The Will to Power or the Will to LARP?
The recent controversy over the Nazi LARPing at the NPI conference got me thinking about how we can save the West. As I have said before, I am not a white nationalist or member of the alt-right. But I am a biological and cultural realist. I share some of their views and some of their goals. I agree with them on the dangers of mass immigration and Islam. I disagree with some of their views, and in this case, I definitely disagree with their methods. I don't think we can save the West by LARPing as Nazis.
The big issues facing the West right now are demographic: immigration, low fertility, dysgenics, Islam, etc. We have the power to solve these problems, but we lack the will. The reason we lack the will to solve them is that we are morally required to pretend that they don't exist, or don't matter. The religion of the modern West, Humanism, is based on Utopian fantasies about life and human nature. When reality contradicts Humanist delusions, we are required to ignore reality. To solve the problems facing the West (and Humanity) we have to first confront the delusions of Humanism. We have to make it acceptable to discuss the problems facing the West. We have to bring certain heresies into the Overton window: the window of acceptable public discourse.
It is not enough to have the legal right to discuss certain ideas. We need cultural permission as well. When an idea, such as eugenics, is considered to be de facto EVIL, then it cannot be discussed openly. There is no substantive free speech to discuss EVIL ideas. To solve the problems of the West, we have to get our ideas into the Overton window where they can be discussed and debated.
I have talked about Humanism before and I will probably talk about it again, but I will just state here that the fundamental problem with Humanism is altruism. Humanists assume that humans are altruistic, that society is based on altruism, and that social problems can be solved with altruism. These assumptions are all false, and making them into the guiding principles of our civilization will lead to disaster.
In the long run Humanism will lose, because it is based on lies. The question is how it will lose and what will replace it. Either Humanism will be defeated culturally and replaced by a more realistic and pragmatic worldview, or it will destroy our civilization and be replaced, in the ruins, by a more effective religion such as Islam. If we are going to save our civilization, we have to defeat Humanism before it destroys our civilization, and replace it with something more effective.
So, the first task of any movement to save the West is to open the Overton window. Without the cultural permission to believe and speak the necessary ideas, we will just have to wait for the social order to break down before we can act. That is not my preferred option, but if you want to go down that road, you should be an accelerationist, because revolution is only possible when society is in a state of chaos.
Now, how do we open the Overton window?
One way is to have good arguments. Good arguments do not immediately persuade people to change their minds, but they do create cognitive dissonance: a state of mental confusion that occurs when a person becomes aware of the hidden contradictions of his worldview. Cognitive dissonance is like a KO in boxing. It knocks the person out. They can't think in that moment of confusion, but it starts the process of making them reconsider their beliefs. To see someone else lose an argument is also persuasive to the audience.
In addition to having good arguments, you have to present yourself as an attractive, successful and responsible person. In a sense, you are the living embodiment of your ideas. That is especially important for ideas that have negative connotations to begin with. If an intelligent, successful and socially responsible person calmly and rationally proposes "EVIL" ideas, that will create cognitive dissonance and help to open the Overton window to those ideas.
How did the left conquer the institutions of our society? How did they take over the media, the academy, large corporations, and the government? Did a vanguard of rabid leftists storm these institutions, screaming Communist slogans? No. There have always been radical leftists screaming on the sidelines, but they did not invade and conquer the institutions. The institutions were first occupied by a liberal vanguard that presented itself as reasonable, intelligent, good-hearted, and educated. It was this liberal vanguard that first occupied the institutions and held the door open for the more radical leftists. Why did they do this? Partly because they truly believed in what they were doing, and partly because they didn't understand what they were doing. Now the liberals in the institutions are being shown the door by the left. (Most true liberals are white males.) This makes them more sympathetic to our ideas.
The left won the culture war in the same way that they colonized the institutions: by gradually shifting the culture to the left. They didn't win by defecating on the sacred beliefs of Christians, at least not right away. They won by proposing minor changes that were rooted in Christian values and could be justified within the existing moral framework of Western culture. The altruism of Humanism, and many of its delusions about life and human nature, have origins in Christianity. Humanism incorporates many of the cherished values of the West, but in distorted forms. The left won by presenting their views as a rational extrapolation from traditional Western values. Now that they have won, the left is becoming increasingly illiberal, but that is not how they won.
Unfortunately, we cannot afford to spend a generation changing the culture and reconquering the institutions. There won't be much left to save in a generation. We have to do things faster. However, we can use the same basic method that the left used. Liberalism is the cultural pivot-point of the West. It is a tenuous balance between two sides that are dogmatically and emotionally opposed and incapable of discussion. Shifting that pivot a little to the left or a little to the right has a big impact on the culture.
So, my proposal for winning the culture war is to win over the true liberals who seem to be waking up to the reality of the situation they helped to create. We can do that by having good arguments and presenting ourselves as reasonable, intelligent people acting in good faith.
The big issues facing the West right now are demographic: immigration, low fertility, dysgenics, Islam, etc. We have the power to solve these problems, but we lack the will. The reason we lack the will to solve them is that we are morally required to pretend that they don't exist, or don't matter. The religion of the modern West, Humanism, is based on Utopian fantasies about life and human nature. When reality contradicts Humanist delusions, we are required to ignore reality. To solve the problems facing the West (and Humanity) we have to first confront the delusions of Humanism. We have to make it acceptable to discuss the problems facing the West. We have to bring certain heresies into the Overton window: the window of acceptable public discourse.
It is not enough to have the legal right to discuss certain ideas. We need cultural permission as well. When an idea, such as eugenics, is considered to be de facto EVIL, then it cannot be discussed openly. There is no substantive free speech to discuss EVIL ideas. To solve the problems of the West, we have to get our ideas into the Overton window where they can be discussed and debated.
I have talked about Humanism before and I will probably talk about it again, but I will just state here that the fundamental problem with Humanism is altruism. Humanists assume that humans are altruistic, that society is based on altruism, and that social problems can be solved with altruism. These assumptions are all false, and making them into the guiding principles of our civilization will lead to disaster.
In the long run Humanism will lose, because it is based on lies. The question is how it will lose and what will replace it. Either Humanism will be defeated culturally and replaced by a more realistic and pragmatic worldview, or it will destroy our civilization and be replaced, in the ruins, by a more effective religion such as Islam. If we are going to save our civilization, we have to defeat Humanism before it destroys our civilization, and replace it with something more effective.
So, the first task of any movement to save the West is to open the Overton window. Without the cultural permission to believe and speak the necessary ideas, we will just have to wait for the social order to break down before we can act. That is not my preferred option, but if you want to go down that road, you should be an accelerationist, because revolution is only possible when society is in a state of chaos.
Now, how do we open the Overton window?
One way is to have good arguments. Good arguments do not immediately persuade people to change their minds, but they do create cognitive dissonance: a state of mental confusion that occurs when a person becomes aware of the hidden contradictions of his worldview. Cognitive dissonance is like a KO in boxing. It knocks the person out. They can't think in that moment of confusion, but it starts the process of making them reconsider their beliefs. To see someone else lose an argument is also persuasive to the audience.
In addition to having good arguments, you have to present yourself as an attractive, successful and responsible person. In a sense, you are the living embodiment of your ideas. That is especially important for ideas that have negative connotations to begin with. If an intelligent, successful and socially responsible person calmly and rationally proposes "EVIL" ideas, that will create cognitive dissonance and help to open the Overton window to those ideas.
How did the left conquer the institutions of our society? How did they take over the media, the academy, large corporations, and the government? Did a vanguard of rabid leftists storm these institutions, screaming Communist slogans? No. There have always been radical leftists screaming on the sidelines, but they did not invade and conquer the institutions. The institutions were first occupied by a liberal vanguard that presented itself as reasonable, intelligent, good-hearted, and educated. It was this liberal vanguard that first occupied the institutions and held the door open for the more radical leftists. Why did they do this? Partly because they truly believed in what they were doing, and partly because they didn't understand what they were doing. Now the liberals in the institutions are being shown the door by the left. (Most true liberals are white males.) This makes them more sympathetic to our ideas.
The left won the culture war in the same way that they colonized the institutions: by gradually shifting the culture to the left. They didn't win by defecating on the sacred beliefs of Christians, at least not right away. They won by proposing minor changes that were rooted in Christian values and could be justified within the existing moral framework of Western culture. The altruism of Humanism, and many of its delusions about life and human nature, have origins in Christianity. Humanism incorporates many of the cherished values of the West, but in distorted forms. The left won by presenting their views as a rational extrapolation from traditional Western values. Now that they have won, the left is becoming increasingly illiberal, but that is not how they won.
Unfortunately, we cannot afford to spend a generation changing the culture and reconquering the institutions. There won't be much left to save in a generation. We have to do things faster. However, we can use the same basic method that the left used. Liberalism is the cultural pivot-point of the West. It is a tenuous balance between two sides that are dogmatically and emotionally opposed and incapable of discussion. Shifting that pivot a little to the left or a little to the right has a big impact on the culture.
So, my proposal for winning the culture war is to win over the true liberals who seem to be waking up to the reality of the situation they helped to create. We can do that by having good arguments and presenting ourselves as reasonable, intelligent people acting in good faith.
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