NATIONAL CONSERVATISM: PATH TO WINNING THE FUTURE
“What is to be done?” That seems to be the question on everyone’s lips these days. Answering it is I think in fact the real purpose of this conference on National Conservatism here in Brussels.
By now most of us are well aware of the scope of the problems we face. Our societies are controlled by a transnational class of managerial elites increasingly isolated from the people they rule, and from reality. These elites, and the many institutions they control, have been captured by a revolutionary ideology that seeks to remake the world, and everyone in it, from the top down.
- The vast machinery of modern managerial technocracy has been turned against us, its bulging bureaucracies seeking to impose on us a totalizing project of internal colonization.
- Our systems of self-governance, the cultural fabric of our national ways of life, even our very human nature are being intentionally suppressed and replaced with the stifling conformity of a rigid system of ideological and technological control.
- All remaining semblances of democratic accountability are today being cast aside in favor of governance via mass manipulation and open coercion.
It should be clear by now that old guard conservatism will be of no use to us whatsoever. For decades, such a conservatism has failed to conserve much of anything at all. Even when successfully elected to political office with a strong mandate, conservatives of this mode are soon either coopted by the oligarchic establishment or find themselves isolated and helpless before the vast unelected managerial “deep state.”
Let me first outline four key attributes that I think any real right-wing strategy would need to possess in order to actually be successful today.
- Must be anti-fragile, difficult to disrupt and suppress, no matter how much its enemies tried.
- It must be scalable, flexible enough to meet a wide range of possible challenges and scenarios – from repression, to acute instability, to sweeping electoral victory – without the core thrust of its strategy ever needing to change.
- It must be self-legitimizing…,generate loyalty and popular legitimacy from the core nature of its very existence and everyday function.
- Most importantly, it must be self-reinforcing. That means its every action builds the capacity for further action on a greater scale; every exercise of power generates additional power; every success makes further successes more likely, until the accumulated facts on the ground make victory seem inevitable…
There is one strategic method that can possibly fulfill all of these requirements. That is the strategy of deliberately constructing a parallel state from the ground up.
Consider the following conditions:
- Hungarian civic life had been systematically corrupted and destroyed by the Communists, and the people left atomized and dispirited. Fidesz party was formed to restore the nation.
- India was a state completely dominated by an entrenched left-wing socialist power structure. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) was formed to counter the political and cultural left.
- Under the crushing totalitarianism of Communist rule, Czech dissidents developed a strategy of resistance that they called the Parallel Polis.
What did all three of these movements have in common? A core strategy of setting up a parallel movement to operate independently from government, with a goal of taking power and displacing left wing policies over time. All three movements did the following:
- Established community organizations across the nation to bring people together in grassroots civic action, volunteer work, and education in practical self-governance.
- Founded parallel educational and media institutions, provided forums for intellectual discussion.
- Promoted art and culture that celebrated national pride and conservative values, served as a patronage network to help launch promising young talent throughout society.
- In the case of the BJP in India, founded to combat colonial-era demoralization, and seeking to instill the values of individual and communal self-discipline, it runs physical fitness classes and community service campaigns; it operates charity organizations; it distributes medical care and mobilizes disaster relief; it runs thousands of schools that propagate Hindu-nationalist cultural values; it operates media companies, financial services, and trade unions… In fact it represents an entire economic and cultural network-society operating parallel to the state.
- In the Czech Republic, the Polis sought to combat the atomization, isolation, and degradation imposed by the state through the creation of a network of underground communities. They formed underground universities, philosophy seminars, samizdat magazines, theater productions, mutual aid societies for those harmed by state persecution, and other circles.
In all three cases, the movements built a resilient base of organization from the ground up. They forged an experienced leadership cadre. They created a flexible underground network-state. Rather than working within the strictures of a state apparatus controlled by their enemies, a dissident opposition pivots to go directly back to the level of the people. It builds a network of community institutions focused not on overt political action, but on community-building itself: bringing people together and genuinely working to help them. In doing so it fosters a resilient client power-base at the grassroots level, and directly builds popular legitimacy.
A revolution needs to build a revolutionary base. It needs revolutionary networks and institutions. It needs a vanguard of revolutionary cadres. It needs revolutionary discipline. And it needs a revolutionary strategy that builds a parallel alternative more legitimate than the ruling status quo. So far the right’s supposed counter-revolution has none of these things.
This must change. The right must embrace a counter-revolutionary future before our still-complacent conservative leaders deliver us up for complete destruction.
The West today is awash with economic, social, and spiritual problems, from drug addiction, depression, and loneliness, to financial precarity and the breakdown of family formation. Everywhere, people are struggling, and suffering. Meanwhile, trust in almost every institution has cratered, with incompetent governing elites seemingly determined to destroy their own legitimacy. People feel uprooted and atomized, vulnerable and alone, buffeted by forces outside their control and betrayed by their own leaders.
Parallelism is a proven road to power. It is a return to the basic essence of politics. Moreover, it is the single most anti-fragile and scalable option for the conservative right today. It offers the best path forward in almost every conceivable political scenario we now face.
If the future involves a gradual weakening and de-legitimization of Western ruling regimes, an opposition that can build, organize, and peacefully mobilize a decisive mass powerbase is likely to prove politically unstoppable.
If our future is instead a continued slide deeper into managerial totalitarianism, we will be much better off with resilient, organized parallel structures from which to mount a resistance.
And if, God forbid, the future means an unfortunate, chaotic descent into anarchy and civil struggle, it is the faction possessing the most organized and extensive parallel structures that will be poised to prevail, restore order, and take on the task of governing anew.
Jose Ambrozic
Professor, Catholic University, San Pablo Peru
