Thats… hyper anarcho primitivism, taken significantly beyond general anarcho primitivism, not fascism.
Its… accelerationist anti-civilizational hyper-individualism, something like that.
Even anarcho primitivism/ists would say we should return to pre-industrial, tribal societal forms… this goes even further beyond that and rejects even tribes as social units and units capable.of at least some specialized production… its like a cariacature of anarcho primitivism.
Tyler is the urge to destroy and to feel alive by constantly facing death… given a suave and calculating and attractive embodiment.
You may note how that description you quoted involves… no artificial hierarchy at all, no state, total free for all. It thus definitionally cannot be fascist, fascism requires a state, defined and maligned enemies, jingoism… there are maybe some elements of fascism here, but not many.
Though, his means of achieving this outcome is essentially a semi-fascist cult.
Its also not really about the aesthetic. The leather clothes bit is because leather is durable, civilization has collapsed so you’ll have to make your own clothes.
No aesthetic (beyond pure utilitarianism), no hierarchy, no community.
I’d argue it’s all aesthetic under the guise of utilitarianism. It’s the mall ninja version of survivalism, a bunch of dudes wearing leather causing mischief, beating their chest thinking they can just go feral.
They’re beating each other up causing permanent damage to each other, fantasizing about climbing high rises and doing tons of shit that is basically antithetical to survival.
They want to feel alive by always being near potential death. Because modern life is so unfulfilling, they want to create a world that basically cannot possibly be unfulfilling - managing to exist in it at all is a remarkable accomplishment.
They also accept death. Only in death do they have a name. Death is part of what they want, they want it to be always near, and when it actually strikes, this is an essentially holy event.
Thats not an aesthetic. An aesthetic is something you can take off, and put on a different one.
This is an ideology.
Utilitarianism is part of the ideology, but its ancillary, just a logical way of playing the game they want to play with death.
Taken at face value, the goal isn’t to be mischievious reprobates… that is the means chosen to achieve the ends.
The end they are working toward actually is the destruction of civilization.
Remember how the movie ends?
They blow up a bunch of buildings with a bunch of computers that have a ton of important bank records… in the 90s, you didnt have ‘the cloud’, having extensive offsite backups and physically distinct fallback clusters wasn’t unheard of, but it was much more rare than it is nowadays, less robust.
And, there are apparently Mayhem cells in many different cities around the country, possibly international.
If you interpret the story as… those buildings really did get blown up… that is a pretty credible step toward punching a hole in the finance system that underpins modern civilization.
What I’m trying to say is that I think they’re actually serious, they’re not cosplaying. Like, the Unabomber would be proud, maybe.
Its like if Aum Shinrikyo had happened in the US, in the 90s, with a different kind of cult ideology, but… these people are carrying out acts, toward a definable end goal, even if the means seem poorly thought out or unlikely to work.
They’re not primarily trying to survive. The whole point is that… the world they’re from, surviving is pointless, offers nothing real, the experiences are mundane and hollow.
The whole point is to change the world to make survival itself more challenging, more unforgiving, thus each moment of it is more rewarding, more stimulating, more satisfying. Doesn’t matter that there might be overall less of those moments, what matters is the less numerous moments mean more, feel like more.
Its really a kind of hedonism, actually. A masochistic and also de facto sadistic hedonism, a great reverence for struggle and pain and loss, that they want to be able to drown in and not be able to escape from.
… You have to assume that basically most of the story is just fully hallucinated, for it to only be cosplaying. If half of the shit described and depicted actually does happen, and it very much seems to because it happens to other characters and affects the world… yeah, the people following Tyler/Jack are literally willing to kill him to continue the plan if he reneges on it himself.
Even if Tyler/Jack dies, those other guys don’t, and they’re true believers, fanatics.
Thats… hyper anarcho primitivism, taken significantly beyond general anarcho primitivism, not fascism.
Its… accelerationist anti-civilizational hyper-individualism, something like that.
Even anarcho primitivism/ists would say we should return to pre-industrial, tribal societal forms… this goes even further beyond that and rejects even tribes as social units and units capable.of at least some specialized production… its like a cariacature of anarcho primitivism.
Tyler is the urge to destroy and to feel alive by constantly facing death… given a suave and calculating and attractive embodiment.
You may note how that description you quoted involves… no artificial hierarchy at all, no state, total free for all. It thus definitionally cannot be fascist, fascism requires a state, defined and maligned enemies, jingoism… there are maybe some elements of fascism here, but not many.
Though, his means of achieving this outcome is essentially a semi-fascist cult.
Its also not really about the aesthetic. The leather clothes bit is because leather is durable, civilization has collapsed so you’ll have to make your own clothes.
No aesthetic (beyond pure utilitarianism), no hierarchy, no community.
I’d argue it’s all aesthetic under the guise of utilitarianism. It’s the mall ninja version of survivalism, a bunch of dudes wearing leather causing mischief, beating their chest thinking they can just go feral.
They’re beating each other up causing permanent damage to each other, fantasizing about climbing high rises and doing tons of shit that is basically antithetical to survival.
They want to feel alive by always being near potential death. Because modern life is so unfulfilling, they want to create a world that basically cannot possibly be unfulfilling - managing to exist in it at all is a remarkable accomplishment.
They also accept death. Only in death do they have a name. Death is part of what they want, they want it to be always near, and when it actually strikes, this is an essentially holy event.
Thats not an aesthetic. An aesthetic is something you can take off, and put on a different one.
This is an ideology.
Utilitarianism is part of the ideology, but its ancillary, just a logical way of playing the game they want to play with death.
Taken at face value, the goal isn’t to be mischievious reprobates… that is the means chosen to achieve the ends.
The end they are working toward actually is the destruction of civilization.
Remember how the movie ends?
They blow up a bunch of buildings with a bunch of computers that have a ton of important bank records… in the 90s, you didnt have ‘the cloud’, having extensive offsite backups and physically distinct fallback clusters wasn’t unheard of, but it was much more rare than it is nowadays, less robust.
And, there are apparently Mayhem cells in many different cities around the country, possibly international.
If you interpret the story as… those buildings really did get blown up… that is a pretty credible step toward punching a hole in the finance system that underpins modern civilization.
What I’m trying to say is that I think they’re actually serious, they’re not cosplaying. Like, the Unabomber would be proud, maybe.
Its like if Aum Shinrikyo had happened in the US, in the 90s, with a different kind of cult ideology, but… these people are carrying out acts, toward a definable end goal, even if the means seem poorly thought out or unlikely to work.
They’re not primarily trying to survive. The whole point is that… the world they’re from, surviving is pointless, offers nothing real, the experiences are mundane and hollow.
The whole point is to change the world to make survival itself more challenging, more unforgiving, thus each moment of it is more rewarding, more stimulating, more satisfying. Doesn’t matter that there might be overall less of those moments, what matters is the less numerous moments mean more, feel like more.
Its really a kind of hedonism, actually. A masochistic and also de facto sadistic hedonism, a great reverence for struggle and pain and loss, that they want to be able to drown in and not be able to escape from.
… You have to assume that basically most of the story is just fully hallucinated, for it to only be cosplaying. If half of the shit described and depicted actually does happen, and it very much seems to because it happens to other characters and affects the world… yeah, the people following Tyler/Jack are literally willing to kill him to continue the plan if he reneges on it himself.
Even if Tyler/Jack dies, those other guys don’t, and they’re true believers, fanatics.