Liberal Reactionaries
Philip Pilkington argues that both ethno-nationalism and Scrutonian conservatism are forms of right-wing identity politics that cannot facilitate real political change.
We are currently at a very strange moment in the recent history of political ideas. Around 10 or 15 years ago there was an upsurge in what presented itself as neo-reactionary nationalist philosophy online. It emerged from a sort of formless collective online Id that was opposed to the extreme progressive liberalism that reached its pinnacle in the Obama administration – especially in its second term. As late as five years ago, there seemed to be hopes that something new would emerge from this upswell. Young intellectuals were casting around reading esoteric reactionary texts from the early-20th century – the writings of Julius Evola being the most notable – and seemed to be prepared to launch a new type of political philosophy.
At the same time, on the conservative conference circuit, the work of the British philosopher Roger Scruton was seeing a resurgence. Conservative intellectuals were turning to Scruton’s work as an antidote to what they saw as the anodyne utilitarianism of the liberal conservatism that came to dominate after the Reagan and Thatcher turn to neoliberalism. Scruton, it was argued, offered a more grounded form of conservatism that latched on nicely to other trends in the political culture of the past decade – most notably, perhaps, the emergence of the psychologist Jordan Peterson and the tendency for young conservatives to engage more deeply with the cultural symbols of their respective countries. This overlapped especially with the movement for Brexit in the United Kingdom which many assumed would give birth to a new era of British conservative politics.
The tree can now be judged by its fruit. No new political philosophy has emerged out of the ethno-nationalist intellectual experiments of the past decade – and no truly new politics has emerged out of Scrutonian conservatism. Brexit has proved to be a failure. Yet while these intellectual adventures have gone nowhere and created nothing, the upswell of that collective online Id has cashed out in an increasing obsession over migration and ethnicity in Western conservative politics. When I say “obsession” I mean obsession. Migration is an enormously important topic in today’s politics – although, being grounded in half a century of below replacement fertility rates it is much misunderstood by many who discuss it. But migration is not the only relevant topic in today’s politics – nor is it, if you understand the demographic realities that have shaped today’s migration politics, the root cause of our demographic woes. Yet it has become an almost singular point of focus amongst large parts of the right-wing movements in the West.
