The Regime of Reaction Available to Purchase

Part 5 weaves the results of the philosophical discussions in parts 2-4 into a full-fledged theory of fascism and fascisizing tendencies, returning to the problem of collective personhood and the alternative to theories of charismatic leadership set up in part 1. Part 5’s discussion of error is further developed by mobilizing Spinoza’s distinction between adequate and inadequate ideas, supplemented by Deleuze’s theory of reaction and Nietzsche’s theory of ressentiment. A lengthy analysis of conspiracy thinking follows, arguing that it is not simply irrational, but is actually a form of hyper-intellectuality, just one whose will-to-truth goes awry. Racism is reinterpreted in these terms. Gabriel Tarde’s concepts of belief and desire link the discussion back to the workings of social media. The discussion of Trump opens out into a consideration of the historical variants of fascism and the problem of typology based on those empirical examples: wed to the past, it will never be able to anticipate the next version that may be already at the emergent stage.