Thiel attempts to do what he once criticized Locke for doing, but conservatives must not lose sight of the important questions again.

Peter Thiel, who will be known as the most consequential philosopher in this decisive moment in Western History, wrote a recent op-ed in the Financial Times arguing that Donald Trump’s return to the White House should create an apocalyptic unveiling of the long-buried secrets of what he described as the ancien regime. Thiel argues for a reconciliation in a Christian manner for the institution of a new order of the regime, because the ancien regime has failed to answer our deepest questions. This is not the first time where Thiel discusses the order of the American regime; he also addresses it—though only once elsewhere—in The Straussian Moment, where he delves into the crisis of the West and the apocalypse. To understand what he’s attempting to do in his op-ed, we must return to that essay.

For Thiel, the modern West has been defined by its abandonment of the very questions that once anchored Western civilization. Questions of virtue, faith, and human nature—leaving today’s West uncertain of its purpose. He singles out Locke for infusing the American regime with modern ideas that prioritize peace over deeper religious and philosophical inquiries. Thiel momentarily considers whether a return to an older Western tradition is still possible but concludes that the contemporary awareness of scapegoats prevents a reversion to the past. Strauss, who secretly blames Christianity for the decline of the West, attempted to reverse modernity through a hidden critique of Christianity, where he tells us that Jerusalem and Athens are not compatible, that Christianity hasn’t answered our deepest questions, because revelation is unreasonable. In Thiel’s view on the other side, is that the Christian statesman knows more through what the crucifixion of Christ had uncovered. Meanwhile, Thiel is equally dissatisfied with Girard's answer for us to retreat, whose call to wait patiently for an eventual revelation offers no potential for action.

Thiel concluded that what should be done about the crisis of the West is a return to early modernity. Thiel’s intellectual project over the past two decades, most prominently showcased in Zero to One, has been to restore the foundational belief in technological and scientific progress as an attempt to buy time. M...

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