By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 6 Jun 21
In this series of what we can learn from the totalitarian ideologies (for communism click here, and for fascism click here), I’d wish things would get less demonic around this time and that I could point to a cuter and happier ending when we get to New Age spirituality. But alas, as the human (or post-human) condition progresses, it only gets more wondrous, complex, perilous and terrifying, all at once. As Leon Trotsky once said “The forms of life will become dynamically dramatic […] And above this ridge new peaks will rise.” He just forgot to mention the new opening
In this series of what we can learn from the totalitarian ideologies (for communism click here, and for fascism click here), I’d wish things would get less demonic around this time and that I could point to a cuter and happier ending when we get to New Age spirituality. But alas, as the human (or post-human) condition progresses, it only
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 31 May 21
It’s difficult to be playful around fascism. It arose in shaky times, gathered absolute power in the hands of fanatic psychopaths who not only oppressed their own populations but also got us the Second World War and the Holocaust. To this day, we have crazy mass-killers swearing allegiance to fascist theories. Naturally, it’s not a joke.[i] And yet, the understanding of fascism as “pure evil” (and only an existential lie) is simplistic, bordering on incorrect. There are very good reasons to revisit fascism and perform a little psycho-historical archeology to dig up partial truths that may serve political metamodernism and
It’s difficult to be playful around fascism. It arose in shaky times, gathered absolute power in the hands of fanatic psychopaths who not only oppressed their own populations but also got us the Second World War and the Holocaust. To this day, we have crazy mass-killers swearing allegiance to fascist theories. Naturally, it’s not a joke.[i] And yet, the understanding
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 28 May 21
As you may know, the anarchists were eventually excluded from the International in the 19th century—Mikhail Bakunin lost the fight to Karl Marx, and the latter became the de facto intellectual and political leader of the European radicalized workers. Unlike Bakunin, Marx thought it necessary to seize real political power, i.e. to keep the state intact during the first steps towards an anticipated classless and stateless society. Utopian socialist ideals such as those of Charles Fourier (one of the great pre-Marxist socialist thinkers, 1772-1837, also credited with coining the word “feminism”) were sidelined to only be found in small “intentional
As you may know, the anarchists were eventually excluded from the International in the 19th century—Mikhail Bakunin lost the fight to Karl Marx, and the latter became the de facto intellectual and political leader of the European radicalized workers. Unlike Bakunin, Marx thought it necessary to seize real political power, i.e. to keep the state intact during the first steps
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 22 May 21
Tom Amarque’s Parallax Magazine recently hosted me on their political discussion forum. I think “Strange Attractor” is an apt title for this group. Here is their description: Since the system of politics in its modern and postmodern iteration is obviously not fit to deal with the manifold problems (meta-crisis), how could a ‘post-postmodern’ approach to politics look like? What new narrative is needed to legitimize a new (metamodern/post-postmodern/post-progressive) approach to politics? Featuring Steve McIntosh, Daniel Görtz, John Bunzl, Max Borders and Thaddeus Russell. The post Parallax Magazine’s political discussion forum appeared first on Steve McIntosh: Official Website.
Tom Amarque’s Parallax Magazine recently hosted me on their political discussion forum. I think “Strange Attractor” is an apt title for this group. Here is their description: Since the system of politics in its modern and postmodern iteration is obviously not fit to deal with the manifold problems (meta-crisis), how could a ‘post-postmodern’ approach to politics look like? What new
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 24 Apr 21
For all its different forms, Green ideology seeks to create sustainability of some kind. Even if some proponents of more radical forms of ecologism like to point out that the aim can hardly be to “sustain” a destructive and ecocidal civilization, that they prefer “resilience” or even “regeneration”, this still means that ecologists want this new imagined and preferable state of affairs to be… well, sustainable. No matter how you look at it, sustainability is the demand, the goal, of ecologism. Resilience and regeneration both include sustainability within them. The following is a slightly edited extract from Hanzi Freinacht’s book ‘Nordic
For all its different forms, Green ideology seeks to create sustainability of some kind. Even if some proponents of more radical forms of ecologism like to point out that the aim can hardly be to “sustain” a destructive and ecocidal civilization, that they prefer “resilience” or even “regeneration”, this still means that ecologists want this new imagined and preferable state
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 21 Apr 21
Conservatism may be the most misunderstood of the modern ideologies—and its challenge to political metamodernism is perhaps the most serious one. The central conservative principle is a resolve to escape the traps of infatuations with utopian ideas and puritan ideals—and to settle for “the real world”. The insight that underlies this realization is one of humility: the world is always larger, more complex and more terrifying than our limited intellects and perspectives can imagine. When we want to change things around, it’s usually only because we haven’t really understood how they work in the first place. And so our dreamed
Conservatism may be the most misunderstood of the modern ideologies—and its challenge to political metamodernism is perhaps the most serious one. The central conservative principle is a resolve to escape the traps of infatuations with utopian ideas and puritan ideals—and to settle for “the real world”. The insight that underlies this realization is one of humility: the world is always
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 14 Apr 21
I will lump together classical liberalism, libertarianism and neo-liberalism under one banner, much like with the many strands of socialism above. For the sake of convenience I’ll talk about “liberalism”, even if this in an American context tends to just mean “left-leaning” which of course isn’t what I mean here. The following is a slightly edited extract from Hanzi Freinacht’s book ‘Nordic Ideology: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book Two’. This is the second book in a series on metamodern thought, a work of popular philosophy that investigates the nature of psychological development and its political implications. So the fundamental goal
I will lump together classical liberalism, libertarianism and neo-liberalism under one banner, much like with the many strands of socialism above. For the sake of convenience I’ll talk about “liberalism”, even if this in an American context tends to just mean “left-leaning” which of course isn’t what I mean here. The following is a slightly edited extract from Hanzi Freinacht’s
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 7 Apr 21
The fundamental goal of all authentic strands of socialism is to attain shared (and fairly distributed) ownership of “the means of production”. This can and should lead to democratic control over said means of production. But this state of affairs is not quite the goal-in-and-of-itself; it is merely a means to achieving a higher socialist goal: a classless society that is fair, equitable, and in which everybody has what they need for a secure and dignified existence. The goal is to enact politics with solidarity in order to bring forth a society that is equitable, the structures of which make
The fundamental goal of all authentic strands of socialism is to attain shared (and fairly distributed) ownership of “the means of production”. This can and should lead to democratic control over said means of production. But this state of affairs is not quite the goal-in-and-of-itself; it is merely a means to achieving a higher socialist goal: a classless society that
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Apr 21
Okay, so now we’re really closing in on the point: You have six new forms of politics (Democratization, Gemeinschaft, Existential, Emancipation, Empirical and Theory), and these function, over the long-term, together or not at all, and they reinforce each other and they are already emerging in society. But who then makes it happen, and how? If you’ve been a good reader, you already know the answer to this question. Then again, everyone might need a reminder from time to time, and there are still a few blanks to fill in. The following is a slightly edited extract from Hanzi Freinacht’s
Okay, so now we’re really closing in on the point: You have six new forms of politics (Democratization, Gemeinschaft, Existential, Emancipation, Empirical and Theory), and these function, over the long-term, together or not at all, and they reinforce each other and they are already emerging in society. But who then makes it happen, and how? If you’ve been a good