# The Camp of the Saints by Jean Raspail

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-ghost-in-the-machine-by-daniel-d-5588479/the-camp-of-the-saints-by-jean-raspail
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-ghost-in-the-machine-by-daniel-d-5588479/the-camp-of-the-saints-by-jean-raspail.md
Podcast: [A Ghost in the Machine by Daniel D](https://stenobird.com/podcast/a-ghost-in-the-machine-by-daniel-d-5588479)
Published: 2025-12-01T10:15:00+00:00
Episode link: https://aghostinthemachine.substack.com/p/the-camp-of-the-saints-by-jean-raspail
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/180277065/dbeca90468b7ae99ee9326382198240d.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a-ghost-in-the-machine-by-daniel-d-5588479/episodes/the-camp-of-the-saints-by-jean-raspail
Duration seconds: 5891

## Resource

Despite being over 50 years old, The Camp of the Saints reads as if it was written only yesterday. It’s basically the story of the West since the end of World War II, condensed into a roughly two-month farce, set in the Spring of 1973. It’s not a novel in the traditional sense; it’s more like a collection of sketches and vignettes depicting the reactions (and non-reactions) of various people throughout the West to an impending catastrophe. There are a few recurring characters, but none are really developed or undergo any meaningful changes. The main characters really aren’t any of the individual people depicted in the story, but rather the zeitgeists of two competing cultures: that of the ravenous, locust-like Global South, and that of the decadent and suicidal West. The overarching story is simple. An armada filled with migrants sets sail from India, bound for Western Europe, a land overflowing with milk and honey. The Western countries do nothing but dither and discuss possible responses. What little they do, the Western leaders do half-heartedly, either with a spirit of dour resignation or with the zeal of naive liberal lunacy. The West is like a termite-infested tree , where the termites are either the practitioners of a suicidally “compassionate” churchianity, or the adherents of a suicidally malignant Marxcissism . As soon as the migrants crash like a tidal wave of raw sewage onto the southern coast of France, the termite-infested tree collapses. Then, upon seeing that the West is unwilling to defend herself, innumerable more migrant armadas set sail from the Global South, their hearts set on pillaging the fresh carcass of Western Europe. Soon, a provisional government is established, comprised of murderous migrants and suicidally co-dependent Europeans, and the…

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