Nikolai Kolosov/Real neo-reaction and conservative republicanism

During the Cold War, the term “real socialism” was in use.

Real socialism differed from the science fiction of the works of Marx and Lenin in almost everything. Instead of economic prosperity - stagnation and inefficiency. Instead of freedom - the power of the nomenklatura. Instead of the brotherhood of the proletarians of all countries, there are ethnic contradictions and hidden hostility. Complete discrepancy between utopia and practice.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the leadership of the Russian Federation, previously not seen in any ideological predilections, rejected the values ​​of liberal democracy that had set the teeth on edge and began to transform the state in a different direction. She did not have a clear theoretical base, but ...

Around the same time, disillusionment with democratic institutions appeared among the West on the right. European and American rightists have noticed that society in their countries is steadily shifting to the left. The term "Cathedral" was born. They designated a conglomerate of Western institutions infected with leftism. As an alternative to the values and practices of the Council, the ideologists of the Dark Enlightenment proposed a return to traditional authoritarian forms of government. The neo-reaction formula is efficiency through cynicism and a return to the archaic.

This formula looked attractive. It relied on a visible trend - the stagnation of the West in relation to the rapidly growing China. Putin's Russia fit perfectly into this trend.

The Russian Federation objectively most corresponded to the ideal of the neo-reactionaries. The curtailment of democratic institutions in our country was combined at first with the growth of prosperity, and since 2014, as it was believed, with the growth of military power and international prestige.

From afar, the Russian Federation really looked like a paradise for the Western right - a white Christian country, but without democracy, insolent LGBT activists and feminists. It openly fights with radical Islam - it defeated the jihadists first in Chechnya, and then in Syria. I think even Kadyrov looked cool in neo-reactionary optics. Like a kind of harsh but effective warlord, the eastern god of war in the service of European conservatives.

Two artifacts can be called symbols of the real Russian reaction - the Temple of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the remote electronic voting server “with blockchain”. A real Warhammer, where Tradition coexists with extreme cynicism, authoritarianism and pragmatism. Yes, even with a touch of high technology.

Neo-reactionaries in the field of technological progress are by no means retrograde.

With Trump's defeat, authoritarianism seemed to be the only beacon for the right.

After 2022-02-24, the superiority of neo-reaction over democracy was to be reinforced by a success that cannot be imitated. The Russian Federation, after a benevolent nod from the PRC, went on the offensive ...

The myth of the super-efficiency of authoritarianism was destroyed to the ground. The unpreparedness of the system for a big conflict is already publicly recognized even by the speakers on Solovyov-Live. Everyone can see: the democratic Himers showed himself, the neo-reactionary "Armata" did not appear on the battlefield.

We can say that a fake neo-reaction has triumphed in the Russian Federation. That next time it will definitely work out, and Singapore, and not Zimbabwe, will definitely grow out of autocracy. But hard to believe. Especially against the backdrop of a slowdown in economic growth and protests in China, the stronghold of world authoritarianism.

What should rigth do in these conditions?

Return to the principles of classical liberalism and republicanism, but on a national conservative basis. This does not mean giving up positions on fundamental issues. Advocating for a system of checks and balances in the state does not mean supporting ethnic substitution, feminism, same-sex marriage, etc.

In the end, the same Moldbug is not against democracy in principle, but against universal suffrage. Against a democracy where only certified active pilots of civil and military aviation vote, Molbag has nothing .

Nikolai Kolosov 2022-12-11