The Inhuman Future: The Authoritarian Agenda and What It Wants

The Stakes Part 1: What I Mean When I Say "Authoritarian Agenda," Who It Involves, and What Their Inhuman Future Would Look Like

This is the first installment of a series that I am calling The Stakes. It is meant to be a project that gets readers and the people they know up to speed as to what is going on as we head into the 2024 Presidential Election, exactly what is on the line, and the beginning of a discussion of what it is we can do in this election cycle and moving forward. For those looking for additional materials regarding these topics, please check out my book The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis and the associated five-part Midnight Kingdom Lecture Series over on YouTube.

Please subscribe to Dispatches From A Collapsing State to gain access to this series and to keep this project rolling along. If you have questions about these articles, please reply to the post. When I’m finished I’ll try and put together a response to clarify them as an addendum.

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Introduction: The Authoritarian Agenda

Because the Internet is the main medium of communication, we are oftentimes penned in when it comes to expressing ourselves. Over on Twitter, before the shit hit the fan, we were limited to 140 characters and then 280. Even if there weren’t a limit, quick and easily decipherable means are always preferred. When I go on cable news it’s even harder as segments are just a few minutes with questions requiring short bursts. On podcasts you can get into the weeds, but you’re still assuming a lot of prior knowledge from listeners or, at least, buy-in to a certain degree.

But here we are. Primed and ready to dig into it all.

So here’s a thesis meant to lay out exactly what it is that we’re going to be discussing in this article and in this series going forward.

We are living in a time of crisis in which life as we know it is giving way to something else, and, depending on the choices we make, the fight we fight, and some dumb luck, that something else will either be a better, more human future or an oppressive time marked by the whims of a select and powerful few enacting a long-desired authoritarian agenda.

When You Say “Select And Powerful Few,” Who Do You Mean?

This is where the space comes in handy.

To begin, there is an international authoritarian movement that is gaining power and purchase. It’s everywhere. And that’s because authoritarianism knows no boundary. It isn’t something that only exists in Germany or Italy or Russia. It isn’t limited to the 1930’s or 1940’s. It is an inherently human problem that is constantly threatening to grow and overtake everything that has been built and achieved.

Wait. You’re Getting Existential Here.

It’s hard not to? One of the problems we’re dealing with is an absolutism that has made so many people believe that nothing could ever happen to actually change the status quo and this has made them compliant and passive and selfish.

The truth is that democracy is suffering, in part, because too many people were convinced not to worry about it or that democracy itself consisted of showing up to the polls every four years and pulling a lever instead of a lifetime of activism and advocacy and coalition building. Authoritarianism is always an existential threat and, given the right circumstances, it can rear its ugly head and gain traction to a point that it can erase hard-won gains and cut a destructive path.

In other words, the weeds took over the yard.

But Back To The Original Question. Who Are The “Select And Powerful Few?”

Oh, sure. It’s a whole assortment of people. Some of them are heads of state (Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbän, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump), some are oligarchs like Elon Musk, some are billionaires like the Koch Brothers, Richard Uihlein, The Mercers, The DeVos’s, who are continually pouring their wealth into an ecosystem dedicated to destroying liberal democracy for personal profit, some are ideologues like Steve Bannon, some are functionaries and bureaucrats and lawyers and and and…

Basically, it is a conflagration of individuals, groups, businesses, and regimes that believe liberal democracy is either at its inevitable end or requires extreme changes that would render it largely unrecognizable.

Is This A Conspiracy Theory?

Nope. There’s no smoky room. There are no outright “evil” intentions or satanic cabals. It’s an interlocking group of people and entities that are sometimes in contact with one another in order to make explicit plans and other times are related or interconnected through business deals and interests.

What brings them together is money and power. Capitalism’s so-called “invisible hand.” Because, at the end of the day, capitalism reaches a point in which consolidation of resources means democracy must fall by the wayside in order for the consolidation to continue. And, because of neoliberalism’s acceleration of that process, we are once again facing another moment in which those on one side of the divide (The Have’s) are very interested in taking from others (The Have-Nots) what little is left in order to facilitate a new status quo in which they can garner more profits and realize more control.

In other words, it’s time to squeeze more blood from the rock.

So. Is There A Plan?

Yes and no. Some of these individuals meet and discuss these things openly. Only, they don’t really say, “Let’s destroy liberal democracy.” Instead, they discuss how to undercut representative government’s ability to regulate them or how to privatize public arenas like education or eliminate assistance. Some of them pool their resources into think-tanks and institutes like the Heritage Foundation and others in order to carry out operations with the goal of “limiting government” or “freeing up the market.” Others, like some heads of state, actually get together quite frequently to triangulate how to take advantage of America’s decline and the weakening of the American-led global order.

Then, there are more clandestine measures. For years now anti-American actors like Putin and his Russian compatriots decide to tinker with Western elections by leveraging social and political divides. A lot of these people are connected by extremist paramilitary and Neo-Nazi groups. Hell, CPAC went to Hungary and asked Viktor Orbän to personally tutor them on how to create “illiberal democracy” or “Christian democracy.” Sometimes it is very overt (see the previous sentence or anything Putin has done in the last ten years) and sometimes it is hidden behind tested rhetoric meant to gift plausible deniability.

How Does Something Like Project 2025 Figure Into This?

I’m glad you asked. Project 2025 is one of those mainstreamed means of doing this. Wealthy Right Wingers have, since the 1970’s, coordinated their donations and operations in order to combat “Left Wing extremism.” If you haven’t, go look at the Powell Memo. In doing so, they have painstakingly chipped away at public support of representative government and government power, creating an America where government can barely function save for carrying out their agenda, operating the wildly profitable war machine that opens up markets and hoovers up resources, and occasionally bailing their greedy asses out when the economy falls apart.

They’ve done really well. In fact, it’s one of the most consequential operations in modern American history. They aided the rise of Ronald Reagan and eventually the creation of the neoliberal consensus that redistributed trillions of dollars from the working and middle-class to the 1 percent and turned government into the tool of themselves and the corporations they represent. It changed everything. And Donald Trump’s ascent to power made something very clear to them: they were actually being conservative. Trump made it apparent that our guardrails were imaginary and there was room for a demagogue to carry out the death blow to liberal democracy as we know it. Project 2025 is the beginning of the end, if it can be enacted. A gut punch to what remains of liberal democracy.

Is This An Evangelical Thing?

Well. Sort of. But not exactly.

As I detailed in The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis, religious, sexist, racist, nationalistic appeals are largely a cover for these actions. To large swathes of the country, and millions around the world, these religious and prejudiced stories, and related conspiracy theories, can override self-interest or deserved doubt and activate emotional/irrational responses over rational debates.

Some of the people involved in this believe very, very deeply that they have a religious stake, even a demanded crusade, in carrying out these behaviors. Many others recognize the usefulness of religion in carrying out their plans.

Vladimir Putin, for instance, and Donald Trump to boot, don’t give a shit about Christianity, but the religion and its associated tenets and assortment of believers are useful to them in getting what they want. Which is wealth and power. Which is why the Right Wing in America and the Right Wing in Russia believe the same things. It’s the same game plan.

For those who do believe, the religious narratives give them a reason to believe their desire to control others isn’t “evil” but divinely approved.

What Is The Agenda?

That’s a big question.

I’ll start with the circumstances. Neoliberal globalism, a system of trade and power that was developed in the post-World War II era at the behest of the triumphant United States, is itself an authoritarian ideology. It hides behind niceties like an espoused belief in representative government while relying on an entrenched hierarchy that divides nations into First, Second, and Third World categories. The First World includes America and other powerful nations, while the Second and Third World Nations are basically used for their resources, including natural resources, minerals, and labor. They don’t enjoy much in the way of representative government as they are controlled either outright by dictators or else indirectly by world trade and nondemocratic institutions. This system has allowed Americans and other First World Nations to enjoy cheap goods and a relatively comfortable standard of living.

But here’s the thing: that doesn’t last forever. Inevitably even those First World Nations have to suffer lowered standards of living and the same kind of authoritarian tactics as the Second and Third World. We’ve been experiencing that since the 1970’s and it’s only getting worse. Eventually, the divide between the Wealthy and the Rest of Us gets so large that the system itself doesn’t really work anymore. As that system becomes more unstable, more authoritarian measures are necessary to keep it going. And those authoritarian tactics can’t really be hidden so much. That means more precarity to keep people working, violence to tamp down protests and collective action, surveillance to cut any resistance at the knees before it grows too large, and a representative government that is rapidly revealed as a sham.

As the First World Nations are reined in, the progress that was enjoyed in the growth of the system in the first place is erased. This means women lose their reproductive rights and what little equality they have enjoyed, minorities lose their protections, and groups like children lose their right to childhood. Eventually, it starts to look more and more like the Industrial Age before democracy was able to push things in the right direction. And as that happens death, suffering, and abject violence become more and more commonplace.

What Does This Have To Do With China And Russia?

So, when hegemonic forces like the United States start to decline, or when there’s a major shakeup to the status quo, “lesser” nations start to wrestle for more power. It’s foolhardy to believe this won’t happen, and even a cursory glance at World War I, World War II, and almost every war you could name, depend on the inevitable pushback and fight over power. That’s where we are. America is vulnerable for a whole host of reasons and a new challenger (the alliance China and Russia have surrounded themselves with, including Iran, North Korea, and occasionally actors like Saudi Arabia, when it suits them) has arisen.

These countries share a pretty common philosophy and distate for representative government. It’s not a coincidence that they are authoritarian states themselves who believe, like the wealthy and the Right Wing in America, that liberal democracy is a curse that gets in their way. They have common cause with the Right Wing and the wealthy in this and so, despite political and social differences, they are all eagerly chipping away at what remains of liberal democracy writ large.

This doesn’t mean they are always in lockstep. They’d battle it out if they had their way and got rid of liberal democracy in general. But as of right now, they’re all looking to take advantage of this moment.

Capitalism Seems To Be A Through-Line, Right?

Absolutely. When it comes to these matters there is a common gravity that comes back to capitalism and its natural directive to consolidate power and wealth over time at the expense of everything else. Capitalism is pretty much an invisible parasite that jumps from host-to-host (ala moving from Great Britain to America) and then uses the host to its own ends. This is why America has engaged in self-destructive behaviors like invading Iraq. It meant opening new markets for corporations and even competitors like Russia and China at the expense of America’s standing in the world. Because capitalism isn’t interested in nationalism except for as a means of carrying out its agenda.

We’re at the precipice of a new age. Climate change is going to change literally everything and we’re seeing a lot of fighting over positioning as whatever comes next gets closer and closer. Without a question, this could lead to world war. The extinction of our species. And a whole bunch of bad outcomes.

Okay. Plain Terms. If This Comes To Pass, What Does Life Look Like?

Let’s boil it down.

A standard of living that is varied depending on classes and geography that is decidedly lower and more dangerous for millions of Americans. Some people will be neutralized legally, politically, economically, and possibly even compromised to a permanent degree. Authoritarianism relies on crushing any and all descent. This includes political opponents and “degenerates,” or people of color and gay/trans/queer people who don’t conform to whatever ideology is necessary to make the situation work for the wealthy.

Our elections would be almost completely rigged, if they happened at all. Surveillance would be so widespread that everyone would come to accept that everything they do, say, or think would be monitored. The internet and artificial intelligence would help. After all, corporations already know what we’re thinking or wanting before we do. This would create a society in which most people would either conform out of fear or simply apathy. Meanwhile, the environment would keep getting more and more dangerous, which also inspires conformity.

In America there would likely be an underclass of workers who would be treated either as bad or even worse as the original industrial workers, who were used up and died early. You’d see the full might of the state engaging in war with any labor unions or protesters, just like we did in the past. Only now there’d be drones and god knows what else. And, again, artificial intelligence that would largely direct things without much in the way of explanation or empathy.

The rise of mass media and the internet would mean a propaganda machine the likes of which its hard to even really fathom. You’d get barely any information that wasn’t handpicked. Oh, and education would be so perverted that, if you could even afford it, you’d be fed a steady stream of state-picked propaganda as well. The divide between laborers and the people overseeing their exploitation would be enough to make the Grand Canyon look like a pothole.

Some days it would seem almost normal, but there’d be an oppressive, inescapable air to life and state-backed brutality would be so commonplace it would lose its ability to outrage.

And those are just the immediate effects. If you read the articles and books and listen to these peoples’ speeches and presentations you’d be shocked. More or less some of them are advocating for treating human beings like cattle that could be hooked up to electronics in order to get the most production out of them and ensure fealty.

Honestly, it’s a nightmare.

How Can You Be So Sure?

They’re pretty open about it. And also because it’s already happening elsewhere. Deep down, the American fear of “the New World Order” or whatever they want to call it is a fear that we’ll be treated the way other people around the world have been treated as neoliberalism gutted their cultures and countries and turned them into cogs in the bigger machine. The scarier thing is that when the hammer really comes down a lot of the newer innovations (like what China has created) will mean more aggressive pursuits and operations.

Will Winning In 2024 Avoid All This?

Uh. Not really. Winning in 2024 and avoiding the enacting of Project 2025 will delay the larger push for a bit, but the inherent crises of neoliberal hypercapitalism have to be addressed. We’ve got a lot of democratic energy to revive and resuscitate if we’re going to avoid the bigger push. This stuff is still churning regardless of who wins elections. Elections are largely about how quickly or aggressively these things come into place.

What actually needs to happen (and we’ll discuss this more) is a sea change the likes of which it’s almost hard to fathom. We’ve seen it happen in the past where politicians and leaders create a larger campaign that fundamentally transforms society and creates a new consensus. Afterwards, it seems almost inevitable. That’s what we’re going to need here.

Can We Talk About How To Avoid This?

Absolutely. That’s why we’re doing this series and why so many of us are working our asses off to push back and find something better.