Thursday 29 December 2016

Neoreaction Explained


Frederich the Great - a Neoreactionary hero

Several associates of the author of these pages have expressed some mystification regarding the contemporary phenomenon known as Neoreaction (or NRx for short).  They are aware that it is a political philosophy occupying a place on the Right (or Dexter) half of the political spectrum, and that it is perhaps related to the so-called 'Alt Right' (i.e. 'Alternative Right') and/or that mode of conservatism prefixed with paleo- (meaning old or primal or archaic), but just what it is and what it espouses escapes them. What exactly is Neoreaction? Can you explain it in fifty words or less? Why are NRx blogs and webpages so frustratingly dense and opaque? 

The topic was treated in a very introductory way on these pages recently, here, and as the new year (2017) dawns and the author's sojourning through India and Asia has come to an end and he has settled again into a domestic routine, it is hoped that further matters relevant to NRx can be treated in more detail in future posts. Indeed, it is hoped that Out of Phase might become more explicitly neoreactionary than it has been in the past. Neoreaction is a lively intellectual movement, and one entirely in keeping with the tenor and assumptions of this author. Just look at the content of these pages: neo-colonial, neo-orientalist, neo-this and neo-that. And whether it is matters of art or matters of esoterica, the author shows an abiding preference for the ways of by-gone days and a consistent aversion to modern innovations. There is no harm in making these pages more forthright in their intellectual affiliations. 

Let us, therefore, attempt a brief and demystified explanation of the Neoreactionary viewpoint. It is, admittedly, not an easy matter because the NRx community is never in any hurry to make it easy. The entire business is, to be sure, elitist, and Neoreaction has adopted an opaque posture and vocabulary as a deliberate strategy against entryism, which is to say against infiltration by hostile or just unworthy characters. It is no exaggeration to say that many of the prime movers in the movement are longwinded, while others are prolix and obscuritanistic. People complain: "I've read lots of Neoreactionary stuff, and I'm still none the wiser! What does it all mean?" Here is what it means:

A reactionary is someone who advocates a return to a status quo ante, a return to a previous status quo. Specifically, as a political proponent, a reactionary is someone who advocates a return to a political system from the past. This is different to a conservative, who merely wants to defend and preserve the current status quo. A reactionary wants to restore a status quo long since gone. In popular parlance, they want to turn back the clock, go against the tide of so-called "progress", and rebuild and restore something of value that has been lost.In reaction we find a rejection of the ideology of "progress", a critique of the conditions of modernity and a determination to recover a lost virtue. 

A neo-reactionary, therefore, is one of a new breed of reactionaries. In recent times the label has been applied especially to a diverse group of thinkers and advocates who have coalesced around a blogger known pseudonymously as Mencius Moldbug.

To be yet more specific, Neoreaction, as a political position, values and seeks a return to many of the things which prevailed in the past but which were swept away recklessly by such watersheds as the French and American Revolutions, including: monarchy, aristocracy, nobility, fealty, heroic values, vocation, loyalty, classical international law, hierarchical organisational structures, family, patriarchal social relations, localism, ethnic identity, religious observance and religious morality. It follows that, in general, Neoreactionaries are opposed to the corrosive, flattening, quantifying modern cult of equality and all the related the assumptions of progressive (Whig) ideology.In particular, Neoreaction is anti-democratic. It sees democracy as an inherently Leftist mode that is counted as the worst and least stable form of government. 

As someone explained it, Neoreactionaries want to return to the 50s. The 1450s. 

This is not to say that there is a single programme of Neoreaction. Not all Neoreactionaries are monarchists, for instance. And not all of them are religious, by any means. Ethnic identity is more important to some than to others. But they all share a determination to learn from the pre-modern era, share a rejection of progressive historiography and a belief that a great many pre-modern institutions were better than what has replaced them. In general, they subscribe to the view that traditional (pre-modern) societies were founded in realities, the stuff of nature, and that the modern project, on the contrary, is founded in delusions, wishful thinking, and serious, diabolical miscalculations of the human predicament. 



Mencius Moldbug - the face of Neoreaction

While its opponents might present Neoreaction as "Far Right" it is not, it should be stressed, a movement of political activists and agitators. No one supposes that the wished-for Restoration of Tradition and historical norms can be brought about through the ballot box or collecting petitions or staging street marches. Contemporary Neoreaction is an intellectual movement that has grown out of the above principles, largely based in a careful reading of old (pre-modern) texts and a meticulous re-reading of history. Neoreactionaries read old books. That is mainly what they do. They read old books without the lens of modern liberalism. Foremost among their favoured authors is the XIXth century Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle, the great spokesman of old Europe. 

Also worth mentioning here is that contemporary Neoreaction - based as it is in the analysis of Mr Moldbug - proposes that the roots of Leftism are to be found in Calvinist Protestantism and that Leftism is itself essentially religious (eschatological) in its motivations. Progressive democracy, the human rights cult, egalitarianism, feminism, radical environmentalism, Whiggism of all stripes: all these related phenomena constitute a religion. They are more than political, they are religious in nature. This is an important feature of Neoreactionary thought. The NRx analysis goes much deeper than garden variety right-wing sloganeering. Finally, it is a metaphysics. 


In conclusion, contemporary neoreaction is anything but empty nostalgia. It is a rigorous field of genuine politico-philosophical inquiry, albeit conducted almost entirely outside of the formal structures of academia. The following links will take the reader to some of the more illustrious and rewarding NRx blogsites active today:

Unqualified Reservations

Outside In

The Future Primeval

Neocolonial

The Froude Society

Social Matter

Yours

Harper McAlpine Black






2 comments:

  1. Well put - this would have to be one of the finer short descriptions of Neoreaction out there.

    Enjoy the journey. I'll have to have a more thorough read through of your blog once I have some leisure time available.

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  2. I'm pleased to have finally discovered your blog. In classic neoreactionary fashion your failure to self-promote will be counted as time off purgatory.

    ReplyDelete