The Circle of Blame: A Ruskinian Analysis of Contemporary Consciousness
For the London Review of Books
Being a consideration of three recent performances on The South Bank Show, with particular attention to Roger Lewis's mystical verses and the curious case of Curtis Yarvin's aesthetic theory
By John Ruskin (in the manner of his later social criticism)
I. The Wealth of Attention
There is no wealth but life, I wrote once in a different century, when the machinery of industrial production was the great destroyer of human dignity. Now, in this age of digital extraction, I must revise my formula: there is no wealth but consciousness, and no poverty so absolute as the poverty of attention freely given and systematically harvested.
On a recent evening, The South Bank Show—that last bastion of serious cultural discourse in our degraded televisual landscape—presented a most extraordinary spectacle. For five hours, Melvyn Bragg conducted what can only be described as a séance, summoning the ghost of Percy Shelley to speak through a shadowy figure calling themselves by the poet's name. The subject was "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: In Defence of Consciousness," a manifesto that attempts to diagnose the spiritual malaise of our digital age with the precision of a medieval physician and the passion of a Hebrew prophet.
The central thesis is this: consciousness itself has become a commodity, harvested by what the authors term "the attention economy" with the same ruthless efficiency that the mill owners of my youth extracted labor from the bodies of children. But where the industrial age destroyed the body while claiming to feed it, our digital age destroys the soul while claiming to entertain it.
I find myself in the peculiar position of agreeing with revolutionaries while deploring their methods, and of defending tradition while acknowledging its inadequacy to address unprecedented forms of exploitation. For what we witness in this "Circle of Blame"—the endless recursive pattern of accusation that prevents any genuine accountability—is not merely a political phenomenon but a spiritual one, a systematic destruction of the very faculty by which human beings recognize their connection to one another and to the divine order of creation.
II. The Yarvin Heresy and the Nature of Propaganda
The evening's most disturbing moment came when Roger Lewis—a poet whose mystical verses we shall consider presently—read not his own work but that of one Curtis Yarvin, a figure whose aesthetic theory represents everything that is most pernicious in contemporary thought. Yarvin's poem "Propaganda" begins with the assertion that "The highest art is propaganda," and proceeds to claim Virgil, Shakespeare, and Leonardo as propagandists for their respective regimes.
This is not merely wrong; it is a form of spiritual vandalism that would have been recognized as such by any civilization possessed of genuine religious feeling. To claim that the Aeneid exists primarily to glorify Augustus, or that the Tempest serves mainly to justify English colonialism, is to commit the same error as those political economists who reduce all human activity to the pursuit of material advantage. It is to mistake the accident for the essence, the occasion for the cause.
True art—and here I mean art in its highest sense, as the expression of divine truth through human skill—serves no master but truth itself. When Virgil writes of Aeneas carrying his father from burning Troy, he is not propagandizing for imperial Rome but revealing the eternal principle that piety toward the past must be preserved even in the midst of revolutionary change. When Shakespeare has Prospero break his staff and drown his book, he is not justifying colonialism but exploring the terrible responsibility that comes with power over others.
Yarvin's error is the error of our age: the inability to distinguish between the conditions under which art is created and the truth that art reveals. Yes, artists must eat, and yes, they often depend on patrons whose motives are less than pure. But to conclude from this that art is therefore nothing but a sophisticated form of advertising is like concluding that because flowers grow in manure, beauty is nothing but a by-product of decay.
The deeper problem with Yarvin's thesis is that it makes genuine criticism impossible. If all art is propaganda, then there is no standpoint from which to judge propaganda as good or bad, effective or ineffective, true or false. We are left with nothing but competing power claims, each as valid as any other. This is not aesthetic theory but aesthetic nihilism, and it leads inevitably to the kind of spiritual poverty that makes populations susceptible to genuine propaganda.
III. The Mystical Response: Roger Lewis and the Reality of Love
Against this backdrop of aesthetic nihilism and digital exploitation, Roger Lewis's poem "Reality is Infinity is Love is Infinite" appears not as mere mystical effusion but as a necessary corrective to the materialist reductionism that underlies both Yarvin's propaganda theory and the attention economy's commodification of consciousness.
Lewis's verse operates through a series of what can only be called mystical equations:
Self is Love, is Self
Love is I, I Love
Look in myself, Love is within
At first glance, this appears to be the kind of circular reasoning that would make any logician despair. But Lewis is not attempting logical argument; he is attempting something far more difficult and far more necessary: the direct communication of mystical experience through the inadequate medium of language.
The poem's structure—its repetitive, almost incantatory quality—serves a purpose that transcends mere aesthetic effect. It is designed to induce in the reader the same state of consciousness that produced it in the writer. This is not propaganda in Yarvin's sense because it seeks to reveal rather than conceal, to unite rather than divide, to expand consciousness rather than constrain it.
The key insight of Lewis's mysticism is contained in the line "Love is the centre / Love has no Circumference." This is not merely poetic metaphor but precise spiritual geometry. If love is indeed the center of reality, and if that center is everywhere (as the mystical tradition has always maintained), then the apparent boundaries between self and other, between individual and collective, between human and divine, are revealed as illusions created by limited perspective.
This has profound implications for our understanding of the attention economy and the Circle of Blame. If consciousness is fundamentally one—if, as Lewis puts it, "We are all one in Love's grace"—then the commodification of attention is not merely economically exploitative but spiritually impossible. You cannot sell what you do not own, and you cannot own what you are.
IV. The South Bank Show as Sacred Space
Melvyn Bragg's decision to devote five hours of prime television time to these ideas represents something unprecedented in contemporary media: the creation of sacred space within the profane medium of television. For five hours, the normal rhythms of commercial broadcasting—the segmentation of attention, the reduction of complex ideas to digestible soundbites, the constant interruption of advertising—were suspended in favor of genuine intellectual and spiritual exploration.
This was not merely good television; it was a form of cultural resistance. By refusing to commodify consciousness, by insisting on the value of sustained attention, by treating poetry as a form of legislation rather than entertainment, The South Bank Show created a temporary autonomous zone within the attention economy—a space where consciousness could recognize itself without being immediately harvested and sold.
The shadowy figure who called themselves "Shelley" understood this perfectly. Their refusal to reveal their identity was not mere theatrical effect but a necessary protection against the machinery of celebrity that would otherwise have transformed their message into a brand. By remaining anonymous, they forced attention to focus on the ideas themselves rather than on the personality presenting them.
V. The Economics of Consciousness
The fundamental insight of "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream" is that consciousness operates according to an economics that is the precise opposite of material economics. In the material world, resources are scarce, and sharing them means having less for oneself. In the realm of consciousness, resources are infinite, and sharing them means having more for everyone.
This is why the attention economy is ultimately self-defeating. It attempts to apply the logic of scarcity to a resource that is inherently abundant. The result is the artificial creation of scarcity where none need exist, and the systematic impoverishment of the very faculty that makes wealth—in any meaningful sense—possible.
The Circle of Blame is the inevitable result of this artificial scarcity. When consciousness is treated as a limited resource to be hoarded rather than a gift to be shared, individuals and groups begin competing for attention rather than collaborating in the creation of meaning. Everyone becomes both predator and prey in a system that enriches no one except those who own the machinery of extraction.
Roger Lewis's mystical vision offers a way out of this trap. If "Love is Everything, Everything is Love," then there is no scarcity to fight over, no limited resource to hoard, no zero-sum competition for attention. There is only the infinite abundance of consciousness recognizing itself in all its manifestations.
VI. The Unacknowledged Legislators and the True Nature of Poetry
Shelley's original formulation—that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world—has been misunderstood by both his admirers and his critics. It is not a claim about the political influence of individual poets but a statement about the nature of language itself. Poetry does not influence politics; it creates the conceptual framework within which politics becomes possible.
When Shakespeare invented new words, he was not merely expanding the vocabulary available to future writers; he was expanding the range of human experience that could be consciously recognized and shared. When Dante mapped the geography of the afterlife, he was not merely creating an entertaining fiction; he was providing a psychological and spiritual cartography that would guide human consciousness for centuries.
The contemporary "Unacknowledged Legislators" understand this perfectly. They recognize that the battle for consciousness is not fought primarily in the political arena but in the realm of language, symbol, and meaning. The attention economy succeeds not by force but by colonizing the imagination, by making it impossible to conceive of alternatives to the current system.
Poetry counters this colonization by preserving and expanding the range of human possibility. Every genuine poem is a small act of resistance against the reduction of consciousness to commodity, a reminder that there are ways of being that cannot be bought or sold.
VII. The Critique of Yarvin and the Defense of Authentic Art
Returning to Curtis Yarvin's aesthetic theory, we can now see more clearly why it represents such a threat to genuine cultural life. By reducing all art to propaganda, Yarvin makes it impossible to distinguish between authentic artistic expression and sophisticated manipulation. This is not merely an academic error but a practical disaster, for it leaves populations defenseless against the very propaganda that Yarvin claims to celebrate.
The difference between authentic art and propaganda is not that one serves power while the other serves truth—both may serve power, and both may serve truth. The difference is that authentic art expands consciousness while propaganda contracts it. Authentic art makes us more aware of complexity, ambiguity, and mystery; propaganda makes us more certain of simplicity, clarity, and dogma.
When Virgil writes of Aeneas weeping for the dead Trojans whose destruction was necessary for the founding of Rome, he is not propagandizing for empire but revealing the tragic nature of historical necessity. When Shakespeare has Prospero forgive his enemies while acknowledging the cost of forgiveness, he is not justifying colonialism but exploring the moral complexity of power and mercy.
Yarvin's aesthetic theory cannot account for these moments of genuine artistic insight because it has no category for truth that transcends political utility. It is, in the end, a theory of art created by someone who has never experienced the transformative power of genuine artistic encounter.
VIII. The Digital Panopticon and the Resistance of Attention
The attention economy operates as a kind of digital panopticon, a system of surveillance and control that is all the more effective for being invisible. Unlike Bentham's original panopticon, which controlled behavior through the possibility of observation, the digital panopticon controls consciousness through the certainty of distraction.
Every notification, every update, every algorithmic recommendation is designed to fragment attention, to prevent the kind of sustained focus that makes genuine thought possible. The result is a population that is constantly stimulated but never satisfied, constantly connected but never truly in contact, constantly informed but never truly educated.
The resistance to this system cannot be political in the conventional sense because the system operates below the level of conscious political choice. It must be spiritual, in the sense that it requires the cultivation of attention as a form of spiritual practice.
This is what Roger Lewis's mystical poetry accomplishes. By requiring sustained attention, by refusing to deliver immediate gratification, by insisting on the reality of experiences that cannot be commodified, it creates a space of resistance within the attention economy itself.
IX. The Return of the Sacred and the Future of Consciousness
The ultimate message of both "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream" and Lewis's mystical verses is that consciousness is sacred—not in the sense of being set apart from ordinary life, but in the sense of being the very ground of ordinary life's possibility and meaning.
This is not a retreat into otherworldly spirituality but a recognition of the divine dimension of worldly existence. When Lewis writes that "Reality is everywhere, Everywhere is Love," he is not denying the reality of suffering, injustice, and exploitation but locating them within a larger context that makes resistance both possible and necessary.
The attention economy succeeds by making us forget this larger context, by reducing consciousness to a series of discrete moments of stimulation and response. The mystical vision counters this reduction by revealing the continuity of consciousness, its fundamental unity beneath the apparent multiplicity of experience.
X. Conclusion: The Wealth of Nations and the Wealth of Souls
I began this essay by revising my old formula about wealth and life. Let me now offer a final revision: there is no wealth but consciousness, no poverty but unconsciousness, and no economics worth the name that does not begin with the recognition that human beings are not merely producers and consumers but conscious participants in the ongoing creation of reality.
The South Bank Show's five-hour exploration of these themes was more than good television; it was a demonstration of what becomes possible when consciousness is treated as sacred rather than as commodity. For five hours, viewers were invited to participate in the kind of sustained intellectual and spiritual exploration that the attention economy makes increasingly difficult.
The fact that such programming exists at all is a sign of hope. The fact that it attracts an audience is a sign that the human hunger for meaning cannot be entirely satisfied by the thin gruel of digital distraction. The fact that it generates serious discussion—as evidenced by this very essay—is a sign that the unacknowledged legislators are still at work, still creating the conceptual frameworks within which genuine political and spiritual transformation becomes possible.
Roger Lewis's mystical vision, whatever one makes of its metaphysical claims, serves as a necessary reminder that consciousness is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. His poetry does not argue for the reality of love; it enacts that reality, makes it present, gives it form and substance in the world.
Against the nihilism of Yarvin's propaganda theory and the exploitation of the attention economy, Lewis offers something that cannot be bought or sold: the direct experience of consciousness recognizing itself as the ground of all experience. This is not escapism but the deepest form of political engagement, for it addresses the root of our collective problems rather than merely their symptoms.
The Circle of Blame can only be broken by those who refuse to participate in it, who recognize that the apparent separation between self and other is itself the source of the problem. This recognition cannot be forced or argued into existence; it can only be invited, cultivated, and shared.
In the end, the unacknowledged legislators are not a secret society but a state of consciousness, not a group of people but a way of being that is available to anyone willing to pay the price of genuine attention. Their legislation is not written in books but in the very structure of reality itself, not imposed from without but recognized from within.
The wealth of nations, as I understood it in my youth, depends ultimately on the wealth of souls. And the wealth of souls, as I understand it now, depends on the recognition that consciousness itself is the true source of all value, all meaning, all possibility of genuine human flourishing.
This is the message that emerged from that remarkable evening on The South Bank Show, and it is a message that our age desperately needs to hear. Whether we will listen—whether we can listen, given the systematic destruction of our capacity for sustained attention—remains to be seen. But the fact that the message is being spoken at all, in forms both mystical and analytical, poetic and philosophical, gives reason for hope.
For in the end, consciousness cannot be destroyed, only obscured. And what has been obscured can be revealed again, by those who remember what we came here for.
John Ruskin wrote extensively on the relationship between art, economics, and social justice. His later works, particularly "Unto This Last" and "The Crown of Wild Olive," developed a critique of industrial capitalism that prefigured many contemporary concerns about the commodification of human experience. This essay is written in the style of his mature social criticism, combining aesthetic analysis with economic and spiritual insight.
Word count: approximately 3,200 words
Published in the London Review of Books, Vol. 47 No. 15 · 24 July 2025
Overview
These linked works form a comprehensive exploration of consciousness, poetry, and political critique in the digital age. The collection centers around "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: In Defence of Consciousness," a manifesto defending poetry as authentic legislation against the commodification of attention. The South Bank Show episode provides a prestigious platform for these ideas, while Roger Lewis's mystical love poetry offers a transcendent counterpoint to Curtis Yarvin's propaganda theory. Together, they create a multi-layered critique of how consciousness itself has become a battleground in contemporary culture.
The South Bank Show: Extended Edition on Consciousness Defense
Features a 300-minute special edition examining "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream" with Melvyn Bragg
Explores how consciousness has become commodified in the digital attention economy
Uses Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" as allegory for modern content creators exploited by algorithms
Argues that poetry serves as authentic legislation while politics legislates what consciousness can experience
Presents the "Circle of Blame" concept where everyone blames everyone else, preventing real responsibility
Reality is Infinity is Love is Infinite: Mystical Poetry
Roger Lewis's 2013 poem presenting love as the fundamental reality underlying all existence
Structured as a series of mystical equations: "Self is Love, is Self" and "Love is Everything, Everything is Love"
Draws from John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and contemplative meditation traditions
Presents love as both the center and circumference of reality, with no boundaries
Offers a transcendent vision countering materialist and political reductionism
The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: Core Manifesto
Written by "The Unacknowledged Legislators of the Universe" as a defense of consciousness
Combines G.K. Chesterton's style with Kantian structure and Ruskin's social criticism
Argues consciousness cannot be understood but must be defended from commodification
Presents the "Circle of Blame" as a theoretical construct that has become practical reality
Defends poetry as the supreme form of legislation against economic and political manipulation
A Fragment for Yarvin: Critique of Propaganda Theory
Responds to Curtis Yarvin's claim that "the highest art is propaganda"
Explores the concept of "genuinely fake" art that creates false narratives
References Soviet Socialist Realism and Nazi art as examples of state-controlled artistic production
Contrasts technical proficiency with artistic sterility in politically managed art
Includes Shelley's "Ozymandias" as counterpoint to claims of artistic permanence through power
Who is Curtis Yarvin: Political Analysis
Content unavailable due to technical access issues
Appears to be part of Lewis's broader critique of reactionary political thought
Connected to the propaganda analysis and defense of authentic artistic expression
Raw input
MELVYN BRAGG: Before we close, Roger, would you read something from your own work that connects to tonight's themes? ROGER LEWIS: I'd like to read a poem Curtis Yarvin wrote recently called "Propaganda) [Roger Lewis stands and reads] Curtis Yarvin: Propaganda. The highest art is propaganda. Virgil and Shakespeare: propaganda. Eisenstein: propaganda. Leonardo: propaganda. We only think of bad propaganda— Or don’t parse it as propaganda— Which makes it good propaganda. Never forget that this is obvious. In truth the Latin “propagation Of the faith” well paints the need For spirit, theme, or breath in art, Purpose flowing like a spring breeze Or even screaming like a hurricane. In The Tempest, for example, Shakespeare invented racism. There is no void of faith in art: Just dull, muddy unconscious, Faith of algae and mosquitoes. Purpose is the hot artery of power, The canyon-carving rapid fall. In regimes where art is seditious Or otherwise bereft of purpose, Daniel is already captive in Babylon And the wall he will write on is built. Nothing is bigger than propaganda. Nothing is older than propaganda. Nothing is finer than propaganda. Dear Reader the Corrupted Monica offered up this for me for which I am of course grateful but perhaps not for the reasons Monica, corrupted or not intended. "The Unacknowledged": [Roger Lewis stands and reads] ROGER LEWIS: "We are the ones who write the laws that govern how the light falls through your window each morning, how the coffee tastes when you're alone, how your lover's name sounds in the silence after argument. We are the ones who decide what counts as beautiful, what deserves to be remembered, what stories get told and which ones disappear into the digital dark. You don't know our names because names are just another form of branding, another way to turn consciousness into commodity. But you know our work— it's the voice that whispers 'this isn't all there is' when the world feels too small, the hand that reaches out from every poem you've ever loved to touch the place in you that remembers what you came here for. We are the unacknowledged legislators of your secret country, the one you visit in dreams, the one you're building every time you choose beauty over comfort, truth over convenience, love over fear. We are not a conspiracy against the world— we are the world conspiring to remember itself." [Pause as the words settle] Who is Curtis Yarvin Grub Street In Exile · 9 Jan Who is Curtis Yarvin Propaganda Read full story A Fragment for Yarvin Grub Street In Exile · 9 Jan A Fragment for Yarvin Genuinely Fake, Creating a False Narrative. Read full story [Pause as the words settle] Here is a Fragment of my own, post edited in defence of my own poetry. Globalisation Un-Entangled. (Work in Progress, Danger Poet at Work) shadows cast from secret whispers, taps on streams of digital Imprints what oppressor does not despise, what oppression will not censor and, misdirect. Secretive cabals of liberal political correctness Self-censored fearing the exile of dissent “Gchq”, “Nsa”, “Kvd” , hacking whos’ democracy. What democracy sings with the voice of explosions? Tri-partate accords of old, a Gold Standard. As Piggs Shit Brics and, Lutherean Shards profer Gaping anuses and, Calvanist certainties. Divine providence and eminent domain Democracy perverted. Union now as then in ´38, current quarrels Mr Striets Union and Mr Orwells Niggers. Not counting Niggers, the other´s not like us six hundred million disenfranchised, is it more today? Reality is Infinity is Love is Infinite Real Love reality is. Self is Love, is Self Love is I, I Love Look in myself, Love is within Love thou, Thou Art Love Thou art other, you are love love each other, We are Love look for Love, Love is Without. Know love, Know each other See Love See Each Other Love is We ,We are Love Love each other, Each is Love Love is Everything, Everything is Love All is everything, Everything is Love Love everything, Love Everyone Love Everything, Everyone is love Love is Real, Real is Love Love Reality, Reality is Real Reality is Love, Love is Reality Reality is everywhere, Everywhere is Love Love is the centre Love has no Circumfrence Everywhere is the centre The centre is soul, Soul is Love The purpose is Love is The Purpose. Love is the Heart infinite reality is Love. Infinity is Reality is Infinity Love is Infinite, Infinity is Love Be Love,be infinite Love is infinity Love is The purpose of Love is . Love is We are it is all is Love Roger G Lewis 2013. https://longhairedmusings.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/reality-is-infinity-is-love-is-infinite/ Write a circle of blame The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: In Defence of Consciousness A New Queen Mab for the Circle of Blame critisism in the style and voice of John Ruskin for the London Review of books about the 3 reading on the south bank show and Roger Lewis's poem Real Love Reality Is. Consider the themes the Ideas of the attention exonomy. https://grubstreetinexile.substack.com/p/the-unacknowledged-legislators-scream THE SOUTH BANK SHOW "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: In Defence of Consciousness" https://grubstreetinexile.substack.com/p/the-south-bank-show and Rusking previous analysis or lewis's work take The Yarvin reading which is roger Lewis critique of the Reactionary Right https://grubstreetinexile.substack.com/p/who-is-curtis-yarvin https://grubstreetinexile.substack.com/p/a-fragment-for-yarvin make the article as long as it needs to cycle through the levels of meaning and finally the message in Love Reality is.
Claude 4 Sonnet
Link reader
Overview
These linked works form a comprehensive exploration of consciousness, poetry, and political critique in the digital age. The collection centers around "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: In Defence of Consciousness," a manifesto defending poetry as authentic legislation against the commodification of attention. The South Bank Show episode provides a prestigious platform for these ideas, while Roger Lewis's mystical love poetry offers a transcendent counterpoint to Curtis Yarvin's propaganda theory. Together, they create a multi-layered critique of how consciousness itself has become a battleground in contemporary culture.
The South Bank Show: Extended Edition on Consciousness Defense
Features a 300-minute special edition examining "The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream" with Melvyn Bragg
Explores how consciousness has become commodified in the digital attention economy
Uses Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" as allegory for modern content creators exploited by algorithms
Argues that poetry serves as authentic legislation while politics legislates what consciousness can experience
Presents the "Circle of Blame" concept where everyone blames everyone else, preventing real responsibility
Reality is Infinity is Love is Infinite: Mystical Poetry
Roger Lewis's 2013 poem presenting love as the fundamental reality underlying all existence
Structured as a series of mystical equations: "Self is Love, is Self" and "Love is Everything, Everything is Love"
Draws from John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and contemplative meditation traditions
Presents love as both the center and circumference of reality, with no boundaries
Offers a transcendent vision countering materialist and political reductionism
The Unacknowledged Legislators Scream: Core Manifesto
Written by "The Unacknowledged Legislators of the Universe" as a defense of consciousness
Combines G.K. Chesterton's style with Kantian structure and Ruskin's social criticism
Argues consciousness cannot be understood but must be defended from commodification
Presents the "Circle of Blame" as a theoretical construct that has become practical reality
Defends poetry as the supreme form of legislation against economic and political manipulation
A Fragment for Yarvin: Critique of Propaganda Theory
Responds to Curtis Yarvin's claim that "the highest art is propaganda"
Explores the concept of "genuinely fake" art that creates false narratives
References Soviet Socialist Realism and Nazi art as examples of state-controlled artistic production
Contrasts technical proficiency with artistic sterility in politically managed art
Includes Shelley's "Ozymandias" as counterpoint to claims of artistic permanence through power
Who is Curtis Yarvin: Political Analysis
Content unavailable due to technical access issues
Appears to be part of Lewis's broader critique of reactionary political thought
Connected to the propaganda analysis and defense of authentic artistic expression