Dark Enlightenment? Or Obvious Enclownishment
In the labyrinthine corners of the internet, a provocative movement known as the “Dark Enlightenment” (or Neo-Reaction, NRx) has simmered for over a decade. Framed by its adherents as a radical critique of modernity, it challenges democracy, egalitarianism, and progressive ideals, advocating instead for hierarchy, techno-commercialism, and pre-Enlightenment governance models. Yet, critics dismiss it as a carnival of contradictions, irony, and regressive fantasies. Is this movement a serious intellectual current, or merely a farcical performance? Let’s dissect both perspectives.
The Dark Enlightenment: Origins and Tenets
Emerging in the early 2010s through blogs and forums, the Dark Enlightenment coalesced around thinkers like Nick Land, a former philosophy professor turned accelerationist writer. Its core ideas include:
Anti-Democracy: Rejection of liberal democracy as inherently unstable, favoring technocratic rule, corporate governance, or even neo-monarchism.
Reactionary Modernism: A paradoxical embrace of advanced technology (AI, capitalism) alongside pre-modern social hierarchies.
Critique of Progressivism: Opposition to social justice movements, deemed as threats to societal cohesion and meritocracy.
“Race Realism”: Some factions flirt with controversial pseudoscientific claims about heredity (Human Biodiversity), fueling accusations of racism.
Proponents argue they’re “realists” confronting the failures of modernity. Yet their solutions—like resurrecting feudalism or outsourcing governance to algorithms—strike many as dystopian fan fiction.
Critics deride the Dark Enlightenment as a self-parody, riddled with contradictions and performative absurdity:
Ideological Whiplash: How can a movement simultaneously fetishize hyper-capitalism and medieval hierarchies? The fusion of libertarian tech utopianism with reactionary traditionalism often feels incoherent.
Trolling as Theory: Much of NRx discourse thrives on irony, shock tactics, and online provocation. Figures like Moldbug (Curtis Yarvin) blend earnest manifestos with deliberate absurdism, muddying the line between satire and sincerity.
Failed Prophecies: Dark Enlighteners predicted societal collapse under progressive values, yet Western democracies persist (albeit strained). Their doomsaying echoes past moral panics, undermining credibility.
Fringe Alliances: By overlapping with alt-right rhetoric and conspiracy circles, NRx alienates mainstream audiences. When your “thinkers” share memes with neo-fascists, intellectual seriousness evaporates.
The movement’s love of esoteric jargon (“the Cathedral,” “the Red Pill”) and penchant for edgelord posturing further cement its reputation as enclownishment—a circus of contrarianism.
Irony and Influence
While easy to mock, dismissing the Dark Enlightenment entirely risks underestimating its cultural footprint. Its ideas have seeped into Silicon Valley elitism, far-right politics, and online “manosphere” communities. The movement’s critique of institutional decay resonates with disillusioned audiences, even if its solutions are impractical.
Yet toxicity lingers. By romanticizing authoritarianism and downplaying historical atrocities (e.g., colonialism, eugenics), NRx normalizes dangerous ideologies. Its blend of irony and earnestness also creates plausible deniability, shielding adherents from accountability.
The Dark Enlightenment is a Rorschach test: either a daring counter-narrative to liberal complacency or a carnival of reactionary LARPing. Its enclownishment lies in its inability to reconcile elitist theory with democratic reality, and its habit of mistaking provocation for profundity. Yet, in an age of eroding trust in institutions, its warnings—however hyperbolic—tap into genuine anxieties.
Perhaps the truth lies in the middle. The Dark Enlightenment is both a symptom of modernity’s discontents and a cautionary tale about intellectual movements that prioritize shock over substance. Whether history judges it as philosophy or farce may depend on how seriously society chooses to take its own clowns.