Anglofuturism - where next

[Ridgemont]

Something I stumbled across recently is a concept called anglofuturism. A fair amount of online interest has been gathering over the last couple of years.


It stemmed initially from an article by Aris Roussinos on unherd:

https://unherd.com/2022/08/its-time-for-anglofutur...

It rejects neo liberalism and the post 70s settlement and instead looks at radical ideas to somehow push Britain out of the near two decade funk since 2008 and the GFC.

It seems to be gathering some steam with a lot of online interest.

Some of its ideas are mad, but not necessarily to be ignored. Some are fascinating.

https://capx.co/embrace-anglofuturism-we-can-jolt-...

The idea of Doggerland being turned into a vast offshore island seems brilliant if completely left field.
Space ports exist but doubling down.
Massive AI guidance to replace the massive issues with planning.
Scrapping green belts.
Etcetc.

https://model-thinking.com/p/a-new-atlantis

But it does seem to be gathering some motion:

https://mallarduk.com/2023/12/this-is-anglofuturis...

https://shows.acast.com/anglofuturism

https://www.potemkinvillageidiot.com/p/what-of-ang...

https://anglofuturistmag.substack.com/

I don’t think it’s a left right thing, but clearly some people are pouring in a lot of thought. It especially seems to energise a lot of forum thought.

I am intrigued where this may go. It seems like something worth paying attention to instead of the full drift of current policy decline.

Edited by Ridgemont on Tuesday 3rd September 23:54

[2xChevrons]

Ridgemont said:

I don’t think it’s a left right thing, but clearly some people are pouring in a lot of thought. It especially seems to energise a lot of forum thought.

I am intrigued where this may go. It seems like something worth paying attention to instead of the full drift of current policy decline.

It's late and I'm just doing a quick spin through my bookmarks before going to bed, so I will be brief and try and get back to this at some other point

I have not encountered the term 'Anglofuturism' before. I picked one of your links largely at random because I liked the name - the mallarduk one. Clever.

On the basis of that, I would strongly question your "I don't think it's a left right thing", because it seemed to be fairly cookie-cutter 'proper conservatism' of the sort we've seen already from the National Conservative conference and whatever that other group was called (Renewal or something?). They spin themselves as radical and new but all they are is old-fashioned conservatism that is less economically liberal and more socially chauvinist.

According to The Mallard, Anglofuturism is:

"a whole new mental model for Britain and the Anglosphere itself" and "an exciting new intellectual direction" but it includes:

- a swipe at Keynesian and '1970s strikes' and 'unemptied bins' (a gross oversimplification)
- a swipe at "an intellectual elite wedded to bizarre continental philosophies that distort reality" and "postmodernism and Marxism"
- a swipe at neoliberalism not for all the material problems it has foisted on the world but for "gluttonous money printing".

and then lays out its prescription:

- the nuclear family
- private home ownership
- 'best man for the job' competency

This triumvirate apparently make up "rich cultural heritage of the Anglosphere."

This is fairly typical cultural conservatism and reads like the spewings of Jordan Peterson.

Yes, there's the 'radical' idea that the government should ensure provision of healthcare and actually 'do things' but that's not really a grand new idea. And neither broad philosophy nor real specifics are provided as to what the government would do and how. Overall it seems to be very sceptical that the government should do anything than the physical, economic and cultural protection of the nation-state and everything else is done by enterprise and individuals. Hello conservatism, I didn't recognise you at first under that new hat...

Yes. On that reading, it seems to just be yet another rehash of the sort of techno-libertarian 'Singapore-on-Thames' vision that Dom Cummings and others have tried to convince the Conservative Party is the future.

They're right in saying that neoliberalism is breaking under its own inevitable processes and self-inflicted wounds, and that more and more people are feeling the effects and seeking an alternative. And they (and, it seems, The Mallard) are right to say that the political establishment in the UK (and elsewhere) are far too wedded to unthinking, reflexive, cargo-culting of that same neoliberalism to actually see the potential for change, let alone enact it

We saw how 'the blob' (to use a term I feel confident has graced the pages of The Mallard) reacted to any idea that something other than neoliberalism might exist, never mind succeed. Whether it was Corbyn, Cummings or Truss the wagons are circled and any ideological alternative is forcefully kept down.

But I don't see anything especially new or radical in 'Anglofuturism'. It's just the normal Silicon Valley small-state, nationalist, techno-fetish libertarianism that surely we're all pretty familiar with by now?

The term also seems to have stemmed from people typing 'futuristic Britain' into an AI image generator. So it seems to be an idea where the aesthetic comes first and the policies and realities are devised to bring the aesthetic to life. There's a worrying potential there, because there's one overarching political philosophy which is based around creating the aesthetic and then trying to make reality fit it, rather than letting aesthetic grow out of reality - and that philosophy is fascism. It's probably no real coincidence that the AI images linked to in the Mallard article all look like something out of an anime of a fascist Future Britannia - the squads of bearded armour-wearing Bobbies, the blonde white woman in front of a monorail, the fleets of Space Dreadnoughts watched by soldiers in WW1-style uniforms carrying Dan Dare blasters overlooking a city crowned by giant Union Jacks.

The fourth image, showing what seems to a construction site that's part rollercoaster theme park, part Ship Canal and part domestic patio, overflown by a Concorde/Vulcan hybrid, is less ominous. But tellingly is a scene that could have pretty much been reality if HS2 had gone ahead.

That it didn't is indeed a damning indictment of the current status quo. On those grounds I'll give 'Anglofuturism' the same response I gave National Conservatism - I think we pretty much agree on what the problems are, but the solutions are very different and, imo, largely not relevant, desirable or correct.

Maybe The Mallard has done the idea a disservice and I'll find there's more meat on the bones, and something actually fresh and radical and relevant when I read the other links. But I don't hold out a great deal of hope.

Edited by 2xChevrons on Wednesday 4th September 00:36

[wolfracesonic]

Is that your idea of brief Mr Chevrons? That’s more words than I’ve typed on PH all year

[Mr Penguin]

Ridgemont said:

The idea of Doggerland being turned into a vast offshore island seems brilliant if completely left field.

Are we supposed to say yes and ho?

[JagLover]

Ridgemont said:

It stemmed initially from an article by Aris Roussinos on unherd:

https://unherd.com/2022/08/its-time-for-anglofutur...

It rejects neo liberalism and the post 70s settlement and instead looks at radical ideas to somehow push Britain out of the near two decade funk since 2008 and the GFC.

I am familiar with Aris from some of his other articles on Unherd, some more recent than this. He has a tendency to hyperbole and also to twist the facts to suit his narrative in his article.

First of all there has been an economic failure, but one more of globalisation than of "neo-liberalism". After the reforms of the 80s the UK economy was booming as recently as the late nineties, and with "true" growth based upon productive activity.

Secondly there are multiple interwoven strands in the failure of the west in both economic and governance terms in the 21st century. He talks only off "neo-liberalism", but the state does less with more. The number of civil servants has recovered from its austerity dip and is now significantly higher than it was at the turn of the millennium, but public services are not run as well. So you also have to look at intangible aspects such as the management and culture in western institutions, as part of this it is hard to overlook the cultural self loathing that has taken hold and which wasn't anywhere near as strong twenty years ago.

Another factor is energy. It is no surprise that utopian imagined societies tend to be based on abundant very cheap energy or virtually free energy. We have chosen to make energy more expensive and this is the fundamental of any economy. You can argue for or against this decision, but it is one and will inevitably have an impact on living standards.

Finally he talks about various "conspiracy theories" and how instead we should attribute everything to a combination of incompetence and the failure of "neo-liberalism". The fact is we had an economic model that worked, and grew living standards for the majority, and now we do not. Looking at all the factors that have led to that we see perhaps less of a global conspiracy and more a series of decisions that prioritised both the wealthy over working people and ideology over working people. That is not a "conspiracy" more a governing class losing touch with their citizens and holding them in contempt.

Edited by JagLover on Wednesday 4th September 07:42

[JuanCarlosFandango]

Electric airships, eh?

Nothing that sounds very radical beyond some sci-fi fantasy stuff in the original article.