"Was royalism a perfect system? It was not. But if we imagine a world in which the revolutions and civil wars of the last four centuries had never happened, it is hard not to imagine that world as happier, wealthier, freer, more civilized and more pleasant."
Neoreactionaryism, also known as the Dark Enlightenment (Shortened to NRx and DE respectively), is a broadly 
reactionary, economically and culturally far-right and civically varied (But prominently 
post-libertarian) ideology, however, some (Such as Joshua Tait) say that NRx (Mencius Moldbug) is reactionary only in regards of politics, while maintaining positions usually described as socially progressive[9]. NRx originates from the writing of a couple right-wing bloggers from the late 2000's and early 2010's.
Neoreactionaryism opposes 
democracy, 
egalitarianism and the common consensus that the progress of history leads to liberty and enlightenment and the abolition of absolutism in favor of democracy and/or constitutional monarchy, considering itself the antithesis of 
enlightenment thought. It is in favor of the re-adoption of systems of governance such as 
absolute monarchy and 
cameralism, or the formation of other systems such as 
neocameralism.
NRx is often associated with 
"race-realism", but despite what mainstream sources make an impression of, this is not included in the theory and may be confused on first glance because of risky wording (See 
hyper-racism).
NRx has also been described as 
"neo-fascist" by journalists and commentators[10][11] and is accused to be a major influence on the modern "alt-right" movement. However, NRx theorists typically denounce the "alt-right" and fascism[12].
Beliefs
The neoreactionary movement's ideological foundations consist of multiple ideas that are discussed between NRxers but may or may not be shared by all of them.
These include, but are not limited to:
Post-Libertarianism
Post-libertarianism is a school of thought stemming from 
libertarianism that posits that the rule of law is always a necessary step to maintain individual liberty and that since law can only emerge from order, fully embracing the state is an unconditional good towards a freed society. Despite being at odds with "generic" libertarians on the issue of state capacity, post-libertarians are in full agreement with other libertarian ideas, such as affinity towards free markets, opposition to state control of information and skepticism in regards to foreign intervention.
Formalism
Formalism is the belief that actual power and recognised power (Especially in the form of ownership) should align as closely as possible, making allocation of scarce resources stable and predictable, reducing violence socially and between particulars. It advocates to map out existing power relations in "informalist" societies and offering powerful institutions some kind of official compensation to terminate corruption. Formalists are especially skeptical of democratic forms of government, favoring ones 
based on ownership.
Royalism
Royalism, sometimes called "legitimism", is the general belief that absolutist systems of governance work best, especially when the line of succession is clear and that rulers explicitly run the state in their personal interest as their property (Which reflects Moldbug's criticism of 
republican dictatorship). Royalists don't favor a particular mode of succession, some preferring something akin to an elective monarchy (See neocameralism below), while others may stand for hereditary and/or divine-right monarchy. It is less so an indication of a particular view on the de jure process of monarchies than it is support for the de facto "virtues" of monarchism, i.e. stability and order, which NRxers generally associate with freedom and a healthy society.
Neocameralism
- Main article: Neocameralism
Neocameralism is a form of government proposed by Mencius Moldbug and further developed by other thinkers as a replacement for enlightenment-inspired ("demotist") and medieval systems, judged too violent and insecure. Neocameralism is structured around the joint-stock 
corporate governance model, where shareholders, through a board or not, elect an accountable, fiduciary "monarch-CEO" (Which Moldbug calls a "delegate", based on the corporate title used by colonial-era Quakers) with unlimited executive, judicial and legislative power, that they think will best maximize their shared profits by managing the state in the most Pareto-efficient manner. Non-fungible-token (NFT)-based shares, permissive action links (PAL) on the military's weaponery and cryptographic decision and command chains (CDCC) ensure that sovereignty remains secured in the hands of shareholders at all times, such 
cryptographic measures being reminescent of sociétés anonymes (SAs).
Reservationism
Reservationism is an epistemology proposed by Moldbug to promote an use of reason which is neither reducing or transcending it. It aims to counter "automatisms", tendencies for people to follow one or more overly specific cases of reason and apply them to everything subconsciously, and wrongly so. The most common types identified are:
Popularists, who assume that reason stems from how fashionable ideas are, the most common being the truest. They tend to support 
democracy and 
populism. They are considered to be the most annoying.
Literalists, who claim that reason originates from how immemorial ideas are, the most ancient being the truest. They tend to support 
fundamentalism and 
traditionalism. They are considered to be the most stupid.
Algorithmists, who posit that reason comes from how mathematizable ideas are, the most formulaic being the truest. They tend to support 
scientific policy and 
algocracy. They are considered to be the most pernicious.
Officialists, who state that reason comes from how official ideas are, the most propagandized being the truest. They tend to support 
state media and 
censorship. They are considered to be the most dangerous.
As said above, NRxers notice that people can often follow several automatisms at once, depending on the social context they live in. For example, someone living in a deeply religious uniform community is likely to be both a 
popularist and a 
literalist, assuming that the overwhelmingly widespread, perennial beliefs around them are true, or alternatively, a person existing within a highly technical and partisan city is predisposed to follow simultaneously 
algorithmist and 
officialist ideas at once, convinced of the virtue of governmental experts in their procedures. Moldbug affirms that all combinations can and do exist in the world, with varying degrees of repartition and intensity.
Neoreactionary Neologisms
The neoreactionary movement came up with a lot of neologisms to describe various concepts. Neologisms are perhaps the most influential thing to come out of the movement, appearing in political discourse outside of its own sphere.
The neologisms include:
The Cathedral
The Cathedral, within the context of neoreactionary discourse, is a term used to refer to a society's intellectual elite, meaning a group of people who are able to decide what the average person thinks is true or false, right or wrong and important or unimportant. Historically, this role was fulfilled by religious institutions, hence the usage of the term "cathedral". This is intentionally contrasted with the institutions that fulfill the role of the cathedral in the modern age, that being schools, universities, the media and the entertainment industry, who largely market themselves as secular. It is worth noting that the cathedral (In its contemporary incarnation) is not a formal institution that people belong to, but rather an informal, decentralized network of leaders of the before-aforementioned institutions that happen to agree on most important matters (Harvard, The New York Times, Disney and The Guardian rarely disagree, for example), unlike the "deep state" conspiracy theories advanced by 
populist groups, claiming the consensus is rather centralized and conscious.
Pills
Redpill - Within the context of neoreactionary discourse, a "redpill" is any realization or experience that disconnects an individual from the established "cathedral". The term is a reference to the popular film trilogy 
The Matrix.
The concept of the redpill is THE most influential term to come out of the NRx movement, being practically ubiqutous within political discourse on both the left, right, centre and beyond. The term "redpill" spawned many off-shoots, generally named after the specific realisation the redpill provides (Including terms like 
blackpill (Pessimism), 
whitepill (Optimism), greenpill (Parnamormalism) and more) and also the combination with the term "based", forming "based and redpilled". The various pills have also expanded into apolitical contexts, especially in dating (Examples of dating-specific pills being the purplepill and the dogpill) and fitness (Examples of fitness-specific pills includes the onionpill).
A variation on the term "redpill" to have actually come out of the NRx movement is the term "clearpill" which is the concept that the best way to come out to political conclusions is to separate yourself from current political factions you have an emotional attachment to and think about policies and systems in an outside context.
The iron polygon
The iron polygon is an extension of the concept of the iron triangle. It describes a system of interlocking societal institutions that mutually reinforce each other to maintain the status quo of a particular political order. The iron polygon consists of three main institutions: the cathedral, the corporate-managerial complex and the military-industrial complex.
- The Cathedral refers to the institutionalized power of the mainstream media, academia and the government bureaucracy, which neoreactionaries see as an interconnected network that perpetuates a progressive and egalitarian ideology. The Cathedral's power is derived from its ability to control the flow of information and shape public opinion.
The Corporate-Managerial Complex is the second institution in the iron polygon and it includes large corporations, the financial sector and the managerial class. The neoreactionaryies view this complex as an essential component of the iron polygon, since it helps maintain the dominant political order by providing resources, expertise and access to power.
The Military-Industrial Complex is the third institution in the iron polygon. It includes the military, defense contractors and the intelligence agencies. According to the neoreactionaryies, the Military-Industrial Complex provides the necessary force to maintain the political order and protect the interests of the ruling elite.
Together, these three institutions form the iron polygon, which the neoreactionaryies believe is a self-reinforcing system that is resistant to change or reform. The iron polygon ensures that power remains in the hands of the ruling elite.
Red and Blue empire 
Also called the red and blue empires/governments, clipped to RedGov and BlueGov, it is a specific power analysis of U.S. politics. It is the notion that the United States is not under the control of a single government, but rather of two each with their own internal and foreign policies, those being the military and police-based "red empire", represented in the U.S. congress by the 
Republican Party and the blue empire based around every other part of the iron polygon, represented by the 
Democratic Party.
Triangles
The triangle represents many things to neoreactionaries in terms of political theory, namely, Spandrell's triangle (The trichotomy), modern division of power within republican states and contemporary political theory.
The Trichotomy[13]
The trichotomy, inspired partly by the "three estates of the realm" which existed during the middle ages, shows the 3 poles of neoreactionaryism: The techno-capitalists, ethno-nationalists and theonomists/traditionalists. These, as the three estates did, are supposed to balance each other.
The techno-capitalists, the libertarian branch of neoreactionary thought, is supposed to protect the freedom of individuals. The 
ethno-nationalists, populist-oriented, are meant to protect the nation where these individuals coexist, and the 
theonomists 
are meant to guide and order that nation toward a higher moral and metaphysical aim. Each estate has its own hierarchy, but they nonetheless overlap.
Republican division of power
Modern republicanism is based on the division of power within government and this has, in most republican states, resulted in the creation of three powers. It is here that neoreactionaries see resemblance, once again, with the three estates.
The judicial system is identified as the theocratic branch of the government, "consulting their ancient texts, intoning solemnly to convey the weight of their holy power as they decide what is moral and right for the nobles and commoners" as Nick Land puts it. The executive branch is more closely related to the nobility, or capitalists in modern western nations. Lastly, the congress is meant to represent the third estate and is thus identified by it.
Political theory
This political model is also used by Nick Land to explain contemporary politics, where the first state (The "theocrats", which order society toward moral aims, toward "utopia") have descended into what they call "the Cathedral";which N. Land considers "hyper-calvinist", identified as the left of the triangular model. Thereby, the left is unipolar and converges to a single point;while the right (Identified by N. Land as realism, as opposed to utopia) diverges into two points, it is bipolar, divided between individualists;the nobility or capitalists;and collectivists;the working class and nationalists.[14]
Unprincipled Exception
An unprincipled exception is a policy that violates some absolute principle of ethics held by the policymaker,but is not openly acknowledged as such a violation.
Types of Societies[15]
Moldbug says there are 3 types of societies, according to their relationship between opinion and authority.
- The Loyal Society is one where public opinion is a matter of state security. Thoughts are categorised in two: bad thoughts, that are dangerous to the safety of the state, and good thoughts, that are useful or irrelevant to the state. People are punished for expressing bad thoughts, and rewarded for expressing good ones. The state supports a set of official information organs which is used to install "good thoughts" and prevent and/or prohibit the spread of "bad thoughts" into the population.
- The Society of Consensus is a society in which the press and media controls the authority. Its hallmark is the phenomenon of spontaneous coordination, which consists of an information system which in all other respects resembles that of a loyal society, but which is not responsible to any central authority or institution, and operates mostly unconsciously.
The Open Society is a society where a free market of divergent ideas and institutions compete with one another on the basis of which is closer to reality.
Additional Charts
Personality
NRx isn't an outspoken person and will generally prefer to hang out on the internet. He does not generally have a positive attitude towards things and can be portrayed as rather apathetic.
How to Draw
- Draw a black ball with eyes.
- Draw a gold trinity knot.
- Draw a circle around it.
- Above and below the circle, draw 2 lines of increasing length from it.
Relationships
Partners
- Neocameralism - My son and predilect system.
Landian Accelerationism - Son, why does the sun take so long to die?
Austrian School - My grandfather who taught me economics.
Hoppeanism - My father, taught me about the benefits of monarchies, cultural reactionarism and political decentralization.
Anarcho-Monarchism - Individualism and monarchy are based and redpilled and I really like your blog .
Manosphere - I like how you use the concept of pills for waking up men about the reality of sexual conduct.
Reactionary Libertarianism - Very good beliefs, dad! You should be writing in my blog.
Braunism - Fellow free-marketer absolute monarchist.
Homoconservatism - I have taught you well, Thiel.
National Libertarianism - You're in the right direction, I know one day you will take the pill.
Libertarian Monarchism - Hans-Adam II is one of my favorite autocrats.
Powellism - An excellent man that revolted against the cathedral but was defeated by his psychological warfare.
Dengism - Post-Deng China is an ideal model for free market statism.
Lee Kuan-Yew Thought - Singapore is based and you're on the list of good autocrats.
Social Darwinism - "When individualism and absolutism cooperates."
Hayekism - I like your skepticism about democracy and your openness to other forms of government, also we both enjoy Austrian economics and Carl Schmitt.
Jacobitism - I'm in favor of reinstating the Stuarts to the British crown.
Carlism - Spanish Jacobites, I need to say more about why I like him.
Leopold II Thought - You made a formalist state and even if you're part of the worst of colonialism, you still are far better than the majority of the governments Congo ever had.[16]
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Outer Party
American Model - "The fact that an institution is old and has carried the respect of large populations for decades or centuries, is always a reason to honor and respect it. [The fact that] you oppose Washington, the real organization that exists in the real world, does not mean that you oppose America, the abstract symbol. ... It does not mean that you want to burn or abolish the flag, etc."
Anarcho-Capitalism - "Rothbard is surely one of the ten top philosophers of the twentieth century".
Democratism & 
Republicanism - Manipulated by the Inner Party.
Neoconservatism - The army of the Inner Party.
Mediacracy - The Press-Controlled State, also controlled by the Inner Party.
UKIP - Used to resist the Inner Party, but it went nowhere since they have made Brexit done.
Reactionary Liberalism - "What could an 
old whig be, if not a reactionary progressive?"
Inner Party
Neoliberalism - Master of the Inner Party.
Social Democracy - Bait and switch tactic.
Reactionary Socialism - Socialist, but anti-enlightenment? You confuse me.
Neo-Enlightenment - My opposite, but we both like Kant and Austrian economics.
The Cathedral
Socialism - The brain of the cathedral.
Progressivism - The voice of the cathedral.
Catholic Theocracy - Literally lives in a cathedral.
Further Information
Literature
- An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives by
Curtis Yarvin - A Gentle Introduction to Unqualified Reservations by Curtis Yarvin
- Moldbug on Carlyle by Curtis Yarvin
- The Dark Enlightenment by
Nick Land - Best of Neoreaction
Articles
Wikipedia
Websites
Videos
- Ben Shapiro: What is the Dark Enlightenment? by politicalInsights
- An Introduction to the Dark Enlightenment Philosophy by Ubersoy
- Accelerationism, The Dark Enlightenment and The Strange Life of Nick Land by Sisyphus55
- Critical Based Theory #8 | Ancient Liberty and The Dark Enlightenment by
Lotuseaters - Why Democracy doesn't Work Explained with Chess-Curtis Yarvin by cache
- Talking $%#@! About neoreactionary Curtis Yarvin by
Sitch & Adam and 
ShortFatOtaku - Peter Thiel on Anti-Anti-Anti-Anti Classical Liberalism by Oxford Union
Channels
Gallery
References
- ↑ Three Motivations for “State Capacity Libertarianism” by Samuel Hammond
- ↑ From Mises to Carlyle: My Sick Journey to the Dark Side of the Force by Mencius Moldbug
- ↑ Good government as good customer service
- ↑ Against political freedom
- ↑ Anarcho-NRx: A Case For Neo Reactionary Anarcho-Monarchism by Stateless Sovereign
- ↑ Jail for Rightoids by Anatoly Karlin
- ↑ Also referred to as Red and Blue Governments
- ↑ Peter Thiel | Nationalism Breaks the Dogma Machine | National Conservatism Conference II by National Conservatism
- ↑ Mencius Moldbug and Neoreaction - Key Thinkers of the Radical Right: Behind the New Threat to Liberal Democracy by Joshua Tait - pp. 187-203
- ↑ The neo-fascist philosophy that underpins both the alt-right and Silicon Valley technophiles by Olivia Goldhill
- ↑ On Neoreaction by Roger Burrows
- ↑ Monarchism and Fascism Today in "Gray Mirror" by Curtis Yarvin
- ↑ The neoreactionary trichotomy by Charlemagne
- ↑ Significant Triangles by Nick Land
- ↑ An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives, Chapter 4: Dr. Johnson's Hypothesis by Mencius Moldbug
- ↑ From Cromer to Romer and Back Again: Colonialism for the 21st Century by Mencius Moldbug
 Right Unity - Free Markets and 
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 Social Darwinism
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Template:16384ismlink •  Meso-16384ism •  Quarkism •  ⠀ism
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 Libertarian Right - Dodging taxes since 1776 
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 Monarchists - We wuz kangz but literal this time
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Quarkism •  Revolutionary Monarchism
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 Reactionaries - It's rewind time!
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