{"id":4097,"date":"2018-11-10T18:15:30","date_gmt":"2018-11-10T23:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/?p=4097"},"modified":"2018-11-11T19:16:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-12T00:16:38","slug":"bernard-e-harcourt-readings-notes-on-the-alt-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/praxis1313\/bernard-e-harcourt-readings-notes-on-the-alt-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard E. Harcourt | Readings Notes on the Alt-Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bernard E. Harcourt<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPhysically removing leftists has gained so much traction because the idea is instinctively both logical and appealing. The means\u00a0<\/em>of physically removing leftists, however, is not as simple. While throwing commies from helicopters \u00e0 la <\/em>Pinochet has become the alt-right\u2019s favorite policy proposal, this is clearly an inefficient solution. The Pinochet regime only executed 120 communists in this manner, and we are faced with many thousands of times this number. [\u2026] Physical removal and the restoration of order is possible within the bounds of the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Augustus Invictus, \u201cPhysical Removal: More Than a Meme,\u201d in Shaw, ed., A Fair Hearing: The Alt-Right in the Words of Its Members and Leaders<\/em>, p. 210 and 214.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some notes on the Alt-Right readings we have for Praxis 4\/13, starting with the Swedish Alt-Right writings of Daniel Friberg, The Real Right Returns: A Handbook for the True Opposition<\/em>(2015)<\/p>\n

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  1. Friberg, The Real Right Returns<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It is curious to read, on the very second page of Friberg\u2019s 2015 book, that \u201cthe Frankfurt School and its concept of Critical Theory\u201d are responsible for the decline of Western civilization. Friberg argues that the problems he identifies are not\u00a0<\/em>the product simply of leftist politicians and leftist policies; but the result instead of a deeper ideological transformation and the production of a new cultural hegemony. This was accomplished, he says, by the cultural and ideological take-over of the principal institutions of society\u2014namely, \u201cthe media, cultural institutions, and educational systems.\u201d (5) These are the institutions that \u201cshape people\u2019s thoughts and opinions.\u201d (5)<\/p>\n

    Friberg refers to all this as \u201cmetapolitics\u201d and attributes the idea to Gramsci: \u201cmetapolitics can be defined as the process of disseminating and anchoring a particular set of cultural ideas, attitudes, and values in a society, which eventually leads to deeper political change.\u201d (4; see also 95). In other words, ideas precede action. Friberg is an idealist\u2014a critical idealist. In this, he explicitly follows Gramsci. Power rests on ideology and ideas, not on force. The key is to control the ideology and \u201cpublic discourse\u201d and \u201chow language was used\u201d (23). Listen to him, channeling Gramsci approvingly:<\/p>\n

    \u201cOne must first win the consent of the people by enshrining particular concepts in intellectual discourse, mores, habits of thought, value systems, art, and education.\u201d (23-24).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    The references to discourse and language is remarkable here. And it is instrumentalized in Friberg\u2019s text: \u201cAny parliamentary struggle,\u201d he writes, \u201cmust be preceded, legitimized, and supported by a metapolitical struggle. Metapolitics, at its best, reduces parliamentarism to a question of mere formalities.\u201d (20)<\/p>\n

    Friberg in fact borrows the \u201cconditions of possibility\u201d language of the critical theoretic tradition influenced by Kant. He borrows the idea that practices themselves rest on epistemological ground, such that certain actions will not even make sense barring conceptual groundwork. He writes, signaling the notion of \u201cconditions of possibility,\u201d that the main point \u201cis ultimately to redefine the conditions under which politics is conceived<\/em>.\u201d (4) Therefore, \u201cmetapolitical analysis must precede political action.\u201d (21)<\/p>\n

    It may be useful to identify what Friberg considers as positive ideals:<\/p>\n