The Bold and the Brave

How to turn Realpolitik into Réalpolitique

The age of deception is over. The pretty little lies that once brought us social harmony at the cost of truth are dying, swiftly being tossed into the abyss of Commercialized Buddhism at the Bay Area’s not-so-exquisite-corpse dinner parties. In the old regime, speaking openly about the mechanisms of human power was considered to be déclasse. Yet those of us who stood ahead of the curve refused to yield to these norms in the metapolitical republic. Declaring ourselves exceptions, we spoke elegantly to one another about politics with extreme realism and brute force pragmatism, many of us not even pretending to be populists along the way.

So, let’s accelerate this vibeshift while bringing it closer to its intended shape. This is a blueprint that serves the purpose of demonstrating how we can turn realpolitik into réalpolitique, relegating deceivers and public relations orchestrators to the margins while creating a new bourgeoisie that elevates the strong, smart, and sexy truth-tellers into positions of power. Happy Independence Day!

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Eliminating the PR Peasantry

The PR Peasantry must be eliminated. They have a weakness that is ready to be exploited. Whenever they speak truthfully about political operations this makes them appear crass to their friends. This is their weakness at its rotten core — their battleship sinking into a final cry of defeat. How pathetic is it that in the realm of the PR Peasantry, the mere act of conducting a scientific political analysis is considered unpopular because it appears crass and déclasse?

Well, popularity never got us anywhere! The PR Peasantry didn’t want us in their dying institutions, so they forced to use our alienation as a weapon. Whoops? Throughout history, what got us ahead was standing alone — together — as an invisible front. So, here we stand at the end of an old era and the beginning of a new one. Culture is, and has always been, Spenglerian. Civilization is downstream from aesthetics and culture is the aesthetics of civilization. Anyone who refuses to speak honestly about the true nature of the political circus and its actors should be permanently shunned from society. They serve no purpose. They are no longer useful. Fire them. Eliminate them wholesale. Dispose of them at once.

Political Dynamism

Those who lack the intellectual bravery to speak of reality on its own terms must be deported back to the delusional underclass that they came from, and those with minds strong enough to live without the amenities of their Neo-Orientalist LARP must be welcomed into the rising elite. It’s starting to happen in realtime. It’s e/acc. We’re reaching higher and we’re traveling faster, like Marinetti intended for Italy during its darkest of days. (before his vision was corrupted, what did you think I had in mind?) The West is Dead, but who are The Resurrectionists?

Elevating realpolitik into a more powerful social position via Machiavellian honesty is réalpolitique at its core. Note that I don’t mean conniving and manipulative when I say Machiavellian, but open to discussing human power relations. You could give Foucault some credit for this too, but that would result in a bunch of zealots pointing out that he was a pedophile or whatever, and who needs derailment? So, we’ll stick with Machiavelli for this particular essay, the least controversial of these figures.

While it is rumored that Machiavelli did not really author The Prince, that’s a topic for another day. “Machiavelli” conceived of realpolitik as a method for stripping away the social layers of distortion, making it his great work to share the tricks of the ruling class with the princes he conceived of as fallen aristocrats. He taught these princes how to become great rulers, which is why he was credited for inventing progressivism. (true story look it up) I get into the fallen aristocrats here in The Night of the Silver Spoons, a piece that was published in my book The New Art Right. 

“The Night of the Silver Spoons is what happens when the hardcore philosophers, mystics, and romantics get thrown out of the ivory towers by the oligarchs and guardians who can no longer contain the dragon energy of their most fringe intellectuals. After being thrown to the barbarian hordes to be eaten alive, the Night of the Silver Spoons leads to the Night of the Long Knives and precedes it in every national fairytale. The fallen aristocrats transcend the Marxist narrative of class, which is why they/we are usually written out of history. Why would you want to be killed by the hordes of barbarians when you could simply suck it up, buttercup?”

So, agreeing that murder is bad for the purpose of this article, how do we stop the killing machine and turn the fallen aristocrats into rulers of the new establishment? By speaking gracefully about the world in its abject nakedness, we can upscale the Alternative Manhattan Project. Bantering through Machiavellian realpolitik, in the most aesthetically provocative way imaginable, is the infinite solution. Get ready for the greatest fashion shows you’ve ever seen. Get ready for the return/rebirth of real Futurist art. Get ready for the return/rebirth of real underground music. Get ready for the new force! (of brutally honest conversations) Get ready. This is how we turn realpolitik into réalpolitique.

Let a Million Salons Bloom

Discussing the way in which humans politically transact was always a vanguardist affair. Politics got regulated to partisan pro-this-anti-that games, none of which held any significance to people who understood how the pendulum swung like a puppet in a never-ending game of democracy. This lead me to conclude that politics needed to transcend not only left and right but pro and anti. That our new position would be a direct strategy of elevating the bold and the brave to the top while pushing the liars and cowards to the bottom. What’s falling must be pushed, so grab some dominos and follow the rules, contrarians.

It’s easy.

The next time you encounter a PR Peasant, whatever their station in life is, tell them that they sound like a cashier at Walmart. “Only losers are afraid to tell the truth. You sound like a total bum. Has Walmart cut your hours in half?” The next time you hear someone speaking honestly and openly about the way society operates, whatever their station in life is, tell them that they sound like an aristocrat. Make sure to inform them that their dialogue is aristocratic. Invite them to all of the best parties.

These particular vanguardist affairs were never viewed through the lens of class, because it wasn’t until recently that we began to understand and reveal how the PR Peasantry turned anyone who uttered a word of realpolitik into members of the déclasse. It sure took a while for the Overton Window to shift on this one, guys. All the PR Peasantry did was create another Night of the Silver Spoons. They practically got us killed out there! (cancellations) There was no choice but to go full Sorelian and use the weapon of the enemy against them. (liberalism) This is precisely what brought Straussians onto the national stage.

In this ancient essay (2004) titled What You Can’t Say, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham delivers a history lesson:

“It seems to be a constant throughout history: In every period, people believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you would have gotten in terrible trouble for saying otherwise. Is our time any different? To anyone who has read any amount of history, the answer is almost certainly no.”

Yet it turned out that you actually could say anything you wanted, as long as you were Straussian about it. Leo Strauss is best understood through his magnum opus Persecution and the Art of Writing, which was a survival guide for freethinkers of any era that succeeded it. People began speaking in code in order to bypass the censors. You could literally be talking about war tactics in the guise of discussing the weather. It sure is nice outside, isn’t it, darling? You mean we’re going to take them down tomorrow in the back alley? Send our troops after their institutions? Yes my dear, it sure does look pretty outside.

The dinner parties continued as the Bay Area corpses began to appear more exquisite than they truly were, each fluffer placed onto a spreadsheet as they came into themselves backwards. Their coded language became a way to operate inside the bourgeoisie while still having an intimate knowledge of realpolitik. It was all just some infinite game to these freaks. A fintech project, mind you. Yet something was left to be desired, as Straussians were just Machiavellians who were playing it safe by pretending to be liberals. It was time for realpolitik to get an upgrade and become réalpolitique.

The Straussian to Machiavellian Pipeline

Suddenly, I could see it everywhere. Champagne for the truth-tellers. The bold and brave rising to the top, right here on American soil! The fanciest of institutions now brutally honest in every respect; an elegant way forward that refused to be crass yet remained completely raw in its creative self-expression. We could literally just produce this with our friends. As the old establishment valued delicate untruths as some degenerate type of social lubricant, the new elite would embrace unfiltered reality and engage in honest discussions about human power dynamics.

Like clockwork, there was a Straussian Split about this peculiar matter. It was a Trotskyist Weimar Republic without cabaret dancers. It was East Coast against West Coast. It was Biggie against Tupac. Straussians now had to make a choice. They could either uphold their positions in their DC institutions and pay lip service to the PR Peasantry, or create parallel institutions and become early adopters of the new regime. The Straussian to Machiavellian pipeline was reality, and the true division was those who were still playing institutional games against those who made themselves exceptions in order to be explicit among their peers. Yet once a preference cascade begins it cannot be stopped, hence realpolitik becoming réalpolitique is animist vitalism in a political frame. The chameleonic adaptability to seamlessly mesh with the perpetual flux of events as they unfold will never go away. 

To admit that most Straussians are Machiavellians is to acknowledge that the pursuit of power need not be cloaked in pseudo-mystery, yet discussed openly within its domain. This is how the process of turning realpolitik into réalpolitique begins. The Straussians who choose to remain power brokers of the old regime until it’s safe to come out of the cupboard should be remembered forgotten as the cowards they always were. Most Straussians were always Machiavellians anyway, and I’ll probably get kicked out of the Straussian Society for saying this, but I really don’t care because Compact Magazine rejected my last pitch and I’m punk rock. 

National Futurism

Vivienne Westwood was punk rock, and she became a luxury fashion icon as her garments sold for millions to the new elites as her nation shifted toward rule by avant-guard. In the rising elite, it is the Philosopher of Realism who prevails over the Preacher of Narrative. The bold and the brave have returned. Those still slumming in fantasies of subjective bias and Neo-Buddhist posturing will find themselves pariahs in a world where their lies are no longer considered noble. The populace secured only by their illusions shall be rendered the incompetents they always were. Those who speak of reality with tongues of scalpels while philosophizing with hammers will reign sovereign as long as they understand fashion, courage, merit, and honor.

Elegance must now be expressed in a way that makes discussions of human power relations explicit, but not explicit like what Foucault did to those students of his, and I do want to put this out there for “Machiavelli’s” sake. The more brutally honest the better the subject to install. Higher points for rarity, but keep it sincere, princes. Avoiding engaging in any form of ironyspeak unless politically necessary. Reward people financially for their courage to engage in frank discussions about how human power dynamics operate. If you remember who the creators of a new regime were, you know that history can never be erased.

In the Realm of Réalpolitique, an inversion of The Inversion takes place. The debased lies and PR tactics of the old regime become dogwhistles of society's fallen peasants. Those unafraid to combine unsavory veracities with aristocratic flair become the counter-elite. Cultured thugs, mind you. (credit to Jonathan Bowden for coining and embodying this archetype) A socio-cultural hierarchy built upon the premise that truth, however abrasive, is the purest expression of refinement is merged with beauty, grace, and alternative culture. Anything else is crude in comparison.

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In honor of Réalpolitique on Independence Day, I am offering a 75% off discount FOREVER to anyone who becomes a member of The Cultural Futurist in the next 24 hours. This gets you access to my private group chat, the ability to view my locked posts, entrance to my book clubs, and attendance to my salons both online and off. We need to rebuild our nation and get out of this degrowther era. We need to revitalize the cities and reanimate our nation. Grab a front row seat to the aesthetic vanguard as we perform the new regime ahead.

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