'lightsalmon' # Default color
# Calculate positions for nodes
def calculate_positions(layer, center_x, offset):
layer_size = len(layer)
start_y = -(layer_size - 1) / 2 # Center the layer vertically
return [(center_x + offset, start_y + i) for i in range(layer_size)]
# Create and visualize the neural network graph
def visualize_nn():
layers = define_layers()
weights = define_weights()
G = nx.DiGraph()
pos = {}
node_colors = []
center_x = 0 # Align nodes horizontally
# Add nodes and assign positions
for i, (layer_name, nodes) in enumerate(layers.items()):
y_positions = calculate_positions(nodes, center_x, offset=-len(layers) + i + 1)
for node, position in zip(nodes, y_positions):
G.add_node(node, layer=layer_name)
pos[node] = position
node_colors.append(assign_colors(node, layer_name))
# Add edges and weights
for layer_pair, weight_matrix in zip(
[('Pre-Input', 'Yellowstone'), ('Yellowstone', 'Input'), ('Input', 'Hidden'), ('Hidden', 'Output')],
[weights['Pre-Input-Yellowstone'], weights['Yellowstone-Input'], weights['Input-Hidden'], weights['Hidden-Output']]
):
source_layer, target_layer = layer_pair
for i, source in enumerate(layers[source_layer]):
for j, target in enumerate(layers[target_layer]):
weight = weight_matrix[i, j]
G.add_edge(source, target, weight=weight)
# Customize edge thickness for specific relationships
edge_widths = []
for u, v in G.edges():
if u in layers['Hidden'] and v == 'Kapital':
edge_widths.append(6) # Highlight key edges
else:
edge_widths.append(1)
# Draw the graph
plt.figure(figsize=(12, 16))
nx.draw(
G, pos, with_labels=True, node_color=node_colors, edge_color='gray',
node_size=3000, font_size=10, width=edge_widths
)
edge_labels = nx.get_edge_attributes(G, 'weight')
nx.draw_networkx_edge_labels(G, pos, edge_labels={k: f'{v:.2f}' for k, v in edge_labels.items()})
plt.title("Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies\n -- Prov. 13:10")
# Save the figure to a file
# plt.savefig("figures/logo.png", format="png")
plt.show()
# Run the visualization
visualize_nn()
Fig. 14 Narrators Are Invariably Steeped in the Dichotomy of Good & Evil or Else Risk Having no Audience. Nietzsche didn’t have Islamists on his mind when he worried that modernity would soon face a severe crisis of identity. He understood that enlightenment “kills God.” The west is blaming the wrong thing for its identity crisis.#
Narrative as a Weapon#
The danger of Ali’s approach lies in its weaponization of narrative. A beautiful narrative is seductive, but it is also a trap. It demands allegiance to its internal logic, leaving no room for dissent or doubt. Ali’s perfected narrative risks overshadowing individuals like Kanté, whose lives speak to different, less dramatic truths. It tokenizes adversaries like Islam while neglecting the lived realities of billions who navigate faith and modernity without falling into extremism.
Tokenization, Kapital, and Nietzsche’s Warning#
Ali’s narrative mastery represents a form of tokenized kapital—transforming her identity, experiences, and beliefs into intellectual currency that can be traded on the global stage. Her story becomes a commodity, consumed by audiences eager for moral clarity. Kanté, by contrast, resists this commodification. His humility and lack of self-promotion make him a poor fit for a world that thrives on spectacle and story.
Nietzsche warned that the Enlightenment’s tendency to flatten the divine would also flatten the human. In Ali, we see this compression: a distillation of vast cultural and historical forces into a singular narrative. Kanté’s quiet life, while less marketable, resists this flattening. His refusal to perform his identity becomes a subtle rebellion against modernity’s demand for polished, consumable personas.
Conclusion#
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s mastery of narrative is both her greatest strength and her greatest liability. Her story offers clarity but at the expense of nuance, creating a world of stark binaries where pluralism is more aesthetic than reality. N’Golo Kanté, in his humility and quiet excellence, offers a counter-narrative that resists tokenization. He embodies a different mode of existence—one that doesn’t seek to dominate the discourse but instead harmonizes with it. In the tension between these figures lies Nietzsche’s unspoken question: can modernity embrace complexity, or will it remain addicted to the tyranny of perfected narratives? The answer may shape the cosmic arc of identity in an era defined by its crises.