Anti-Tradition

I’ve made it rather clear that I have a strong aversion to any sort of conservative or “traditionalist” politics. This is something that’s gotten me a lot of flak from people who otherwise agree with me fully, mostly due to either misunderstanding my position or misunderstanding their own. Personally, I see this mindset as nothing more than a holdover from the Fashwave “Retvrn to tradition” posts - which had a deeper meaning that most didn't appreciate at the time as this was an era where most younger dudes were just stepping away from normie conservatism.

To fully clarify, I am entirely against any attempt to alter the flow of time. I do not wish to pump the breaks like the conservatives, nor do I wish to turn back the clock to some romanticized prior era. The past is dead & the present is fleeting. I have only the desire to continue forward, and any political or philosophical discussion should be inherently progressive in nature.

In essence, the common saying “Revolt Against The Modern World” should not be taken as call to return, but to move past.

To start, the conservative menace. I had a whole article about conservatives, but decided to scrap it in order to better articulate the point of this article. I also don't necessarily feel the need to reiterate what most of my readers already understand about conservative politics - I instead wish to put it in context of wider issues.

Conservatism can best be described as resistance to change, this is also true for European politics. Many years ago, someone on the IronMarch forum described American politics as a ratchet effect. The left pull the rope & the GOP simply stops it from going any more right. This is easily understood, as many have pointed out that conservatives support whatever the left supported 5 years ago. Gay marriage, marijuana legalization, firearm regulation, I could go on. Conservative politics, especially in America, is a continuous cycle of losing battles & adopting a moderate stance.

This mindset isn't new, it's been recorded for centuries. The PreSocratic philosophers faced similar resistance from many of their contemporaries, usually on religious grounds, almost three thousand years ago. If you look at really any major movement like the Enlightenment, Renaissance, Civil Rights, etc. you can see a large chunk of the population that opposes it for being new.

As a music nerd, I will say this is also common in that field. There's likely a lot of songs you enjoy that were seen as quite avant garde when they came about. Rock, punk, hyperpop. Happens all the time.

Music is actually a very good microcosm to show why this sort of mindset never succeeds. Regardless of any conservative beliefs of what “proper music” should be, rock music steadily took over. Same with metal afterwards. In more recent memory, the genre of hyperpop (Charli XCX, 100 Gecs, Bladee (arguably)) hit the scene as a weird genre. Now, 4 years later, the influence it had on music culture is here to stay. Even events in music that are seen as revivals of sorts are always very clearly a new ordeal entirely, such as the PopPunk revival of MGK & Olivia Rodrigo.

The point being that conservative attitudes never really work. Time moves in a singular direction & is quite relentless. The best conservatives can hope for is to slow the pace of progress, which is also idiotic.

I don't think anyone cares to defend modernity, it's a quite evil time for essentially anyone across the political spectrum from Marxists to Fascists. Whether you believe it's late stage capitalism or Jewish subversion, no one really likes modernity. Therefore, it's quite idiotic to slow the pace & keep us here longer. This may seem like an extension of the accelerationist tactic, but it's really much bigger than any petty practical theories.

If you truly believe that the current state of our civilization is evil/unnatural/whatever, then it only makes sense to get through it quickly rather than loiter around it. If modernity truly is the “end of history,” then I guess we were all wrong. Yeah, right.

Now the more complicated term, “traditionalism.” Traditionalism entered our current zeitgeist around 2017ish. Obviously, this term has been used in various contexts for centuries, but the post-GamerGate sphere of Western politics got a hold of it around that time. Traditionalism has so many hypothetical connotations that it's basically meaningless now, unless used as an adjective.

For the most part, those who call themselves Traditionalists are generally just conservatives that want to stop the clock at some other time instead of right now. This has the same problems as standard conservatism, plus the added issue that whatever their chosen historical point is virtually always highly idealized.

Now, as an adjective the term has a variable meaning. For example, Traditional Catholic means they are generally against the Vatican II era of Catholicism. Traditional as an adjective has the ability to be very specific or vague to the point of meaninglessness, all depending on what it's attached to.

Finally, that damn Italian. The whole “Retvrn to tradition” thing is a reference to Julius Evola. It's pretty funny to see TradCaths use this phrase seeing as Evola had a quite negative view of Christianity, but that's beside the point. Like most, I don't lend any credence to Evola’s ramblings about a made up perennial religion or “Aryan Masculine Solar Tradition.” It's all very dubious historically & relies on shaky metaphysics. I admire his work in RATMW & MATR, but I’m highly skeptical of his more overarching theories. Thankfully, this sort of trend towards phony esotericism has died off in the right in the last several years.

girl break!!!

The truth is, much of the right has been slow to realize (or admit to) things the left has taken advantage of for years. The RW was effectively killed in mainstream politics after WWII. Any party that advocated truly RW interests was banned & thrown in the same lot as Hitler. This is the only reason that Conservative equals RW in modern politics. Conservatives have historically been considered the moderate party in politics, fence sitters in every respect. It's only in the absence of true RW representation that these moderate parties became the de facto RW. We can look to Europe, where recently parties like AfD & RN have sprung up as being truly RW, and see how the conservative parties still just want to maintain the status quo regardless of who's pushing for change.

The pathological fear of change is not endemic to RW thought, it's simply an illusion due to the destruction of the RW in the West.

Any truly RW thinker must be inherently progressive in nature, facing only towards the future. Lamenting about how much better the past was is nothing more than masturbation.

To return to my Nietzschean roots, the great mission of Nihilism is not yet complete. It's well on it's way, but still has more souls to steal. God may have died during the Enlightenment, but metaphysical notions & idealistic nonsense that is supposedly above nature still remain. Whether it's Christianity or Leftism, it remains. Our primary mission, philosophically speaking, is to push forth the disenchantment of the world. Once man understands the folly of unnatural appeals to mythical higher powers like God or equality, we are left with nothing but reality. And reality is quite harsh & emblematic of the RW.

Christians can lament the demise of their faith in the West all they want, it makes little difference as it continues to disintegrate into hyper-individualistic personal spirituality & outright agnosticism/atheism. Leftist Utopianism will inevitably face the same fate when people realize it's similar aversion to reality & baseless moralism.

I could also care less about the rise of Schopenhaueresque pessimism. I’ve made my peace with it, and so will everyone else eventually. Once the sting of nihilism loses it's novelty, the natural existentialistic mindset kicks in. A time when mankind learns to say yes to life & exist for itself will be necessary, but we need to get through modernity & post-modernity first.

Thus, the way forward is best exemplified by F.T. Marinetti & his Futurism.

"We want to fight implacably against the mindless, snobbish, and fanatical religion of the past, religion nurtured by the pernicious existence of the museums. We rebel against the spineless admiration for old canvases, old statues, and old objects, and against the enthusiasm for everything worm-eaten, grimy, or corroded by time; and we deem it unjust and criminal that people habitually disdain whatever is young, new, and trembling with life."

-Manifesto of Futurist Painters

Indeed, the artistic movement that was seen as inseparable from Fascism in its early years was not only untraditional, it was openly & enthusiastically anti-traditional. It saw museums as no better than graveyards, and a fetishization of the past.

One of the most eccentric, and telling of their philosophy, episodes was the “Futurist Cookbook. Marinetti felt that traditional Italian food was far too full of carbs & lacked the nutrients necessary for a virile population. He decided that this tradition was ultimately meaningless & harmful, and thus decided to change course.

Futurism is not only a look forward, it's an enthusiastic condemnation of anything behind. It's not so radical for nothing, it's radical in order to completely break the tendency people have to cling to tradition & conservative thinking. It's deliberately abrasive in a similar manner to the Punk movement of the 70’s & 80’s.

Above all, it is the mindset of not getting bogged down in the hell of modernity but instead speeding through with a smile.

“The beauty of speed, the beauty of war, the beauty of death.”

From this view, we can come to appreciate every social movement & technological advancement as another nail in the coffin of modernity & a stepping stone towards true post-modernity. A convoluted mess that gets weaker as it reaches critical mass.

Its not so much that what is old is bad, but that what is old is gone & what remains eventually becomes a grotesque imitation. To avoid this sort of cosmological nostalgia, we should look nowhere except the future. Otherwise, you just look like those weird millennials that can't move on from their idealic childhood in the 90’s.

I for one fully support the soul crushing nature of late stage capitalism :D

Hail the Future, Hail Victory