Nothing conforms more exactly to the “general will” than the legislative abolition of reality.
Nick Land, The Dark Enlightenment
It’s true, isn’t it? We’ve seen very dramatic examples of this with transgenderism, BLM, “hate crimes.” An even bigger example is the enshrinement of democracy as the most virtuous pinnacle of societal organization. Democracy functions on the basis of bribing the howling, desiring masses by promising to feed their ever-growing appetites. “I’ll abolish taxes on tips!” – “Me, too! I’ll abolish them even harder!” Vote for me today, and I’ll let you devour tomorrow.
This is why democracy is intimately hostile to civilization. Civilization means depriving yourself today to invest in tomorrow. Democracy means robbing tomorrow to win today. Any civilizational project involves privileging the future. It’s not “gimme” but “I give this to the future.”
People like to be flattered. They love their appetites. Nothing flatters them more than having their appetites consecrated as political ideals. “Take away from him and give it to me” sounds kind of shabby. But if you call it “social justice” or “progress”, this immediately elevates you from a primitive coveter to a political being. Democracy, thus, is by its nature progressive. Appetite is the opposite of stasis. Feeding and glorifying the appetite is the opposite of conserving.
Unless it’s unclear from the above quote, I’m retelling Nick Land’s book The Dark Enlightenment. For my own part, I want to add that there were two famous Soviet sci-fi and fantasy authors, the Brothers Strugatsky. In one of their novels, Socialist scientists are trying to create a new type of human being. This individual, called “A Completely Satisfied Human” would have all his needs satisfied. The Socialist scientists in the book reasoned that, since this new human wouldn’t have to waste time or energy on satisfying his needs, he’d start creating. His creative capacity would be unleashed and he’d regale the world with extraordinary intellectual and artistic bounties.
When the Completely Satisfied Human was finally activated, though, he evinced zero interest in creating or giving. Instead, he manifested himself as a huge, desiring maw of need, devoured every material object in the vicinity, cocooned himself in his possessions, and tried to take ownership of time itself.
Yes, Soviet authors had a clear political reason to condemn complete satisfaction of needs. This doesn’t mean we don’t have political reasons to turn it into our deity.
More to follow.