I think an interesting aspect here is that Eugine/Azeroth/Ra/Lion is a neoreactionary and believes in a strong hierarchy. Well, the mods are above you in the heirarchy, so respect their authority!
OTOH, an nrx might argue that the strength of the authority must be continually tested by fighting it. Their ideal society is a struggle of all against all, all the time. Respect is but the acknowledgement of another’s greater power, to be granted for only so long as they actually have it, and only to their face, as a polite ritual. They would argue that this is the essential nature of all society, and that only the weak pretend otherwise, the weak being everyone but them and their heroes from history. The strong do what they will and the weak bear what they must. Strength is the only real virtue, all others being but idle amusements of the leisure that only strength can provide.
I don’t think most nrxers do believe this, and one who did certainly would be a hypocrite to accuse a mod of abusing their power—if there is no morality but the will to power, then how could a mod, or anyone else, abuse their power?
if there is no morality but the will to power, then how could a mod, or anyone else, abuse their power?
Accusations of abuse would simply be a move in the power struggle. Nothing is true, all is a lie.
I don’t think most nrxers do believe this
I am extrapolating outrageously, of course. Or, to continue in this vein, those that don’t believe this are merely fellow-travellers and wannabe nrxs, beta foot-soldiers to be exploited by Those Who Know the truths that lesser beings fear, hide from, and hide from themselves the fact that they are hiding.
Accusations of abuse would simply be a move in the power struggle.
That’s always true, though, isn’t it? Most political conflicts are to some extent power struggles.
Nothing is true, all is a lie.
Or maybe an accusation of ‘abuse’ only becomes true ex-post-facto, as the pre-existing power structure is successfully overturned in some way. Since ‘power’ is often complex and has a multi-level structure, this must always be seen as a definite possibility.
Is it actually a tenet of neoreaction that “there is no morality but the will to power”? That doesn’t appear to me to be the position Eugine has espoused.
(There’s certainly some commonality in sentiment between NRx and Nietzsche, but that’s not the same question.)
[EDITED to add:] No, wait, I’m an idiot; skeptical_lurker wasn’t in fact saying or presuming that NRx as such embodies any such idea, and in fact sayx explicitly that most don’t. Excuse me.
OTOH, an nrx might argue that the strength of the authority must be continually tested by fighting it. Their ideal society is a struggle of all against all, all the time. Respect is but the acknowledgement of another’s greater power, to be granted for only so long as they actually have it, and only to their face, as a polite ritual. They would argue that this is the essential nature of all society, and that only the weak pretend otherwise, the weak being everyone but them and their heroes from history. The strong do what they will and the weak bear what they must. Strength is the only real virtue, all others being but idle amusements of the leisure that only strength can provide.
I don’t think most nrxers do believe this, and one who did certainly would be a hypocrite to accuse a mod of abusing their power—if there is no morality but the will to power, then how could a mod, or anyone else, abuse their power?
Accusations of abuse would simply be a move in the power struggle. Nothing is true, all is a lie.
I am extrapolating outrageously, of course. Or, to continue in this vein, those that don’t believe this are merely fellow-travellers and wannabe nrxs, beta foot-soldiers to be exploited by Those Who Know the truths that lesser beings fear, hide from, and hide from themselves the fact that they are hiding.
That’s always true, though, isn’t it? Most political conflicts are to some extent power struggles.
Or maybe an accusation of ‘abuse’ only becomes true ex-post-facto, as the pre-existing power structure is successfully overturned in some way. Since ‘power’ is often complex and has a multi-level structure, this must always be seen as a definite possibility.
Is it actually a tenet of neoreaction that “there is no morality but the will to power”? That doesn’t appear to me to be the position Eugine has espoused.
(There’s certainly some commonality in sentiment between NRx and Nietzsche, but that’s not the same question.)
[EDITED to add:] No, wait, I’m an idiot; skeptical_lurker wasn’t in fact saying or presuming that NRx as such embodies any such idea, and in fact sayx explicitly that most don’t. Excuse me.