In “Reactionary Political Theory on Contemporary America”, Vincent Hanna summarizes the Mencius, NRx interpretation of Trump’s victory:
Reactionaries attend to political reality, not to political form.
In politics, reactionaries study power, because politics is the struggle for power.
Reactionaries study the structure, composition and nature of political regimes.
Regimes can either be a monarchy/tyranny, an aristocracy/oligarchy, or a democracy/ochlocracy.
The most important distinction in politics is between the rulers and the ruled. Thus, democracy is impossible; for even if the majority “rules”, power is actually in the hands of those who influence, instruct, and direct the minds of the majority. That leaves only two types of government and their shadows left: monarchy/tyranny or aristocracy/oligarchy.
Reactionaries attend less to what is said (form), but to what is done (power).
Form — political formulas, slogans, political speeches, platforms, etc. — is the means by which those with power mask their power and their true intentions.
In short, we practice political science in the Machiavellian tradition as described in James Burnham’s Machiavellians: the Defenders of Freedom.
This was how Mencius Moldbug worked when he studied power in the United States.
Moldbug’s ultimate conclusion was that the political regime of the United States (the Modern Structure) is an oligarchy and was entering a deeply dysfunctional, morbid state. Recent events appear to bear this judgment out; however, he expected Hilary Clinton to become president, not Donald Trump — though Moldbug did see that the kind of kingly authority that Trump advertises appeals to many.
Our question is the following: what is the significance of Trump’s victory? What does it mean for the Modern Structure?
As I currently see it, the Mencius position is basically to see the Elite’s pillars of ‘Proposition Nation’ – that is, the Rawlsian, liberal, progressive, egalitarian universalism (borne of Christianity) — in terms of cloaked Machiavellianism, which is a perfectly eminent position.
Read the rest of the discussion here.
