Jonathan Bowden

[[File:Jonathan Bowden.jpg|165px|thumb]]
{{UKpolitics}}
{{cquote|''[T]he New Right wishes to bring back past verities in new guises. It ultimately recognises an inner salience; whence the Old Right enjoyed a Janus faced discourse: whether esoteric or exoteric in character. Do you follow? Because the outer manifestation tended to be conspiratorial, however defined. Whereas the innermost locution rebelled against old forms, postulated a Nietzschean outlook and adopted a pitiless attitude towards weakness in all its forms.|||Jonathan Bowden summarises his political views.''<ref name=interview/>}}

'''Jonathan Bowden''' (1962-2012) was a far-right British commentator known for his involvement with the [[British National Party]] and the [[New Right (Europe)]].

==Political career==
Born in Penbury in 1962,<ref name=interview/> Bowden became involved with the Federation of Conservative Students in the 1980s.<ref name=searchlight>http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/blogs/searchlight-blog/new-right-chairman-dies</ref> In 1993, he and Stuart Millson founded the Revolutionary Conservative Caucus.<ref name=interview/><ref name=searchlight/> He then became involved in the Bloomsbury Forum, founded in 1996; he joined the newly-launched Freedom Party in 2001 and subsequently became its treasurer. He moved on to the British National Party in 2003, becoming the party's cultural officer.<ref name=searchlight/>

In 2005, he attended the first New Right meeting, later becoming chairman of the organisation.<ref name=interview>http://web.archive.org/web/20110725184319/http://www.jonathanbowden.co.uk/interview.html</ref> In 2007, he got into a dispute with BNP leader Nick Griffin, with Griffin's supporters responding by accusing Bowden of being a child molester; Bowden denied these claims and subsequently resigned from the party.<ref name=efp>http://efp.org.uk/jonathan-bowden-1962-2012/</ref><ref>http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/bnps-cultural-officer-resigns-after.html</ref> After this incident he focused his attentions on the New Right.<ref name=efp/>

In 2012, he died of a heart attack, aged 49.<ref name=efp/>

==Writing==
One of Bowden's areas of interest was analysing popular fiction through the lens of his political views; he cast his eyes over ''The Incredible Hulk''<ref>http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/07/the-incredible-hulk/</ref> ''Conan the Barbarian''<ref>http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/07/conan-the-barbarian/</ref> and ''Batman'',<ref>http://www.counter-currents.com/2010/11/batman-the-joker/</ref> amongst other works. His essays contain many astute observations: "All super-heroes are elitist and non-humanist figures who fight for Humanist values against elitist figurines (the villains) who fight on behalf of power morality", he wrote in his examination of ''The Incredible Hulk''.

==Art==
[[File:Adolfleni.jpg|right|thumb|250px|''Adolf and Leni'': an example of Bowden's passionate, ferocious art, destined never to be appreciated by the infantilised masses.]]
Bowden was a keen artist, expressing a desire to "create new and ferocious forms" and "paint the most ferocious image of my time". He described his work as "passionate integers of fury." His paintings had a distinctive style and were hailed by a number of his right-wing comrades.<ref name=counter><capture>http://www.counter-currents.com/2011/01/jonathan-bowden-on-modern-art/</capture></ref>

He had a particular interest in early [[modern art and architecture|modernist art]], as he elaborated:

{{quotebox|One cares nothing for the aesthetic standards of the masses; they are children who only like what they know or feel comfortable with. What really matters has to be the ecstasy of becoming – early or classic modernism happened to be exactly that. It was an attack on sentimentality; it proved to be an art purely for intellectuals. It was anti-humanist, elitist, inegalitarian, vanguardist, misanthropic, sexist, racist, and homophobic – all good things.<ref name=counter/>}}

In addition to painting, Bowden was involved in filmmaking, collaborating with Andrea Lioy on the films ''Grand Guignol'' and ''Venus Flytrap''<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20110725184834/http://www.jonathanbowden.co.uk/articles.html#ggreview</ref> and writing and narrating a documentary about his art called ''Fenris Devours Odin''.<ref>http://web.archive.org/web/20100714075337/http://www.jonathanbowden.co.uk/fenris_devours_odin.html</ref>

==External links==
* [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ztxb_punch-and-judy_shortfilms ''Punch and Judy'': a short film starring Jonathan Bowden.]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowden, Jonathan}}
[[Category:Artists]]
[[Category:Fascists]]
[[Category:Nationalism in the UK]]
[[Category:Right-wing activists]]
[[Category:Neo-Nazis]]

Categories: Artists, Fascists, Nationalism in the UK, Right-wing activists, Neo-Nazis