Mihail Pojarsky/Radicalism

An interesting article was published on the favorite fascist resource, where the former "antifa" talks about the causes of political radicalism. With reference to the philosopher Roger Scruton, he writes that the reason is uncritical optimism or the "utopian fallacy" - people tend to imagine the best possible outcome without considering all other possible options. For example, if there was no terrible capitalism, then we would live in the best of the worlds, based on the values of equality and social justice. Whereas in reality it is much more likely that having got rid of the current "neoliberal" system, we will return to the dense Middle Ages. After all, people tend, now with reference to the economist Thomas Sowell, to underestimate the ability of society to rapidly degrade. It is naive to think that the "default" state is freedom, equality and fraternity, and that only the current "system" generates conflicts. Not to understand that even the current level of wealth, prosperity and security is the result of a long and complex evolution. It is easy to destroy it, but it is difficult to repeat it.

Indeed, all kinds of radicals - from communists to anarcho-capitalists - are firmly convinced that their utopia is an alternative to the current order. It is worth destroying the order - milk rivers will immediately flow in the jelly banks. From this inevitably arises the ethics of the "end justifies the means" format. And returning to our realities, one can think about the naive notion that the alternative to the Putin regime is the "beautiful Russia of the future", and not all those 50 shades of failed state, in addition to personalist autocracy, which we can easily get. But here the question immediately arises: they say, what then to sit still and maintain the status quo, abandoning any attempts to transform society? No, of course not, because between the status quo and the total revolution there are still many positions that can be taken. However, finding such a position is the most difficult task in practice. Especially for those who do not live in the USA, but in real failed states.

Mihail Pojarsky 2020-02-27