Sunday notes

Accelerationism

Dear Reader,

At 1:40 am I received a text message from my father. It read: “Be safe. I love you.” That’s how I knew we bombed Iran.

I’m at a conference on fear in Portugal. Yesterday afternoon I delivered a 30 minute talk on ideology and terror. I was going to read the paper I prepared, but the organizer asked me to just talk instead. As I paced back and forth across the stage talking about how ideology turns us away from our experience of being in the world, and implored people to please find new language to tell new stories, I occasionally glanced at the clock ticking down in the corner, telling me how much time I had left. I ended by saying: We have numbed ourselves to the political realities we face today by believing it is always five minutes to midnight. But the clock has stopped ticking. The chips are down.

When I stepped off stage I had an alert on my phone telling me B-2 stealth bombers had been deployed to Guam. That’s how I knew we were going to bomb Iran.

Last week I wrote it would only be a matter of time before we saw the beginning of a full-scale 21st century war. I’m not turning away from this judgment.

Here are my initial reflections:

We don’t know what is going to happen now. Nobody can predict the future. Politically, bombing Iran will allow Netanyahu to remain in power. It is entirely possible that the United States enters into a full-scale war - congressional approval or not - that will enable Trump to make a grab for a third term. Authoritarianism in America will come to power. Authoritarianism is not the right word. Neither is illiberalism, but it is closer. Accelerationism is the word that immediately comes to my mind.

Part of what we are witnessing is a contest between western democracy and orthodox forms of nationalism. Post-war Zionism, which capitalizes on anti-antisemitism, has never just been about protecting the Jewish peoples. It makes antisemitism worse, and antisemitism is a canary in the coalmine for the collapse of democratic institutions. The alliance between anti-antisemitism and the new far right today - In America and Israel - is enabling right-wing accelerationism.

It is possible that this will accelerate Iran’s nuclear proliferation program. We are already in a boomerang effect.

Netanyahu and Trump are waging war in order “to protect democracy and the Jewish people,” which has the effect of making Americans and the Jewish people less safe everywhere. Wars abroad destabilize political institutions at home, creating the conditions necessary for more intervention. This is also the function of political propaganda: Authoritarian leaders must constantly create the threat of insecurity and instability while at the same time promising to be the only ones who can create security and stability, in order to stay in power. Manufacturing a constant state of fear is the only way they keep power. And this is about power.

Authoritarianism is becoming a mere instrument to accelerationism. We are entering an era of accelerationist power politics.

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This week I met with

Suzanne Schneider

to talk about why this is happening now. Please listen to her implore common sense.

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Looking forward to seeing you this afternoon for a discussion of Eichmann in Jerusalem.

More soon.

Sam