The Populist Mindset

Hey, I’m back!

And I hope this one will generate some buzz as well. The last article I wrote was reposted on Revolver News and we got an influx of newcomers that are busy digging around the archives and catching up to speed. Welcome!

We talk a lot about Populism and strongmen here and it’s about time we talked about the characteristics of a successful populist - that is, the proper approach that a populist must perfect in his dealings with the people. The perfect word for this is “снисходительность” but it doesn’t translate well to Anglo. I guess “magnanimity” comes close as it deals with greatness of spirit in relation to others. But the Russian word has a more politico-religious connotation and it describes the proper behavior for a ruler or a higher-up to display vis a vis his subjects. There may also be cultural differences in what different ethnes look for in their populist strongmen and so tweaks have to be made based on the collective psychology of the people we are dealing with.

All that being said, снисходительность isn’t a hard concept to understand and it basically boils down to an attitude of benevolent condescension mixed with fatherly-type forgiveness applied by a superior person to his dealings with an inferior one.

Nicholai Rerich

But there’s an important qualification worth discussing here.

Benevolent condescension doesn’t work on people who believe you to be on the same level as them or even beneath them. It only works if you establish yourself as being above them either intellectually, physically, spiritually or in social status. Ideally, the populist leader has all of these advantages at once.

Having all these advantages, the superior man naturally becomes a source of envy, especially if he acts with disdain to those who are beneath him. Nothing inspires more contempt in people than a superior person who lets his superiority be known and rubs it into the faces of his lessers. It is very dangerous to both be superior in some way and haughty to those beneath you. Such men earn themselves lifelong enemies and, if entire castes behave this way, they find themselves eventually facing down rebellions.

A man who, instead, treats his lessers with forgiveness and fatherliness is passionately loved and history is filled with the many examples of these kinds of men.

The story of Jesus Christ is archetypical in this sense. Here the literal son of God begs God, a man who is spiritually superior to everyone he comes across, begs his Father to forgive the people who watch him an agonizing death because they’re too weak, too stupid and well, you know the line: they do not know what they do. The stories of Jesus’ benign condescension to the masses earned him adoring love for centuries onwards. Julius Caesar had the same approach. Here was a man who was superior even to the elites of his day and yet he managed to win the love of the simple people. How? Benign condescension. Examples abound. You know it when you see it, really.

Chivalry towards yon maidens fair works on the same principle really.

The knight is a mobile, metal, killing-machine on four legs that is obviously capable of taking what he wants. That is why him raising his visor and offering a rose is such an arresting and romantic gesture. Chivalry, of course, is dead. But it is dead not because men have become pigs as the feminists say, but because men are no longer lean, mean, killing-machines. A lion choosing to lay down with the lambs is considered something unique and exemplary. A house cat doing the same is not considered anything worth writing about. A powerful man that refrains from taking a woman by force (even though he can) is loved. The reason for this ought to make sense intuitively and it is the same phenomenon at work with benign condescension. Yes, the Tsar could look down his nose at the commoners because he, objectively, has all the reasons to do so. After all, he is better-educated, more powerful, richer etc. The fact that he choose not to do so and instead forgives them for their boorishness, weakness and poverty wins them their undying love.

I, as you well know by now, dear reader, have few good things to say about the masses. That being said, the main message I am preaching here is actually one of forgiveness. Do not ascribe agency to them, do not assign higher mental or emotional faculties to them and do not assume that they even have the same soul caliber as you. Instead, acknowledge how hopeless they are and then forgive them, for as Christ himself said: they know not what they do.

Do not fall into the trap of pretending that these people are the same as you though. And do not take their opinions too seriously or try to act more like them. Focus on raising yourself above them in some way, instead. Attain positions of authority, develop skills, etc. And then, from the heights of the summit that you have reached, turn around, look down and remember the phrase “benign condescension” before you give in to your natural urge to spit a loogie.

Remember: Populism is a technology - a series of techniques that one can learn and apply to one’s own life as well as applied on a much higher level as well.

We need to move past ideological debates and, also, the constant griping about how bad everything is and dedicate ourselves to studying techniques and technologies for raising ourselves and our people up to resist the parasitic gang of psychopaths who rule over us.