Neoreactionary movement
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[[File:Confederacy of dunces cover.jpg|thumb|right|140px|Ignatius J. Reilly, an important forerunner of the movement.]] | [[File:Confederacy of dunces cover.jpg|thumb|right|140px|Ignatius J. Reilly, an important forerunner of the movement.]] | ||
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| − | ''' | + | The '''neoreactionary movement''', or the '''dark enlightenment''', make up a loosely defined cluster of Internet-based political thinkers who wish to return human society to older forms of government than liberal democracy. |
==Positions== | ==Positions== | ||
Revision as of 22:57, 12 February 2014
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The neoreactionary movement, or the dark enlightenment, make up a loosely defined cluster of Internet-based political thinkers who wish to return human society to older forms of government than liberal democracy.
Contents |
Positions
While there are a number of figures that are a part of this scene, their broad themes include:
- Political authoritarianism
- Desire to return to monarchy or aristocracy
- Admiration of fascism
- Ethnic nationalism
- Scientific racism
- A belief that ethnic uniformity increases social capital[wp]
- Hostility to feminism and multiculturalism
- Normative arguments based on evolutionary psychology
- Pick-up artist jargon
- Men's rights activism
- Austrian School of economics
- Old time social Darwinism
- Traditionalist Catholicism, sometimes
- Transhumanism and other technological utopias (the odd idea out)
The "movement"
They generally seek to present their views as some sort of revival of the traditions of Western civilization, or a return to a natural order of things. Important figures in the movement are known mostly through their blogs. Key figures include Mencius Moldbug; his prolix blog is called Unqualified Reservations[1]; Michael Anissimov, whose blog is More Right;[2] and Nick Land[wp], a British philosopher whose blog is called Outside In.[3] Vox Day is happy to be part of this movement,[4] but ridicules the term "dark enlightenment" as media hype.[5]
One common feature that unites this movement appears to be a long-winded and oblique prose style, eager to show off its mastery of historical trivia; it seems more poetry[wp] than politics at times. This is right-wing politics in its dotage: radical, deliberately "transgressive" posturing in obscurantist prose, a worthy bookend to the Frankfurt School[6], and perhaps evidence of the horseshoe theory of politics. Like its doppelganger, you wonder how they imagine anybody is going to be persuaded to vote for it.
Transhumanism?!
One of these ideas is not like the others. This one comes from neoreaction being particularly favoured by a small group of people from the Bay Area transhumanist subculture. This is why neoreactionaries showed up on LessWrong, though Eliezer Yudkowsky has explicitly disclaimed their ideas, citing Scott Alexander's takedown. There are neoreactionaries who will attempt to reconcile transhumanism and singularitarianism with taking the rest of society back several hundred years; the attempts are certainly creative, at least.
See also
External links
Scott Alexander's extensive examinations of this movement include:
- Reactionary Philosophy in an Enormous Planet Sized Nutshell — an honest attempt to describe neoreactionary beliefs sympathetically
- The Anti-Reactionary FAQ — generally regarded as the definitive takedown
Other discussions:
- Monarchists, Neo-Reactionaries, and Neo-Fascism. Noah Millman, at The American Conservative.
- Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries. Klint Finley at TechCrunch.
- Why are U.S. conservatives so obsessed with monarchies?. Matt K. Lewis at The Week
- The Dark Enlightenment: The Creepy Internet Movement You’d Better Take Seriously. Matt Sigl at vocativ.
- The Dark Enlightenment, by Nick Land.
Notes
- ↑ Unqualified Reservations
- ↑ More Right
- ↑ Outside In
- ↑ http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/neoreactionary-space_27.html
- ↑ http://voxday.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/the-phony-dark-enlightenment.html
- ↑ Indeed, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment appears to anticipate some of the themes of neoreaction, holding that the elevation of reason over other human values tends to treat people as means to an end, and elevates Progress to an unquestioned good.