Rift Markers¶
The commentator going by the tag Saddam Hussein’s Whirling Aluminium Tubes has produced some of the most brilliant criticism this blog has been subjected to. Arguing against the techno-commercial strain of NRx from a hardline paleoreactionary standpoint, his contribution to this thread is the high-water mark of his engagement here. That, even at the climax of the assault, Outside in is unable to decline the diagnosis offered, with the exception of only the very slightest, marginal reservations, is a fact that attests to the lucidity of his vision. (Some minute editorial adjustments have been made for consistency — the original can be checked at the link provided.) SHWAT writes:
Admin’s analogy of Techno-Commercialism to the colonial government structures in the time of the East India company is absolutely correct and it provides a decisive clarification. This is like that time when one group stayed in Europe while the other group went and made their fortune in the New World.
Reaction*: Stable order (as a value, if not a
practical effect), hereditary position
Techno-commercialism*: Disintegrative competition,
dynamism
Reaction*: Conservatism, tradition, the old
ways
Techno-commercialism*: Disintegrative competition,
innovation
Reaction*: Personal authority, sacral Kingship,
hereditary privileges
Techno-commercialism**: Corporate government,
leaning towards the oligarchical, dynamic composition of the
oligarchy, based on corporate politics and Social Darwinism
Reaction: Cyclical history, Kali Yuga
Techno-commercialism: Linear history, progress
towards the singularity
Reaction: Focus on the old country, the old
people, saving the West
Techno-commercialism: Abandoning the old,
colonizing new spaces, both in the East and (you hope) in Space
Reaction: Traditional social order, community,
belonging, sense of place and rootedness, caste
Techno-commercialism: Modern social dynamism,
freedom, meritocracy, rootlessness, atomization, Social Darwinism,
a questionable future for certain social classes
Reaction: Conservatively communitarian
Techno-commercialism: Radically individualist
Reaction: Identitarian
Techno-commercialism: Cosmopolitan
Reaction: Claims to end politics, ends up with
Byzantine / Ottoman politics
Techno-commercialism: Claims to end politics,
ends up with Corporate Politics
Reaction: Martial
Techno-commercialism: Mercantile, post-Martial
(Drones > Kshatriyas)
Reaction: Disdainful of crass mercantile
endeavors
Techno-commercialism: See mercantile endeavors as
primary
Reaction: Fails without good leaders
Techno-commercialism: Focus on innovative
governmental structures, so that people won’t need to be good.
Reaction: Conservative, want things to stay the
same or go backwards
Techno-commercialism: Disintegrative, dynamic,
wants things to change constantly, Forward!
Reaction: Regular, caged capitalism (which to the
the Ultra-Capitalist is socialism)
Techno-commercialism: Ultra-Capitalism
Reaction: Religious
Techno-commercialism: Wants to summon a machine
god
Reaction: About finding a way for humans to live
spiritually fulfilling lives and then die and make a place for
their children
Techno-commercialism: About finding a way to
summon a machine god to end humanity and/or about finding a way to
live forever. Very few children.
Reaction: Would require the creation of a new,
legitimate, martial elite or the co-opting of someone like Putin
(horrifying to techno-commercialists)
Techno-commercialism: Seeks to co-opt the current
progressive merchant elite and put someone like Google guy in
charge (horrifying to reactionaries)*
Reaction*: Romantic lost cause
Techno-commercialism*: Disturbingly plausible, in
the sense that somebody like Google guy was probably going to end
up on top anyway, and he might listen to those who flatter
him.
So, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that [you techno-commercialists will] probably get a lot of what you want in the future. The bad news is that you’re not reactionaries, not even a little bit. You’re classical liberals, it was just a little bit obscured because you are English classical liberals, rather than American or French ones. Hence the lack of interest in revolutions. The modern equivalent of those East India Company classical liberal guys.
So, it’s your choice. You can certainly keep the neo-reactionary label and turn it into something like the “neo” in “neo-conservative” where “neo” means “pwned”. But that will mean that the traditionalist conservatives and WNs keep wandering in. Or you can cut the cord and complete the fission.
Anyway, at this point we should probably go our separate ways and start plotting against each other. Thanks for some enjoyable reading.
If this really is a good-bye note, it’s the most magnificent example I have ever seen. I’m almost tempted to say, with enemies like this, who needs allies?
There are twists and intricacies to be added to this stark cartography of schism, including those the schism will make to itself. From the current perspective of Outside in (which it of course suspects to be something else), the guideline to these is the complication of time through spiromorphism, or innovative restorations, which neither cycles nor simple escape trajectories can capture. These ultimately re-shape everything, but they can wait (while the wound creatively festers). Fission releases energy. Perhaps ironically — SHWAT has demonstrated that beyond all controversy.