Straw Dogs (2002) and Black Mass (2007)

John Gray: humans are animals, not obviously worth preserving. Science (Darwin, neuroscience) undermines the idea of human uniqueness and progress; we are driven by instinct, delusion, and transient consciousness. Humanism is a secular religion, a Christian heresy.

In Black Mass he argues that utopian politics is the same heresy in secular dress. Communism, Nazism, neoconservative wars, neoliberal markets: apocalyptic myths that promise heaven on earth and deliver terror. The pursuit of a perfect society has produced some of the worst regimes in history.