“If Americans want to change their government, they’re going to have to get over their dictator-phobia.” These are the alarming words Curtis Yarvin, who’s largely considered the founder of the so-called Dark Enlightenment, an idea that’s being used to deceive American youth into supporting the destruction of the Republic and its replacement with a modern technocratic dictatorship.
The Dark Enlightenment (DE) is a loosely defined intellectual movement that emerged in the early 2010s. Tech-accelerationist wings of the DE even argue that artificial intelligence should be unleashed in government to help lead.
Proponents of the DE claim that “democracy” is a façade to make it appear that the people have a say in their government while in reality Establishment insiders call the shots. Of course, there is some truth in this: There is an invisible, unelected government behind the visible, elected government of the United States, oftentimes called the Deep State. However, the DE misses the brilliance and success of America’s constitutional republic and how restoring the republic (no, the Founding Fathers did not give us a democracy) is our only hope for saving and restoring our freedoms.
Upending the Enlightenment
Understanding the context behind the phrase “Dark Enlightenment” illuminates and simplifies the nature of the movement.
The DE, sometimes called neo-reactionism, is a radical addendum to the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment occupied about a century of history, mostly in Western European and early American culture, from the late 1600s through the late 1700s.
The Enlightenment was a challenge to absolute authority, monarchy, and aristocracy. Its thinkers, such as English physician and philosopher John Locke — often cited as the thought architect behind the Declaration of Independence — and Charles Montesquieu — a French judge and historian — articulated natural rights and individual liberties.
It was the positive elements of the Enlightenment that fueled the American Revolution, gave inspiration to America’s system of government, and helped liberate the New World from the authoritarianism of the Old World.
The Dark Enlightenment, a term coined by tech-accelerationist Nick Land, wishes to return to elements of what the Enlightenment overcame.
Hellbound and Down 