Sunday 11 September 2011

What is Reaction?

http://declineofgenius.com/politics/what-is-a-reactionary-07122010/

Reaction, or Reactionism is a political philosophy which has emerged in recent years from blogs on the internet. Its followers are "reactionaries" or "neo-reactionaries".

While it is a coherent political philosophy, it does not flow from a set of axioms (like libertarianism flowing from "natural rights" or conceptions of property). Rather, it is a collection of coherent but not necessarily related ideas. As such, it is called "Reaction" largely for want of a better word.

What do reactionaries believe? 

Reactionaries believe in the following:

  • Small, strong government.
  • Democracy is bad. The solution is some for of autocracy. 
    • "Almost every transition from a lawful aristocracy or lawful democracy to a lawful democracy has lessened the quality of governance." "only the polities with the strongest traditions, most educated people, greatest cultural ethic of fair play, and most established institutions can hold lawful elections without having those elections devolve into corrupt and violent gangsterism."
  • Force is necessary to maintain control of the state against the masses. 
  • Human rights do not exist. 
  • Colonialism was good.
    • For-profit government with no democracy kept the government small, strong and provided a basis for freedom and economic development. 
    • The end of colonialism was a disaster for all involved. 
  • Zero inflation. Either through a wise government not inflating its currencies, or through people being free to use competing non-government currencies. 
  • Human Bio-Diversity, or HBD. Different races have different average IQs. 
  • Marriage is good for society. 
  • Neo-Cameralism: for-profit government owned by a joint-stock publicly traded corporation. 
  • Formalism: formal ownership should be the same as actual ownership. Sovereignty can be split but not eradicated. Any decision has a person or organisation who is sovereign regarding it and can overrule anyone else. http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2010/07/race-modest-proposal.html. "Society should stop lying to itself."
  • Dependents should be recognised as such. In exchange for being a dependent, their guardian should have certain rights over them. 
  • Land taxation. A sovereign's income should come from the territory they own. Land taxation is a simple and efficient way of collecting it. 
  • Tax is rent, not theft. 
Some quotes about Reactionism:
  • "But unlike the older reactionaries, who belonged to what is sometimes known as the throne and altar school of conservatism, modern reactionaries will be skeptical of everything, including throne and altar, because we realize that most of these institutions have sold out to mass man." http://mangans.blogspot.com/2010/12/reaction.html
  • "Broadly, I take reactionary to include anyone who is seriously and openly opposed to democracy." 
  • "I take it 'reactionary' means you want to make the U.S. into a giant version of Singapore. Talking about non-democratic systems, Singapore is the perfect embodiment of everything you guys believe in." 
  • "order is simply good, and chaos is simply evil"

List of reactionary blogs:


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