"It's about children, children and children again," he repeated in the first line of his manifesto bomberwho killed 51 people in a mosque in fresh Zealand Christchurch in 2019. He thinks whites are ‘replaced’ by visitors from another cultural circles and will not last unless direct action is taken.
A fewer years later, the same fertility obsession entered as a phrase to Elon Musk's regular speeches on social media.
I don't know if Elon Musk is simply a supporter of white supremacy or right-wing extremist. However, like others with utmost views, he promotes the belief that society is in a state of decline and that it is essential to act to prevent the associated apocalypse. Rhetorical similarities are no coincidence. They stem from a reactionary doctrine that has a long past of contagious popularity.
Conservatives brand decadence
The fear that low fertility inevitably leads to a population collapse has haunted the West since the dominant lifestyle became mass consumption. This is the inverse of erstwhile Maltese fears that exponential population growth will surpass our ability to produce food. erstwhile we look further, it turns out that both of these narratives are variations of the same thought of decadence.
A imagination of decadence – a moral decline caused by excessive adherence to human desires – appears wherever individual tries to explain what is happening to the world, especially criticisms of culture.
You've read the celebrated best-selling American historian Christopher Lasch about modern culture of narcissism? Did you see that? memes ‘Weak people make hard times”? Have you been following Cultural Tutor's tweets about the disappearance of beauty from architecture? Have you always rewinded Jordan Peterson's films on YouTube? These contents disagree in detail, but each refers to decadence.
The thought of decadence cuts effectively like a double-edged sword. The masses are lazy and they request discipline. Broken elites You gotta replace the fresh ones. It lacks authority, and all society is based on ancient hierarchy. An excess of freedom, fun and knowing for human beings poses a threat to order and so to prosperity.
This constitution is based on principles: men must submit, obey for the greater good. Women must give birth to “protect the lives of our nation and the future of our children. Liberal elites will replace the fresh aristocracy that will revive culture. Otherwise, the destiny of civilization, or at least nations, is at stake." Sound familiar?
"The Fall of Civilization"
Opponents of equality and the regulation of law have accused societies of decadence since the emergence of Biblical applications for Sodom and Gomorrah and Hinduism stories about the calijuga.
Like a superhistoric scaffolding on which all kinds of antiliberal doctrine can be untipped, decadence combines ancient populists in the Roman Empire with Italian fascists.
Modern neo-reaction philosopher and promoter of ideas dark enlightenment Curtis Yarvin declares "New York Times" that democracy "died". He wants to replace her with an American monarchy. besides statement polythologist Patrick Deneen o “almost complete dissociation of the ruling class and the general citizens deprived civitas” draws from the communicative of decadence.
All these visions are based on the perception of time as a cyclical phenomenon. Up and down. The bloom and the feisty. Revelation and rebirth (nation). In his investigation I've analyzed hundreds of neofascist magazines from Germany and France. The data obtained in this way was arranged into an endless series of calamities for decadence and apocalyptic prophecies. I call it conservative crisis narratives.
Crisis policy
In most cases, nothing to worry about. Detention is just a fancy slogan. But on the another hand, that's why everyone can easy sale their own version of the communicative – as long as they enter a large communicative about the end of civilization. The facts don't matter, the devil's not in the details.
“If I gotta invent stories to make the media pay attention to the suffering of Americans, that is what I will do” – He honestly admitted current Vice president J.D. Vance during the 2024 campaign. This confession reveals any sociological fact about the action of the communicative of the crisis.
According to American anthropologist Janet Roitman, who deals with “crisis policy” specified a communicative “cannot be regarded as a description of the historical situation or as a diagnosis of the state of the world.” It is, however, a “political criticism”, says Roitman.
Every crisis communicative justifies the search for saviour. "The 2024 election is the last chance to save America" – said Donald Trump. “Only AfD can save Germany” – repeats This communicative works everywhere and on all scale. [Donald Trump was dreaming of specified a imagination of the end ruled by American Democrats in his opening speech – ed].
What Elon Musk Wants
In France, right-wing philosopher Guillaume Faye, the inspiration for the identity movement, developed a reactionary the doctrine of “archeobuturism”. It is intended to combine staggering technological advancement with medieval morality of heroism and hierarchy. This is simply a concept not far from radical longtermismwhich Musk responds to diagnosis of decadence.
The digital agora announced by portal X is simply a phenomenon of feudal public sphere. The digital reconstruction of the historical aesthetics of ancient Rome by Muska reflects Dream of the far right of the American Caesar. The exact same imagination Rowed by Oswald Spengler In The dusk of the West, the most influential book of prefascist Germany.
The doctrine of Musk is clearly that all people should surrender long-term ambition of the President-King. To conquer the cosmos, colonize Mars, and connect human brains into a single artificial intelligence, you gotta push the unit aside and its needs. And that's what right-wing extremists are all about erstwhile they spread the communicative of decadence.
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Felix Schilk he studied sociology and pedagogy at the Dresden University of Technology and Paul Valéry University in Montpellier. He is simply a investigation assistant in the CHANSE task "REDACT: Researching Europe, Digitalisation and Conspiracy Theories". Among another things, he deals with relationships between right-wing extremism, conservatism, populism, conspiracy theories, anti-Semitism and esotericism. These issues are viewed from the position of sociology of cognition and analysis of discourse, as well as historical sociology, political sociology, and investigation into transformation in postsocial spaces.
Article published in stock The Conversation under Creative Commons. In English she translated Aleksandra Paszkowska.
