WHAT DO WE WANT? THE END OF THE WORLD! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!

OR AT LEAST AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. A QUICK AND DIRTY GUIDE TO ACCELERATIONISM

Why on earth would anyone want the world to end? Who could be so destructive and nihilistic? Who could fall so out of love with this glorious and terrible world we are a part of? Actually, lots of people, and they have become more powerful and influential recently. Here I will talk about accelerationism, the idea that the world is going to end, and let’s just shove it along as fast as we can. Why would we do that? Because that’s how we win the Cosmic War!

Kia Ora Tatou, and welcome to Ending the Cosmic War with me, Karen Effie.

So who are these chaps, and they are mostly chaps, bless them, who want the world to end asap? Here is an incomplete list:

Christian Zionists

Fascists

Traditionalists

TESCREAL adherents (Silicon Valley tech pros who are posthumanists)

Christian Evangelicals/NAR/Christian Nationalists who are not necessarily Zionists

Ecofascists

Blackpilled nihilists/groypers/terrorgram far rightists

Accelerationists such as Nick Land

Me, circa 2017, during my Chaos Magic phase

Here I am wanting to make a continuum of ideas. At one end of the continuum is the idea that the world is ending, for reasons natural or human made, and this is a bad thing, but there is nothing we can do about it.

A little further along the continuum is the idea that the world is ending, for reasons natural or human made, but this is not necessarily a bad thing, that we can find some beauty and meaning in the end times, and the end itself provides a peculiar and wondrous truth we would not otherwise understand.

Further on again, we have the idea that history has great cycles, and we are at the end of one cycle, and the destruction that results from this is inevitable and devastating, but a new world will arise from the old and it will be pure and noble, unlike our time which is corrupt and morally weak. We need not bring on the end, but we may be pleased that it is happening. Or, we may try to bring it on because we want to live in the golden age, the next cycle.

Further on again on my continuum, we have the idea that humanity is so corrupt and weak and sinful that it deserves to end, and the sooner the better, and we can help it end by violent means or by separating ourselves from it.

Further on again, is the idea that humanity has made such a mess of things that the best thing to do is not reproduce, but to make as best as we can of what is left of our lives and hope there will not be many more generations to mess things up further.

Then at the end of the continuum we have the ideas around ending humanity ourselves, either because the earth is dying and cannot sustain us, or because we are beholden to those billions of people in the very far future who will be uploaded into digital space while current biological humans will become extinct, or because we believe that intelligence has advanced beyond humans with the advent of AGI and this is as it should be.

Note that among these thinkers, there are those who think human civilization is ending but not all of humanity, and those who think humanity is ending but not necessarily the whole earth, while others think the earth itself is dying.

There are those who are prepared to undertake violence or force rapid social change in order to actualize their vision, while others take a quietist stance and merely wait, while perhaps honing their spiritual or technological skills.

Among those who think that humans will survive in any form, which is most of them, they all seem to think they will be the ones who survive. That they are the best of thinkers, the most far sighted, or the ones with the strongest wills, with history on their side: they are the superior men. And I mean men.

Not all of these thinkers believe in the Cosmic War, although the Christian ones do obviously. It makes them goddam motivated. However, I think the Cosmic War is in the background. It colours a lot of eschatological thinking. You might believe that the war is between right thinking white men and the global cabal, or it is between strong conservative men and weak liberals who have usurped them, but it is a war against an irredeemably and wholly wicked enemy, who must be destroyed along with the world that enemy rules. That is the Cosmic War in all but name. It is worth remembering that this is a very old myth, an old Story that has pervaded every west Asian religion and survived the enlightenment. It crops up in popular culture a lot, and we recognize it without thinking about it.

Now for the list above.

ME

I will start with myself, because of familiarity. It had become clear to me that the world as I knew it was ending, that terminal stage capitalism was destroying the earth in the sense of making it uninhabitable, that our demise as humans was taking most species with us in a bout of greed and cruelty. I figured even as Armageddon was upon us, there would be someone selling me a rat on a stick. (Omg! A whole rat!) Or even as Armageddon was upon us, someone in authority would be fining me for not paying my rent. How much responsibility I could take for this slow catastrophe varied depending on how powerless I felt. I also felt it was useless to blame individuals: that blind economic forces and entropy were doing all the work and there was no conspiracy, only chaos. I was impatient. I thought, just get on with it. If I end up dying of a treatable illness in 2030 because there is no health care and the electricity is only intermittent and there is not enough decent food, then so be it. Let the non-human beings thrive, let the moss and the reeds take our bones and make something of them. Political attempts to ameliorate this just delay the inevitable. Let the earth burn.

I got over myself, not because I think the future is any brighter, but because I started to read about it, and to work out what small part I might play in helping. Now I think there are chances to save parts of humanity at least, with the many, many good ideas to hand, and a willingness to be together with each other and to find more meaningful things than our material standard of living. If there is one thing to do, it might be going to a part of town you have never been before, getting to know people who are not like you. We are interdependent. That is a good thing.

CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS

The biggest Zionist organization in the world is in the USA, and it is Christians United for Israel. It has the ear of the White House. It is very well established as a conservative right wing organization. Many Republican politicians are allied to it. They will support Israel in its current form no matter what. Why? Because they are fighting the Cosmic War, very clearly and overtly, and Israel, especially Jerusalem, has a special place in the end times. Which we are in, by the way, and always have been. The world will end as it is prophesied in the Book of Revelation, and a third of the Jews will be converted and the rest will be killed. That is fine, because the Temple will again be built in Jerusalem and Christ will return. The body count will be enormous, but it will of course be worth it.

There are things that can be done to hasten this. Who wouldn’t want to bring this on, especially if you are convinced you are on the winning side? History only goes one way, after all. This is inevitable. So, you can support the political and military ambitions of the state of Israel. You can interpret Revelation and Daniel in terms of current geopolitics, an activity unique to the twentieth century and our own times. You can do some really specific things, such as breed a red heifer without blemish, because you need to sacrifice a red heifer to get the Temple built. All of this is being done, by powerful people, with real effect.

CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS/CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS/ EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS/ NEW APOSTOLIC REFORMATION CHRISTIANS WHO ARE NOT NECESSARILY STRAIGHT ZIONISTS

To have a look at this all you need to do is watch some of Charlie Kirk’s memorial service cum Christian nationalist rally cum political rally. There is talk of a spiritual war between good and evil, dark forces are at work, Christians are being persecuted. This is the Cosmic War at its most overt. And although only 15% of Christians in the USA identify as this kind of Christian, where the hell is everyone else, I wonder, because this kind of Christian is loud and influential politically. For them, God intervenes directly in history and is working towards the return of Christ. We are in the end times, and I must emphasise, we always have been. While the final triumph is inevitable, humans have a role to play, and for postmillennial Christians, their job is to prepare the world for Christ’s initial return. This means influencing history through what is sometimes called the Seven Mountains mandate: influencing all seven aspects of politics and society. Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand we have small but determined non-denominational churches of like mind. Destiny Church is one such, and it gets a lot of publicity for its sheer militancy, and its intimidating and sometimes violent protests against Rainbow events. It is as trenchant and absolutist as anything run by Doug Wilson or Paula Cain-White.

Although nobody knows the hour or the day of the return of Christ, it does not stop a bunch of people guessing. William Miller guessed wrong in 1843, and again in 1840, leading to what was called The Great Disappointment among the Millerites, and yet the Millerite became the Seventh Day Adventists, and they and various spin-offs survive today. Prophecies are usually soon. There is not much point in prophesying an event in 500 years. This is another reason the end is always nigh.

TRADITIONALISTS

Traditionalists believe in a golden age in the past, when the caste system organized human society according to the cosmic order, and when people were naturally happy in their places. They may take the very long spiritual view. In some Hindu teachings, there are four ages, called yuga. The first age was an age of perfection, called the golden age, and it lasted 1,728,000 years. Each successive age indicated decay, and was shorter. We are now in the Kali Yuga, the iron age, the worst age, the age of depravity, which lasts 432,000 years. I’m giving you the numbers because the teachings of the Hindu sages take this long view, but recent western traditionalists have believed that the Kali Yuga has taken much less time, and we are at the end of it. The end times, all over again, with a gloss that is spiritual but not Christian. After the end of the Kali Yuga the universe will be destroyed, and then the cycle will start again. Traditionalists thus are pessimists. Only the bravest of them want to try to turn the clock back to earlier, superior ages. The best they can do is rise above the age they are in, and wait for it all to end. Or, they can shove it along a bit. Either way, the trajectory of history is inevitable and one way only. You don’t have to be a Hindu to be a traditionalist, although there has been a bit of coming and going between Hindu nationalism and practice, and the far right from the beginnings of the twentieth century onwards up until today. Some traditionalists have more in common with perennialism, the idea that beneath all religious practices there is a well of spiritual truth that can be dipped into with or without religious practice. Noted traditionalists have been Julius Evola, Aleksandr Dugin and Steve Bannon. Except all of these characters have put their own spin on it, and all have been politically and intellectually active. There is nothing quietist about their forms of traditionalism.

FASCISTS

Given the backwards-looking nature of fascism, many fascist enterprises are very interested in the future and interested in bringing it on. There is a strong traditionalist element in fascism, the idea of long sweeps of history, long cycles returning to a pure state, and the role of special superior individuals in bringing these cycles to their ends. Some of them want to start a race war. Some of them just want to fuck shit up. Which brings me to:

THE BLACKPILLED NIHILISTS/GROYPERS/TERRORGRAM FAR RIGHTISTS

I am way out of my lane here as a complete normie. I think this is a bit topical now that the motives and allegiances of school shooters and places of worship shooters and the shooter of Charlie Kirk and the Christchurch shooter and so on and on are being endlessly probed for. We want to know was he one of ours or one of theirs. When sometimes those who want to bring on the end of the world are politically incoherent. They believe in nothing. They shitpost even on the bullets they write on. Very briefly, because there are people who actually know about this stuff and it isn’t me: blackpilled refers to the red pill/blue pill in the Matrix movies. Take the red pill and understand what is really going on. Take the black pill and understand that none of it matters, you will get nothing you want, no respect, no women, no sympathy. Groypers are shitposters who follow right wing pundit Nick Fuentes. Terrorgram is a loose network of extremist influencers on Telegram and other sites who inspire right wing terror activities. They are very online. Their historical antecedents include Ted Kaczynski the Unabomber and Charles Manson. Some of them want to start a race war. Some of them just want to fuck shit up.

ECOFASCISTS

Special mention must go to the ecofash. There is a diagonalist streak running from the far right to the deepest of the eco activists. Here are some of their ideas. Humans are a stain on the earth. Maybe we need the human race to be wiped out, and soon. We need far fewer of them for the earth to regenerate. The humans who should remain are those who are like us. Those who should remain are the ones who are part of the land, the volk, the true natives, especially European natives. Cities are a scourge, a cesspit of impoverished degenerates and rootless cosmopolitans (read: Jews) who have long lost their ties to the land. Part of the modern agenda is to make us give up our land (and our guns) and make us live in cities where our freedoms will be curtailed and we will live in pods. Back to eugenics, racial purity, the golden age of the distant past etc etc. “Blood and vanishing topsoil”. Some of them want to start a race war, leading to wholesale slaughter and only the good ones left to start again. Some of them just want to fuck shit up.

TECHBROS

Again I am way out of my league, and I will refer to some good reading below. Particularly I am fond of the writings of Emile Torres, who keeps writing the very article that I wanted to write, but heaps better, because he actually knows what he is talking about. Silicon Valley billionaires and AI prophets don’t talk about the Cosmic War at all, and they don’t see themselves as fighting an absolute evil or engaging in spiritual warfare (unless you count the war on the woke mind virus). Some of them want humans to become extinct so that we can give way to superior post-human beings. Some of them want to become post-human themselves. Some of them just want to fuck shit up.

SECULAR ACCELERATIONISTS

Here is a useful quote from Andy Beckett of The Guardian:

Accelerationists argue that technology, particularly computer technology, and capitalism, particularly the most aggressive, global variety, should be massively sped up and intensified — either because this is the best way forward for humanity, or because there is no alternative. Accelerationists favour automation. They favour the further merging of the digital and the human. They often favour the deregulation of business, and drastically scaled-back government. They believe that people should stop deluding themselves that economic and technological progress can be controlled. They often believe that social and political upheaval has a value in itself.

These guys are a diverse lot, but they tend to lean right politically and sometimes straddle the traditionalist/fascist fence. Steve Bannon might be an example. Another is Nick Land, a once influential philosopher, who took the Curtis Yarvin route and decided that capitalism is its own reward, that the singularity is upon us and the machine needs to be freed from the human. He is a believer in race science, and biodiversity which today means eugenics, but I don’t think he wants a race war as such. I think he wants to fuck shit up.

Accelerationism is no longer outside mainstream thought. It is widely accepted that most of us, if not all of us, will die. Either we will be victims of the Cosmic War (as in Left Behind by the rapture etc) or we will just not be good enough to live. Humanity could go back to a Golden Age where only the best of men survive as White philosopher kings, or those rich enough could become posthuman and merge with the machine, or go to space. Either way, these influential thinkers have no interest in us. Do not expect them to support funding healthcare, or education, or any of the good stuff. Our dystopian nightmare is their posthuman future, or the world after the return of Christ. These are very different things, but the cash value is the same.

Thank you for reading this super fast overview of a large galaxy of topics. Ma te wa!

FURTHER

In no particular order:

Jules Evans writes clearly on Nick Land and accelerationism, in “Accelerationism, amphetamine philosophy, and the Death Trip”, as does Hey Slick! on Substack.

Try “Blood and Vanishing Topsoil” by Alex Amend, on Ecofascism, and also some surprising YouTube videos by a guy called Ollie called “Farming Explained”. Ollie talks about the history of organic farming and its uneasy relationship with the fash.

Emile P Torres writes an excellent Substack called Realtime Techpocalypse about TESCREAL, and he knows what he is talking about. Also Adam Becker’s book “More Everything For Ever” is useful and he is a real astrophysicist.

Ethnographer Benjamin Teitelbaum “War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right” on Bannon, Dugin etc

Al-Jazeera has a documentary about the Christian Right and Zionism called “Praying for Armageddon”