••• The International Writers Magazine: Review

The Fourth Political Theory by Alexander Dugin published in 2009, first published in English in 2012 Publisher: Arktos Media Ltd (20 July 2012) ISBN-13: 978-1907166655 • Steve Nolten It is a book that presents itself as a road map of where the world might go after the defeat of the current liberal globalist world order. After recent nationalist electoral victories around the world, Brexit, the American bombing of the Syrian airbase, the works of Alexander Dugin take on a renewed significance, and none more so than The Fourth Political Theory.

DISCLAIMER: If the perspective of the NY Times and The Washington Post seem well reasoned to you, then this book is definitely not for you. If the MSM just seems a little biased and you think that the best solution to the world’s ills are just more tax breaks and constitutional free market principles, then this book may see a little too ‘out there.’ If, on the other hand, you can’t get halfway through any MSM ‘news’ articles without wishing Ragnarok would hurry up and start so that our children’s only exposure to liberalism will be through classes on ancient anthropology, then this book may be of some use to you.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin by delineating what Dugin means by the word “Fourth” in his book’s title. According to Dugin, liberalism was the modern world’s first political theory, followed by communism, and fascism thirdly. Fascism was the last modern political theory, and the first to be defeated. Communism took longer to be defeated: the length of the Cold War. Now liberalism stands alone in this unipolar world; its worldwide triumph seems inevitable. This inevitability seems less so now with recent developments, such as Brexit and Trump in the White House.

Enter: the fourth political theory (4pt). It is not a complete theory, Dugin is very forthright about this. Instead, it is an invitation, a starting point. According to Dugin, liberal individualism is not really about the freedom of the individual that it advertises itself to be. Liberalism is portrayed as inherently hostile to all of the world’s traditional cultures, and is essentially hostile to religion in the traditional sense. This is liberalism as the ideology of consummate meaninglessness. So, to put it another way: you are free to be who you want to be as long as you don’t want to be a citizen in a traditional society. The essence of 4pt is authenticity of being vs. the plastic commercialized uprootedness of liberalism, and quite a bit of attention is given to what Heidegger called ‘Dasein.’

The endgame of 4pt: the world’s traditional cultures must band together in order to annihilate liberal dominance, since it is unlikely that any one of them can accomplish this on their own. Civilizational great spaces (grossraum) must be created in the wake of liberalism’s defeat, which will be the foundation for a truly postmodern world order, one which will honor and preserve real cultural diversity.

As the New World Order continues to unravel before our eyes, it will be interesting to see how 4pt develops both in its native Russia, as well as in conjunction with (or reaction to) the Trump administration, the European New Right, the French National Front (election coming soon! stay tuned!), the North American Alt-Right, various nationalist movements sprouting up everywhere from the Philippines to India, and other enemies of global liberal hegemony.

“Sooner or later the endless spectacle is over. Then we will take revenge. MERCILESSLY.” - Alexander Dugin

© Steve Nolten April 2017
stevenolten@gmail.com

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