Duginism is Alexander Dugin & Putin's World Wide Fascist Movement
Duginism is an ideology created by Alexander Dugin, in tandem with the Russian State. It is obviously meant to serve as both a domestic and an export ideology. It replaces the Leninist ideology, which at least on its face was intended to be modernist and pro science and technology, with the older "conservative", "nationalist" and "traditionalist" & "Eurasionist" ideologies put on the backburner. Dugin, Putin and the post "Glasnost" Russians have dusted off Russian Chauvinism and tried to fashion it into something new. They may call it "fourth political theory" but it is just fascism rebranded. Fascism was always about manipulating people using ideology, patriotism and emotion. Duginism is just a modern variant.
Allies in Own Demise
Since I published this post in January 2019, I've seen a lot of evidence that the former Republican party have read his writings, loved his writings, and are starting to adopt them. From Steve Bannon to Lindsey Graham you are seeing them parrot Russian propaganda. They seem to be becoming allies to the Russians in our own demise. Because none of the following has changed.
Nationalism for Export
All this and somehow the greatest enemy of the New Fascist Russia, is still the United States and Western Democratic Republican and Commonwealth forms. Duginism is designed to support active measures to destroy nations abroad. And ironically active measures to Keep Russia Corrupt and miserable for the vast majority. No wonder it is growing in popularity among Corrupt Republican Activists.
Neo-Eurasianism
The more I study Duginism, the more worried I get. Duginism is a propaganda vehicle. Yet the ideas in it are spreading among English Speakers as well as among former clients and members of the Soviet Empire.
Dugin basis his "Eurasianism" on an ideology of a number of Pan-Slavic thinkers, from anti-Western ideas of the late 19th century:
“including the ideas of the Slavophiles of the 1840s-1850s, or the theories of Nikolay Danilevsky (1822-1885) and Konstantin Leontyev (1831-1891).” [NewEasternEurope Article]
But “Classical Eurasianism” was:
“an isolationist ideology and represented a complex cultural-theoretical construct developed by some of the most remarkable Russian émigré scholars after the October Revolution” [NewEasternEurope Article]
They thought they:
“had found various historical, geographical, linguistic and other unifying characteristics of the territory of the tsarist and Soviet empires that where sufficiently unique to declare the existence of a separate Eurasian civilization, different from what they called the “Romano-Germanic” culture of Central and Western Europe. ” [NewEasternEurope Article]
Dugin's ideology is not actually the same, instead:
“ Dugin often simply copies, freely paraphrases and boldly mingles ideas of various anti-liberal international philosophical currents. “Neo-Eurasianism” is, in many regards, a purposefully designed misnomer, and – in contrast to what its name suggests – not an adaptation of classical Eurasianism to the post-Soviet period, but rather a peculiarly post-Soviet and essentially European “new right” ideology of its own.”[NewEasternEurope Article]
He pretends to be anti-Western, criticizes others for remaining rooted in the west, yet:
“Instead of elaborating and developing classically Eurasianist ideas, the Duginian outlook is the result of a compilation of various non-Russian anti-liberal theories and their purposeful “Russification” as well as with reference to classical Eurasianists – so as to construct a link to a reputed Russian native tradition. Most of Dugin’s rabidly anti-Western ideas are derived from Western rather than Russian philosophies and theories.”[NewEasternEurope Article]
In the USA we call this astroturf.
Esotericism and Con Artists
I backed into the study of eschatology through the teachings of Nichiren Shonin, whose writings I read extensively & scholars who delved into those teachings. Nichiren was critical of the legitimacy of the main forms of Buddhism of his time, especially the Vairochana and the Jodo tradition, for different reasons. But he also taught the best from those traditions.
His most memorable line, for me, is:
“You may pile Dung as high as Mt Sumeru and call it Sandlewood. But when Burned it will still smell like burning Dung.”
What I learned from Nichiren was the power of narrative, metaphor, allegory & eschatology as a tool for bettering people, but also as a tool for controlling minds & conning people. The urge of people is to create myths, turn con artists into heros, delude themselves & then turn their heros into Gods, or worse, spokespeople for Gods; that urge is irrepressable.
Nichiren was talking about beloved religious founders in Japan, Kobo Daishi & Honen. His research established that most of the literature about them was pure myth. Yet this mix of hagiography and fable was passed off as history. Myth is useful. Fables are useful. Hagiography is designed to be normative. After a few hundred years, nobody will challenge the lies. They become myths.
Alexander Dugin is the kind of fake sage who can't resist using the tools of religious exegesis to manipulate others. This is an old tradition that has turned sheep herders into patriarchs, carpenters into the Son of God, & a camel herder into a prophet. It has also turned genuine sage teachings into tools for the propagation of evil behavior. Examples of this are found in the stories of Nietzche or Darwin. But there are many others.
Dugin doesn't even fall into the category of misinterpreted sage. He is trying to fashion an ideology around "Traditionalism," around rebranded Fascism. Around claiming publicly not to be doing the things he actually does in his rhetoric and preaching. He also is trying to update Fascism, Nationalism & fundamentalism into something new; a worldwide conspiracy of fascists.
The irony is that the USA, Britain and Europeans supported earlier versions of fascism around the world in the name of Democracy. Some of US were fooled into thinking that we were protecting countries from communism. People now supporting the Russians, at that time, saw the Russians as their greatest enemies. During the rise of Fascism fascists sometimes called their ideology "third way" between Capitalism and State Socialism. Dugin calls his "fourth Way." He explicitly crafted a new form of Fascism that is still hostile to democratic forms, "socialist" provision of services to ordinary people, and uses nationalism and religious chauvinism to gain power.
More to come:
- Sources and Further Reading:
- http://theconversation.com/alexander-dugin-eurasianism-and-the-american-election-87367
- https://www.aspeninstitute.it/aspenia-online/article/russian-conservative-view-putin-interview-alexander-dugin
- http://neweasterneurope.eu/2018/06/08/aleksandr-dugins-neo-eurasianism-not-eurasianist/
₽ utin
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