palingenetic
ultranationalistic age
meet the enemy …
In the book, The Winds of War, Rhoda Henry is in Berlin and sees all the Third Reich icons and says to her husband Pug,
“What on earth does NSDAP stand for?” Rhoda said, peering out of the window of the embassy car at the multitudinous gilded poles.
“National Socialist German Workers Party,” said Pug.
“Is that the name of the Nazis? How funny. Sounds sort of Commie when you spell it all out.”
I like words and I write this blog to recognize unique word usage but when I ran across palingenetic ultranationalistic this morning in the article, US businessman is wannabe ‘warlord’ of secretive far-right men’s network by Jason Wilson (The Guardian, 8/22/2023) I had to stop and say, “What on Earth is palingenetic ultranationalistic.”
According to Wikipedia, palingenetic ultranationalistic is the effort .. to attract large masses of voters who have lost their faith in traditional politics and religion by promising them a brighter future.
The palingenetic myth can also possibly stand for a return to a golden age in the country’s history so that the past can be a guidebook to a better tomorrow.
… there will be one great leader who battles the representatives of the old system with grassroots support. It appears as one mass of people with only one goal: to create their new future. They have infinite faith in their mythical hero as he stands for everything they believe in. With him, the country will rise like a phoenix from the ashes of corruption and decadence.
Sounds sort of Commie when you spell it out.
North Korean type Commie.
Joseph Stalin kind of Commie.
But it seems to the be the basis for a secretive, men-only, invitation-only far-right network here in America.
Still sounds sort of Commie when you spell it out.
Not that spelling it out helped me too much.
Wikipedia tries to help explain by using palingenetic ultranationalistic in a sentence.
National-anarchism has been argued to be a syncretic political ideology that was developed in the 1990s by former Third Positionists to promote a “stateless palingenetic ultranationalism”.
Have to say I haven’t seen so many poly syllabic words is so short a sentence in a long time.
I did notice that according to the article this far right network is a registered non profit under section 501(c)(10) of the Internal Revenue code.
Jim Harrison once wrote something along the lines of if you really want to take a stand and protest against the government, stop paying your taxes.
So I feel a little less threatened that these folks are concerned about their non-profit status.
Or should I feel more threatened?
Kind of like Tony Soprano hustling around to get his W2 ready.
Never the less, the article was chilling and the comments about warlords and maximum leaders brought to mind Mr. Big Brother from George Orwell’s 1984.
” … on the face of the coin [was] the head of Big Brother. Even from the coin the eyes pursued you. On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrapping of a cigarette packet — everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed — no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.”
Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull.
Who are these people?
Where did this people come from?
As Pogo said back over 50 years ago, we have met the enemy and they are us.
No Haiku For You 