(137) Gwyrddu

I’ve had a change of heart as regards Pepe the Frog—a figure who has receded back to his pond to a great degree. Previously, I gave Pepe a generous assessment, but I think I made a slight mistake. He is certainly a Hermetic figure, being a frog who dwells between two worlds—between land and the pond; however, he is also an avatar for Apepi (“a Pepe”)—the Egyptian god of chaos, typically depicted as a snake but also depicted as a frog on occasion. Apepi is really the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the serpent in its malevolent aspect. He is the chaos-bringer—an avatar of evil.

Now Pepe was most associated with memes, with chaotic novelty—as befits his role; and the “meme” itself is a term from techno-science—a term coined by that arch-atheist Richard Dawkins. A more accurate description for memes and “meme magic” would be sigils and magical operations—this is what these really are. Pepe is allied to techno-science, to the city where chaotic novelty emerges—what Nick Land would call acceleration, the place where the density of connections leads to serendipitous invention. This is Pepe’s world—the world of matter.

Pepe seemed monstrous to mainstream progressives only insofar as they conceptualise themselves as “nice people” or “good people”—suddenly, there was this vulgar frog pissing on them and laughing about it. Yet they are whited sepulchres really; they are more like Pepe than not, being rational materialists; it is just they fear pain and want to preserve their pseudo-order against chaotic intrusion (the values they promulgate are also disordered—though perhaps they obstruct unlimited techno-scientific innovation, hence clash with Pepe). We’re not going to meme our way out of this—the memes are mockery and the system itself is based on mockery; it will not be mocked into submission—Pepe emerged in line with a certain techno-scientific right who are consistent in their scientific thought (unlike wet liberals); yet it is the same Satan.