When I heard some acquaintances explaining what they liked about Lemmy Kilmister of the rock band Motorhead, after his recent death, I hoped Dalrymple would write about the man’s general attitude, knowing he would explain its deficiencies so much better than I could. And now he has, in Taki’s Magazine. The piece is also an essay on his thoughts on the f-word.

…he was an authentic representative of modern psychological development: a short period of precocity followed by a long one of arrested development.

….

The overall result of careers such as Mr. Kilmister’s is to encourage a culture or subculture, almost unique in my experience, lacking all beauty, value, virtue, charm, or refinement. Its apotheosis would be the dictatorship of libertinism in which personal whim would play the part of the supposed word of God in the Islamic State.

Nevertheless, may he rest in peace.