Dark Enlightenment
The Dark Enlightenment, neoreactionary movement, or simply neoreaction (abbreviated NRx by proponents), is an anti-democratic and reactionary movement that broadly rejects egalitarianism and Whig historiography.[1][2] The movement favors a return to older societal constructs and forms of government, including support for monarchism and traditional gender roles, coupled with a libertarian or otherwise right-wing or conservative approach to economics.[2][3] Some critics have labeled the movement as "neo-fascist".[4][5]
A 2013 TechCrunch article describes the "Neoreactionary" "community of bloggers" as a term applied to, and sometimes a self-description of, an informal group of online political theorists who have been active since the 2000s.[1]
Etymology
The term "Dark Enlightenment" was coined by author and philosopher Nick Land in his essay of the same name, as a satirical play on words for the knowledge supposedly gained from the Enlightenment and lost during the Dark Ages.[2][4][1][3][6] His essay starts "Neo-reactionaries head for the exit."[7]
The phrase "neo-reactionary" was used in adjectival form by Curtis Yarvin's blog written under the name "Mencius Moldbug" in 2008[8][9] (George Orwell used it in a different context in 1943).[10] Moldbug had originally called his ideology "formalism",[11] but Arnold Kling used the term "The Neo-Reactionaries" in July 2010 to describe Moldbug and fellows[12] and the term was quickly adopted by the subculture.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Finley, Klint (22 November 2013). "Geeks for Monarchy: The Rise of the Neoreactionaries". TechCrunch.
- ^ a b c Pein, Corey (May 19, 2014). "Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich". The Baffler. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015.
- ^ a b Walther, Matthew (January 23, 2014). "The Dark Enlightenment Is Silly Not Scary". The American Spectator. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ a b Bartlett, Jamie (20 January 2014). "Meet The Dark Enlightenment: sophisticated neo-fascism that's spreading fast on the net". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Sigl, Matt (2 December 2013). "The Dark Enlightenment: The Creepy Internet Movement You'd Better Take Seriously". Vocativ. Archived from the original on 17 December 2013.
- ^ Phillips, Jon (Fall 2014). "Troublesome Sources". Southern Poverty Law Center.
- ^ Land, Nick. "The Dark Enlightenment".
- ^ Moldbug, Mencius (May 1, 2008). "OL3: the Jacobite history of the world". Unqualified Reservations.
- ^ Moldbug, Mencius (June 19, 2008). "OLX: a simple sovereign bankruptcy procedure". Unqualified Reservations.
- ^ Orwell, George (24 December 1943). "As I Please". Tribune.
- ^ Moldbug, Mencius (23 April 2007). "A formalist manifesto". Unqualified Reservations. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ Kling, Arnold (18 July 2010). "The Neo-Reactionaries". EconLog. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
External links
- Land, Nick. "The Dark Enlightenment".
- Unqualified Reservations, neoreactionary blog started by Curtis Yarvin under the nom de plume Mencius Moldbug
- Scott Alexander: Reactionary Philosophy in an Enormous, Planet-Sized Nutshell; The Anti-Reactionary FAQ