The Shaman of the Radical Right: Jonathan Bowden
In 2009, at a secret and un-filmed Occidental Quarterly meeting in Atlanta, a portly, middle-aged Englishman with a slightly whining rural accent delivered what, according to multiple witnesses, was the best speech ever made. Certainly, they all agreed, it was the best nationalist speech ever made. It was all the more impressive if you consider that when this man ascended the stage he apparently had no idea what he was going to say. A so-called mediumistic speaker, he told friends that, prior to an oration, he would effectively enter a trance in which he would dissociate — almost split in two — and then hear the words from the ether before saying them. This man was Jonathan Bowden.
Since his untimely death in March 2012 aged just 49, a process which had already commenced towards the end of his life has accelerated and continues to accelerate. Bowden has become a cult figure on the internet, especially among the increasingly rebellious and anti-Woke zoomers who have known nothing other than Clown World throughout their young lives. Bowden, despite or possibly because of his multiple flaws as well as obvious talents, is a nationalist folk hero; a kind of “based shaman” who inspires young people, and increasingly (though they won’t mention it in public) some rather prominent and influential older people, to at worst “Ride the Tiger” of Kali Yuga and to, at best, find the courage to fight against it, personal consequences be damned. Such is the clamour to understand more about this incredible man that I have just published his official biography: Shaman of the Radical Right: The Life and Mind of Jonathan Bowden. I have been flabbergasted, to be frank, by the level of interest in it, especially among Generation Z.
It was a book that almost never got written. Various people asked me to write it in 2019 but it turned out that a friend of Bowden’s had been doing-so since 2012. In 2021, he was still blocking others from writing it, clearly unable to produce it but also unable to admit that he couldn’t do so. In September 2024, I was a meeting of what I would call a “purple-pilled” magazine in London; one of those magazines that is slightly too frightened to fully go where the empirical evidence leads. I got chatting to a female philosopher who suddenly produced a book of Bowden’s speeches from her handbag (purse in American) and gleamed at me with undisguised pride. If I had been a cartoon, a light bulb would’ve appeared above my head: “Bowden is a lot more popular and influential than I thought,” I said to myself. Bowden’s heir (to whom he bequeathed all his property) and I gave his “official biographer” a week to write back, he didn’t, so off I went; determined to do Bowden justice.
A key question remained, though: Why has Bowden become such a phenomenon? What was it about him? Can we pick apart the assorted intertwined factors that led to my semi-respectable philosopher carrying around a book of speeches by this open “Fascist” in her handbag?
There was something inherently fascinating about Bowden’s breadth of knowledge, delivered without notes; the way in which he could reveal unusual connections or elucidate the previously obscure; from Julius Evola to Judge Dredd. Bowden was, to some extent, the Weberian charismatic; the man gifted with certain skills that, for a people feeling a sense of crisis or meaninglessness, is able to make a cold world seem warm again. When there is no crisis, such a person is perceived as a crank, or is a charismatic only for a small group of troubled followers (as he was in his lifetime), but as a sense of crisis spreads so does his role as the charismatic. As German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) put it, “The term ‘charisma’ will be applied to a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary . . .” The Charismatic comes to lead, inspire and embody the community.
Bowden’s extraordinarily engaging talks were, in some ways, a kind of performance art. His lectures are not meant simply to be read, and the internet has allowed them to be preserved and widely disseminated in a way that could not have been true of people like Bowden from an earlier generation. Recorded, often in an amateur way, in rooms above pubs, an aura of the genuine, of the English struggle against tyranny, of the mysterious is added to them.
Bowden used his real name despite the obvious financial and social dangers of being a dissident against the Woke regime. This indicated bravery and self-sacrifice. Bowden espoused a kind of Nietzsche-inspired philosophy: We must reject weakness, resentment and being part of the grievance hierarchy. We are in an evolutionary and spiritual battle in which, ultimately, the powerful will triumph. We must embrace power openly and fight, eternally, against weakness, such that we can bring about the triumph of our people.
Another attractive dimension to Bowden is that he took chances, particularly in terms of his nightmarish faux-Kandinsky abstract art; his unreadable and opaque stream-of-consciousness novels, but also in his unscripted speeches. One of Bowden’s friends referred to his prose thus: “His novellas and short stories are almost unreadable, but all the same the prose is incredible, uniquely pyrotechnic . . . in its use of metaphor, vocabulary, and striking juxtapositions.” This risk-taking in pursuit of what he feels and believes has the potential not to pay off, but he was fervent enough to take the risk and it paid off not in terms of his novellas but in terms of his speeches. This risk-taking can be inspiring and certainly signals a kind of genuineness.
Bowden was an artist as well as a thinker, so he understood, explicitly from his reading, how to successfully transmit his ideas; the brilliant teacher, he could make the world make sense for his audience. Bowden had a way with words; he would leave other speakers thinking, “I wish I’d said that!” He was acerbically witty. Some of the radical right’s favourite phrases—such as “Clear them out!” (with reference to the Labour Party) —originate from him.
Most importantly, Bowden, in a sense made the ultimate sacrifice by dying and dying prematurely. This would have imbued him with a prophet-like status; an aura of the other-worldly. In this regard, studies have found that when a charismatic leader dies, and especially if he dies suddenly, then he is suffused with greater charisma. He is perceived as being “one with the group” and representing the group to a greater extent. Death renders him, somehow, fused with the collective.
In addition, there is an extent to which Bowden seemed, in some respects, slightly childlike and helpless. Studies have found that people who sometimes make mistakes are regarded as more relatable, that childlike traits, including slight helplessness, make people more engaging, and that charismatic leaders often have a childlike enthusiasm and naivety. In comparing her husband, the leader of the British Union of Fascists Sir Oswald Mosley (1896–1980), to Hitler, Diana, Lady Mosley (1910–2003) observed that Hitler possessed this attractive quality of slight helplessness: “When people met Hitler they thought: here is this wonderful but unfortunate man who seems to have all of the cares of the world on this shoulders, so we must do all we can to help him.”
Bowden also had an “identifiable flaw:” He was short and overweight. It has been argued that, counter-intuitively, this is an aspect of charisma; of gaining a following. It allows ordinary people to identify better with you and so bond more strongly with you. Bowden also suffered from serious mental health problems and was, essentially, penniless. A childless bachelor, Bowden lived alone in a decrepit caravan in a caravan park in Reading, never really worked, had an old mobile phone and didn’t have the internet where he lived, so he used to research his essays at the local library.
For some this might add to his charisma: he sacrificed the worldly so that he could dedicate himself to his research, his art and to promulgating his ideas. Diogenes the Cynic (412–323 BC) lived in a barrel in Sinope in what is now northern Turkey; Bowden lived in a mobile home in dreary Reading. As Bowden put it in his 2009 interview “Why I Am Not a Liberal,” “I’m probably a Bohemian. There’s an artistic element in me. I don’t care for bourgeois respectability. It doesn’t bother me. That’s where the leaders of the extreme right often come from. They actually come from the arts as much as from the academy or from the intelligentsia, and the arts are a psychologically very radical part of the society, and therefore you don’t care as much for, you know, being regarded as a bit of a demon.”
But, certainly, these are identifiable flaws. They all contribute to his charisma. Posthumously, though the process had already commenced during his lifetime, Bowden has become an “influencer,” with YouTube channels and Twitter accounts dedicated to him. He has become a meme, with inspiring videos of his speeches produced all the time. Were he alive today, I imagine he’d have a huge channel, but he is a dead, and, naturally, this has made him even more influential; for so many younger people he is a kind of based prophet.
Very illuminating piece, both about Bowden the man and the appeal of the charismatic, bohemian personality to some.
George Orwell also noticed this appealing element of Hitler’s persona. He attracted some women, not only Diana Mosley and her sister Unity, but Winifred Wagner. He was the pop-idol of his time in one respect, and a gifted mimic. Authoritarian in opinion, eloquent, witty with homely imagery as a public speaker, hypnotic with the protruding eyes of a imaginative artist, well-read albeit in a restricted sense, he attracted children, and liked their unchallenging company. He resembled another apocalyptic cultural revolutionary, Jesus, and early modelled himself on “that young man” who took a whip to the money-changers. An enigma, the Christ and the anti-Christ?
Dear Shitting Bull – Hitler was basically a grassroots anti communist who rose to the head of the class in Germany, just like Mussolini in Italy and Franco in Spain.- not the Antichrist. He was also a Christian conservative- at least a cultural Christian conservative. People today have no idea what a threat Jewish communism represented to the Christian conservative culture of continental Europe in the post WW1 era- especially in Germany- think Wiemar Germany in the nineteen 20’s and early 30’s. The Jewish Bolsheviks of Russia intended to take over all of Europe after WW1, and if not for men like Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, probably would have succeeded. General Patton was right- we should have allied ourselves with with the Fascists against the Jewish Communists rather than the other way around. But of course the Jews were running America and Britain at the time, and Communism was a Jewish invention, so what was rational for the white gentile masses of America and Britain was never in the cards.
Bingo!
At the risk of redundancy…bingo,!
This was an enjoyable and informative article. I did not know the personal details of Jonathon Bowden’s life, I was familiar only with his speeches, or pub talks which I consumed almost exclusively in the audio form.
Immediately, I was intrigued by your inclusion of the term “shaman” in the title. I learned the meaning of the term as a young boy from an old book on the history of medicine that I found in my father’s attic library. Shamans, or “medicine men,” in primitive societies, were identified as having suffered some handicap or illness.
You mention his “multiple” and “identifiable” [twice mentioned] “flaws,” for instance: “Bowden also had an “identifiable flaw:” he was “short and overweight, as you similarly identified him in your first sentence as a “portly, middle-aged Englishman with a slightly whining rural accent.”
These fragments of your discussion brought back memories formed reading comments about Sam Francis–some quite acerbic–regarding his short stature and pot-bellied physique. There seemed to me then, as well as now, a certain contempt in the Right of figures that deviate from a marble statue of Greek or Roman gods or warrior figures. It is good to point young men and women toward physical fitness if this is done with a prioritization of acquiring the natural virtues; intellectual curiousity, honesty and diligence; and–most importantly–saintliness. There has always seemed to me something misdirected in pointing these characteristics out in men whose life history has gotten them to a certain point, be it possibly with the traits of being “portly” or worse yet, an “Englishman.” Moreover, I have in my case strained mightily to exceed my 5-foot, eight-inches of height because somehow we’ve decided that anything less than the regal standard of six-foot is worthy of dismissal and disregard. Somehow, all of my efforts could not add one inch to my height. This is all by way of saying that these are not, precisely, “flaws,” in a moral sense, although extreme obesity would suggest intemperance.
You know, having greatly enjoyed Mr. Bowden’s speeches, again in audio, I was thoroughly surprised to see your description of him as having a “a slightly whining rural accent.” Though not a physician, I have worked around enough in those settings requiring a particular kind of “looking deeply” into the human condition, at least a “looking past,” that is, an immediate searching upon firstand subsequent encounters of something more—and something of worth perhaps not easily seen by many. Is this incompatatible with life on the Right? Is it contrary to the kind of strength that even Jonathon Bowden advocated for?
“Bowden also suffered from serious mental health problems and was, essentially, penniless.” This was the moment I found something convincing to your attribution of a shamanesque personality to Jonathon Bowden. But it leaves me with a sense of a man who was a genius and who was singularly focused on grasping an understanding that perhaps left little time and little energy for other distractions. You add, “A childless bachelor, Bowden lived alone in a decrepit caravan in a caravan park in Reading, never really worked, had an old mobile phone and didn’t have the internet where he lived, so he used to research his essays at the local library.” This further suggests the quality of a genuine “priestly,” thus shamanistic, personality and role—his contribution to the group. That kind of single-heartedness does lead to sacrifice of other concerns and ambitions.
I look forward to the opportunity to read your book. Perhaps I will stand corrected. I likewise enjoy your commentary very much, well, as I did your fellow shaman, Jonathon Bowden.
“There seemed to me then, as well as now, a certain contempt in the Right of figures that deviate from a marble statue of Greek or Roman gods or warrior figures. It is good to point young men and women toward physical fitness if this is done with a prioritization of acquiring the natural virtues; intellectual curiousity, honesty and diligence; and–most importantly–saintliness. There has always seemed to me something misdirected in pointing these characteristics out in men whose life history has gotten them to a certain point, be it possibly with the traits of being “portly” or worse yet, an “Englishman.”
Thank you for saying this. As far as I can see, you are the only one who has said these things. Heaven forfend that a man be short or pudgy even when he has all the correct opinions and actions. And for women, the standards of Right-thinking folk are even more stringent.
Talking about Sam Francis-an intellectual giant, by the way- I recall him speaking once at an Amren conference after losing a considerable amount of weight, joking that he could now empathize with Blacks since he was now 3/5 of a man!
‘I walk toward the tunnel. And i am on my own. And i am not afraid. And i have no regrets’ Johnathan Bowden.
I am prettty sure I was at that Bowden event at Chas Martel Society. As somewhat bored at all the same old stuff at the meeting and of no knowledge of Bowden, he started his Talk with a kind of high pitched squeal at which I laughed immediately thinking that this was some kind of Act-Performance meant to awaken all of us somewhat maybe bored attendees.
Within about probably 10 seconds I realized this was something from another realm, no joke, serious, a dramatic song (if I may) that sat me up straight, rapt, fully engaged and awaiting more, more.
I would love to hear that Bowden song again but understand it was not recorded. I will have to get Dutton’s book.
After his performance he joined folks at the bar. Nobody joined him. But I did, just had to meet Bowden and get to know him. We had a perfectly rational discussion while a couple of folks observed.
I remember that occasion in part also because the men assembled there were chasing women, not Bowden. Very surprised since Bowden had delivered something Essential and…
When I heard about his death, I thought what a loss.
I complimented him on his eloquence and …that he responded that he was the best orator around. He was right, completely.
I will have to get Dutton’s book. Thanks, and thanks for your other books….very good.
Joe Webb
I first discovered Bowden in 1989-90 as his first book, Mad, was given some limited distribution in the avant garde anarcho-libertarian scene (anybody remember Loompanics?). In 2006 I met a freemason in London who was organising a new group called the “New Right” and Bowden was a central figure in it, so I got to see him talk, and if it wasn’t for Matt Tait getting a dictaphone – and later a video camera out – there would be no books and no Bowden Cult to speak of.
The book’s title is well chosen, as a shaman owes no fealty to the “truth”; his role is to produce and maintain a theatrical spectacle that inspires the tribe, heals its soul sickness and stokes its spiritual fire. And this is indeed what Bowden aimed to do.
This tale of Bowden’s real life – and his fantasy life – is a page turner and rip-snorter, and I sincerely hope it extends his cult status and appeal. Jonathan Bowden, like all men, wanted recognition and I suppose a posthumous notoriety is better than none at all.
What a shame that Jonathon left us at such a young age. I well remember hearing one of his recorded speeches back then, and thought, wow! What a great speaker, indeed. He was an exceptionally gifted orator, if ever there was one.
I CANNOT GET THE WEBSITE TO WORK….TO PURCHASE DUTTON’S BOWDEN. JOE WEBB
In a world that is clearly hostile to us and in which we are forbidden to use armed force, we have to ask our brains to come up with other tactics. Sure, they are and will remain stopgap solutions, but they are better than having no means at all.
There are (almost) no limits to the imagination here, because we have long been at war with our race. One of the most effective methods is to feign ignorance. You have to adopt this principle.
It requires a certain acting talent to implement it convincingly. In other words, we use a profane pretext to achieve our goal. The goal in this world is primarily the transmission of a message, of information. Let’s take an example:
Behind us at the supermarket checkout are rabble-rousing third-world invaders who arouse our discomfort, indeed our indignation. Insulting them and wishing them “a speedy return journey” would be too high a risk, which would ultimately be at our own expense.
So we use two possible tactics. The first is a pretext: we go outside first, while we think of a good, concise and valid argument in the form of a seemingly “innocent” statement that doesn’t offer any grounds for attack.
So we go back to the supermarket checkout, where this aisle is still standing, and ask the cashier if she might have found our keys/account card etc.. The cashier looks to see if it is still there.
Meanwhile, we direct our gaze in a naively friendly manner at the group of rabble-rousing invaders who are eyeing us suspiciously and say with a smile: “This is a great country: the whole world is coming here now to take advantage of our cheap prices!”
The second method is the closely related as-if method. We position ourselves in front of the entrance to the supermarket and “do busy”, for example by searching our bags or sorting the shopping in its carrier bag.
The important thing here is not to look at the invaders coming out of the entrance, but to “talk out loud” by holding our cell phone to our ear even though it is turned off. Then we say: “These [preferred ethnophaulism] are all with us instead of in their homeland!”
The as-if technique is also used unconsciously, for example when the police are at the door and you don’t come to the door despite knocking loudly several times. Then you act all sleepy, yawn, stand there in your underpants and say: “What’s going on now, why are you waking me up?”
If someone harbors such strong feelings of resentment and can’t find an outlet to get rid of them, there are other methods, such as searching for names of a certain ethnic group in the middle of the night and waking them up by calling an anonymous number without answering.
However, this method is logically not recommended here due to the etiquette of “decency” and “good manners” that still prevails among white people, but can and must be chosen at best on one’s own responsibility.
The key point here is to convey: “You are not wanted here! We’re making life difficult for you and increasing the pressure on you! If we come to power, you’ll all disappear without a return ticket!”
So, in the end, everyone of us can make their own personal “subversive” contribution in their local living environment! This is healthy, racially conscious people’s resistance! Keep in mind the world in which your children are expected to grow up. If you remain silent, you agree!
Clearly an excellent book, and will be an automatic purchase for any dissident on the Right.
May I add, that I discussed the shamanic aspects of Bowden elsewhere, in reference to another Imperium Press book, Bowden’s Why I am Not a Liberal, where he discusses the power of mind over matter:
“The decline is inside, and the decline is mental. Only when the mental processes change all the physical outside phenomena can naturally be reorganized. Not easily, it will be very difficult, but when the mentality is different everything else changes. What you see around you is the expression of the mentality, not the reverse . . . just by adopting a coherent form of thinking you can actually change reality quite a bit.”
https://counter-currents.com/2021/11/your-faith-is-your-future/
Johnathan Bowden? I have never heard of the guy. Somehow he totally escaped my radar. Very likely that’s because I am working class, and have not the intelligence to appreciate Mr Bowden’s work, therefore unconsciously biased to never hearing about him. Much unlike Mr Edward Dutton, who has an entirely different accent to mine. An accent that clearly indicates his class distinction, and his ability to understand grand philosophical matters of concern.
After watching Mr Dutton’s You Tube presentation on the Bowdan biography, and after reading this article by Mr Dutton on Bowdan, and after reading the comments above, I still know nothing about the guy other than he lived in a caravan, had a rural, high pitched squeaky voice, and was able to deliver unprepared captivating speeches of a Right Wing Nature.
So I went to Wikipedia for info. I sometimes use that source as I have, over the years, developed a ‘Jewish Bullshit detector.’ But my ‘Jew Bullshit decoder’ didn’t reveal much either, no Alarm Bells went off. Wiki page didn’t make much of the man. Usually, a Culture Spokesman for the BNP, would get the mandatory Jew Hater accusation levelled at them by Wiki, but Bowden hasn’t seemed to ruffle any Jewish feathers at all. Not much of an achievement if you ask me. Still he died young. He might have been saving the best till last.
But from what I know at this point, I don’t think I will be rushing out to buy the biography just yet. That is not my final decision. Who knows, I might stumble across a sound recording of a squeaky high pitched right wing speech that resonates to something in my soul. I too could experience my own moment of clarity, my own Bowden eureka moment. That could happen, I’ll not ruling it out.
I must stress, I am working class with limited intelligence so take my comments lightly. Mr Dutton has taken the time to write this biography so it mush be important given Mr Dutton’s academic qualifications, posh accent and birth pedigree. Frankly, I don’t know how Mr Dutton has the time to write books given the management of his media empire must be quite time consuming. Nonetheless, but on a different topic, time permitting, I would love Dutton to interview Dr Kevin MacDonald on the topics of Jewish Power and influence, Western decline, White demographic extinction, anti Jewish tropes, Jewish response to Oct 7, etc.etc. Unfortunately, there is so little of Mac Donald’s work on the You Tube. Gad Sad or Sad Gad (whatever his name is) is grifting on MacDonald’s work all across the You Tube. Standard Jewish behaviour. Dutton’s Finish media empire has reach. Dutton’s ability to write books, along with his class pedigree makes him the ideal interviewer of Dr MacDonald. Like Parkinson only jolly Parkinson. Seriously, it’s sure to generate a lot of click views for Mr Dutton. On a final note, just throwing the idea out there, but if high pitched squeaky voices are what appeals to generation z right wingers, nitrus oxcide balloons could be inhaled by both MacDonald and Dutton during the discussion.