Bennett’s take on modernity (and communism)
One of the strange ironies in Bennett’s The Dramatic Universe is the way he produced a model of the rise of modernity, and concluded with a reflection on the ‘new age’ of the modern,
complete with a reference to communism in the year 1848. This concealed radical8ism may well have taken even Bennett by surprise, but, at least, he must have felt uncomfortable with the reactionary character of the Gurdjieff groups, e.g. Ouspensky. A close look at the history shows the way that some hidden spiritual group initiated his drift away from Ouspensky in the later thirties, beginning the gestation of DU. I think that this is the first sign of some radical spiritual entity trying to correct the drift of the Gurdjieff movement toward the right. The whole game staged by Gurdjieff was an attempt to upstage the left (with its own hidden spirituality) and to try and use magical and esoteric mystique to create a reactionary spirituality and anti-modernism. The postmodern is one of the tactics in the wake of that.
In any case, the hidden spiritual left is clearly at work with Bennett, who may or may not have understood what was happening. His work, sadly, is compromised by its association with Gurdjieff, who is not the source of the DU materials.
New Man, New Age, New Socialism 