Dugin to USA: "Drop Dead!"

{Consider this a follow-up to Pascal the existential Russian blue cat’s recent “When Katechons Collide”.}

Alexander Dugin—a Russian politician, philosopher, agitator, and friend of Steve Bannon—has an announcement to make:

Russia now has an ideology: traditional values ​​and historical enlightenment. Additionally, it asserts Russia as a state-civilization (the Russian world) in the context of multipolarity. The West has been declared a civilizational adversary, meaning liberalism is over. Liberalism is seen as a destructive ideology, and a liberal is equated to a foreign agent. Greater Humanity (which includes everyone except the West and its slaves) are allies and partners, with certain privileged partners being China, India, Iran, and North Korea.

“This,” Dugin concludes, “is a full-fledged ideology in every sense.” And should the above passage not have driven home his point, Dugin hammers it again: “We reject, first and foremost, the modern era in the West - anti-Christianity, atheism, liberalism, individualism, LGBT, and postmodernism. But at some point, we will also need to confront capitalism, a Western phenomenon that is detestable and anti-Russian. Henceforth, the West is not an object for blind imitation, but for endless criticism.”

It is not enough, of course, to criticize; there must be a constructive alternative available. Fortunately, Dugin pulls such an alternative out of his, um, hat:

Through this criticism, our own alternative affirmations will emerge:

• Orthodoxy,
• a fervent and active faith,
• the connection between things and people,
• solidarity, love,
• a loyal and united family,
• heroism, a leap from becoming to being,
• a great will to build the state,
• justice,
• and the salvation of humanity and the world from the impending hell.

I believe the “impending hell” to which Dugin refers is the dystopian prospect of a world run by the likes of Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg, not to mention a world in which Ukraine remains independent.

The 18^th-century western European “Enlightenment” undoubtedly bit off more than it could chew, with its assertions of, and insistence on, universal human rights. Today’s Western powers (i.e., America) tread a bit more cautiously and tolerate a good deal more diversity of political arrangements, but there is no doubt that the West still believes it is the best. As Dugin notes, “The West claims universality - dictating to everyone else what constitutes a person, life, body, time, space, society, politics, and economy.” Dugin's Russia, on the other hand, simply wants to go its own way, minding its own business and preserving its own values:

Against this, we, as a state-civilization, are now putting forward our conception of the Russian person, Russian life, Russian body, Russian time, Russian space, Russian society, Russian politics, and Russian economy. This is exciting. All of this not only needs to be defended but rediscovered and even recreated. And what does not exist must be imagined, designed, and built. The first task is the eradication of Westernism. The second is the creation of a Russian future.

I have to say, that part about “eradication” is a bit troubling. Dugin’s approach resembles that of a long line of Russian radicals, from Bakunin to Lenin, who wanted to destroy and then to build; they did the destruction just fine, but they never got around to building. ¹ In fact, they never bothered to create a blueprint for the glorious future that was to arise on the ruins of the old society. Nonetheless, Dugin concludes his essay (“The Russian Ideology”) with a clarion call to celebrate “the emergence of people dedicated to doing everything in a distinctly Russian way, following traditional values ​​and historical enlightenment. These people are eager to learn how to achieve this and understand its true meaning. They are ready to learn, try, experiment, and create.

Lest Dugin's program seem promethean, he assures readers that God is on its side:

The Russian future is open. It has no dogs ²; it is inspired by the openness of eternity and reaches out to God's providence, so that through Russians, God himself will act, creating a better world with our hands, as it was intended, as Christ redeemed it. We must become builders of the Kingdom. Our ideology is the construction of the New Jerusalem. It is entirely focused on the future, which means it is eternal.

Alexander Dugin is a regular contributor to Katehon (which I can only assume is a variation of Katechon), an online journal from the Katehon think tank, “an independent organization consisting of an international network of people - from a wide variety of fields and disciplines - who specialize in the geopolitical, geostrategic and political analysis of world events.” It is openly and explicitly Russo-centric, anti-Western, and illiberal. Which is to say, it can sound a lot like our own Federalist magazine, or like the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. It’s easy, in fact, to imagine J.D. Vance writing a guest column or two for Katehon.

We are in strange times. Our only consolation is that there never have been times which were not strange.

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The Russian Ideology | Tsargrad Institute (katehon-com.translate.goog)

¹ In Lenin’s case, he did some building, but what he built was in no way an improvement on what he destroyed. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss” would have been a fitting slogan for Lenin’s nascent USSR. 

² I have absolutely no idea what Dugin means by “The Russian future…has no dogs.” I considered removing the phrase, but it’s too intriguing to omit. Perhaps “Our future has no dogs” will be the catchphrase of Dugin’s anti-liberal revolution.

The New Jerusalem