How Anglofuturism Can Become a Movement
The ideological underpinnings of Anglofuturism
I got the inspiration for starting this magazine through Aris Roussinos’ UnHerd article ‘It’s Time for Anglofuturism’.
In his article, Roussinos gave a positive vision for Britain’s future, something that has been sorely lacking in recent decades. He reminds us that economic stagnation and cultural degradation are not inevitabilities that we have to accept. Whilst our superpower days are behind us, this nation can indeed aspire towards something greater; the belief that this nation’s destruction is inevitable, is in fact a choice.
Why We Need Anglofuturism
Outside of the work of Academic Agent, and the relatively new J’Accuse and Pimlico Journal, the British Sensible Centre (SC) is still in its infancy.
Most of my readers will be familiar with various American commentators, hearing the concepts and ideas relevant to the United States. But Britain is not America, and one cannot simply use the work of Curtis Yarvin and Auron MacIntyre to address our unique issues and challenges, as useful as they are. Instead, the canon of SC thought must be applied to specific British conditions. We must, in fact, become a distinct movement.
‘Conservatism’ is a dead end, as the traditional institutions that people like Peter Hitchens revere have become thoroughly corrupted by Wokeism. The British Sensible Centre needs a positive vision to unite around, that is not merely preserving the status quo or seeking to return to a mythological past, but which is oriented towards the future.
The Power of Aesthetics
Aesthetic movements have historically played an outsized role in the development of social attitudes. A group of artistically minded individuals will often develop a certain aesthetic style as a vehicle for their cultural values; a process by which culture wars are won. We are still living in the shadow of the 1960s counter-culture, which used a variety of art forms to promote its core ideas of egalitarianism, expressive individualism, and globalism.
This movement has been so thoroughly successful that it is hard to remember a time when the arts did NOT belong to the cultural left. But this is indeed a post-WWII phenomenon. Due to their creative spirit and orientation towards the ‘new’, the artistic world has never been ‘conservative’, in the sense of preserving the status quo. However, it has often harboured right-wing, even reactionary ideas, when those ideas have represented a ‘change’ from the previous culture.
As Paul Gottfried points out, in the 19th century, it was the Romanticist movement that captured the hearts and minds of the young, middle-class elites, not the left. In many ways Western civilization moved away from the universalistic, rights-centric focus of the 18th century, towards a valorisation of the particular and sentimental. This can be seen with the birth of modern nationalism, which the Romanticist movement was heavily associated with. For instance, both the music of Richard Wagner and paintings of Caspar David Friedrich are animated by a strong sense of Romantic German Nationalism, expressed through their focus on folklore and mythology.
With the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the post-war world has been one where the artistic sphere has oriented almost exclusively towards the cultural left.
But this does not have to be the case. Now that universalistic liberalism is so utterly hegemonic, and artists are typically oriented towards change and the new, an organised minority may push its own alternative vision, one that is less egalitarian and universalist, whilst also being distinctly ‘modernist’ and ‘futurist’.
We also have distinct advantages compared to the past. The times when artistic movements were the exclusive domain of trained artists are no more, as the advent of AI art creates an enormous opportunity for ordinary people to participate.
The Anglofuturist Manifesto
But what exactly is Anglofuturism? There are numerous different interpretations. Some, like Brewgaloo, have a more steampunk, reactionary, ‘High Tory’ vibe. Others like Kunley Drupka present a more sleek, solarpunk-oriented aesthetic.
Akin to the ‘Futurist Manifesto’, I will attempt to lay out what the core beliefs of Anglofuturism are in 13 core principles, and how these can be incorporated into the aesthetic.
We reject the narrative of British decline, and dream of a high-tech, abundant, and optimistic future where the traditional British culture is maintained and restored. We aim to establish the future that never arrived, but still could do.
We believe in using technology to facilitate a freer and more dynamic society, instead of facilitating ever-greater centralization and government surveillance. Ensuring technology serves the interests of liberty rather than tyranny will require great vigilance and careful planning.
We embrace individual liberty and reject the ever-greater encroachment of the state in the realm of ‘health and safety’, which only represses risk-taking and striving for excellence. We must create a freedom-loving culture that will never again allow the totalitarian infringements on liberty that characterised the Covid lockdowns.
We believe that mankind, and Britain playing an important role, should become a spacefaring civilization. We must prioritise the colonisation of space as the fulfilment of our destiny.
We wish to restore empirical reason and materialism over the subjective idealism and emotion-centric worldview of the Woke. We shall use empirical falsification to determine what is true and what is false, and will not subordinate science to political correctness.
We are ‘Reactionary Modernists’ that synthesise the traditional and the modern. Modernity and liberalism are not synonymous, with nations like Singapore and the United Arab Emirates showing an anti-liberal conception of modernity.
We believe in lionising youth, beauty, health, and fertility, with society oriented towards biological sustainability and function.
We believe in cleanliness and order. The aesthetic style, and by extension our ideals of society, should prioritise cleanliness and pristineness, at the expense of the embrace of excessive ‘diversity’ that defines modern Woke society.
We are not conservatives or reactionaries, but ‘progressives’. We cannot go back to an idealised past, though we may admire and be inspired by some of the past’s values. We seek to create our own vision of ‘progress’ that departs from the one of Wokeness, and maintain that it is our vision, not the one of the rainbow regime, that presents the advancement of mankind.
We are a movement of the ‘Sensible Centre’, that wishes to claim the centre-ground of politics for our ideas. What passes for ‘left’ and ‘right’ are simply reflections of the existing cultural hegemony, the ‘Boomer Truth Regime’, which we wish to supersede. Just like how abolitionists were radical leftists in pre-Civil War America, and how Vaclav Havel was ‘far-right’ in the context of communist Czechoslovakia, the ‘left/right’ distinction is all relative to the dominant ideas and power structure of the society in any given moment.
We believe in the concept of the ‘Anglosphere’ as a distinct sub-civilization of the Western civilization. We are shaped by a common destiny and are culturally interwoven. What affects one of us will affect us all.
How Anglofuturism Can Affect the Cultural Consciousness
‘Metapolitics’ describes topics such as how politics is framed, the semantics of politics, and political aesthetics. It is ultimately more important for changing the culture of a nation than simply ‘politics’ (aka, winning elections). The Anglofuturist aesthetic can utilise the art of metapolitics to communicate our vision without having to be expressly political, and therefore evading the censor.
Whilst AI art is the easiest means by which to create content spreading our ideas, one should also develop genuine artistic skills. The best AI art is imagined and edited by trained artists, such as the X account ‘American Imperium’.
An aesthetic movement is a style that transcends the different disciplines. It is only complete if it makes its imprint on every art form. In addition to the visual arts; animation, music, and literature must also become part of the Anglofuturist canon.
Conclusion
I am as of yet unsure whether this magazine will find any success, but intend to keep writing primarily for myself and my friend, who was encouraging of the project and helped me conceptualise it.
As somebody who spends a large portion of my life thinking about politics and culture, it seems a shame not to share them with the world, regardless of whether the world is interested or not.
This magazine will aim to bridge the gap between the America-centric online political discourse and unique British conditions, exploring politics, philosophy, aesthetics, and history, among other things.
I hope you enjoy reading.
The point about the need for a distinctly British movement is of particular importance. What may resonate among Americans won't necessarily resonate among the British, and neither will it be appropriate to simply import American ideas into a British scene, because we have developed along different paths. I have thought for quite a while that certain factions of the radical right fail because, ironically, they don't really understand their own people.
Really interesting. I am an Anglo-Catholic Christian so agree that American Puritanism is something we need to hold at arm's length. I do believe we need Christ though, and think age should be honoured as much as youth treasured.
Totally with you on Anglosphere and space colonisation though.