From Metternich to MAGA: the historical relay of reactionary politics

In one of our previous posts we have tackled what might be called the “end-of-history illusion” within the dominant mindset. While this term is utilised within the field of individual psychology, it is painfully absent when discussing global social and political issues. The awareness of this ideological fallacy might have prevented Francis Fukuyama from committing his famous yet shocking error regarding the future of our political evolution. Namely, his suggestion that humanity had after the fall of the Soviet Union reached the end of its historical social development. But Fukuyama was by no means the sole person to have been immobilised by his historical circumstances. Below is a quote - dating from the first half of the 19th century - which demonstrates an equal failure to understand and predict historical trajectory:

“Austria will never give up either its position or its rights in favor of any political system originating outside its borders.”

This was stated by Klemens von Metternich, not only the prominent statesman representing the Imperial Austria of the day, but also one of the key 19th century’s conservative figures. Of course, being a conservative in early 19th century Europe is not exactly the same as defending the conservative position in our times. What they both have in common, however, is their inability to grasp the historical law of social change as well as their inevitable historical defeat. Aside from this, as far as their political content is concerned, the differences might even seem ironic. For example, while in our times the nationalistic cause is part and parcel of the conservative camp, our Klemens von Metternich was a staunch opponent of nationalism. And this should by no means come as a surprise. During his lifetime nationalism was a novel, radical, as well as a progressive idea. And don’t the conservative people just love such ideas?

What Metternich was stating above is, first and foremost, his assurance that the Austrian Empire would never be subdivided into smaller territorial units based on nationalities and national aspirations. And yet, we all know Austrian history, as well as that country’s current political map. And to be sure, Austria was not his only missed shot. Metternich was also convinced that Italy would not be unified and constituted on the national basis:

“The word 'Italy' is a geographical expression, a description which is useful shorthand, but has none of the political significance the efforts of the revolutionary ideologues try to put on it, and which is full of dangers for the very existence of the states which make up the peninsula.”

Furthermore, Metternich’s intellectual failures would be matched by his unsuccessful foreign policies:

“He opposed the Greek revolt against the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1821 along with revolts in Spain and Naples. Nonetheless, the Greek war of Independence succeeded eventually in 1829.[...] During the Greek revolt, Metternich had a staunch ally in the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereigh, a conservative who opposed revolts against lawful rulers. Both supported the use of force to crush rebellions and believed in the importance of maintaining security in Europe.”

It must appear at least a little bit paradoxical that the predecessors of our day Britain and Austria - supposedly Christian societies embattled against the invasions of Muslim immigrants - were once lending political support to the Ottoman Empire against the national aspirations of the Greeks. But let’s return to the initially quoted Metternich’s statement. He simply believed that such subversive ideas as nationalism or liberalism had originated in France, that they were merely an ideological whim, and that it would be possible to fight them off. He would not have considered the possibility of those ideas being the result of economic progress, whereby if not in France, they would have eventually emerged somewhere else, potentially even within Imperial Austria. Nobody could have proven to him that such ideas are never a mere ideological whim. And finally, it would have been impossible to make Metternich understand that his was a historically lost cause. And all these features, by the way, apply ahistorically to all conservative movements.

“According to Metternich, the liberal revolutions of the 1820s and ’30s in Spain and parts of Italy and Germany were ‘unhistorical’ and unrealistic. Liberals were engaged in a futile attempt to impose the English institutions of parliamentary government and constitutional monarchy in places where they had no historical roots. Using arguments borrowed from Burke, he insisted on the need for continuity with the past and orderly, organic development. Hence his sarcastic comments on the liberal revolutions in Naples and elsewhere:

‘A people who can neither read nor write, whose last word is the dagger - fine material for constitutional principles!…The English constitution is the work of centuries.…There is no universal recipe for constitutions.’”

And yet, here we are. All these errors in historical judgement might even make Fukuyama less depressed today. At the same time, they could also serve as a historical lesson to our contemporary conservatives, who regard feminist ideas, LGBT rights, as well as racial equality in the same manner as Metternich regarded nationalism. Just as the latter was defending a world on its deathbed, so are the former defending a social world that is dying its natural death. Historical social change entails a never-ending streak of such consecutive deaths. And at every historical junction we find our conservative friends who decry the natural deaths of their particular worlds.

At our particular historical moment, however, they appear globally to be very optimistic and confident. As confident as Metternich once was. Finally, they say, with the election of Trump we can now stop all this woke nonsense, and return to the normal state of things. With the weight of the MAGA movement behind them, they openly express optimism over reversing all of the supposedly abominable trends that are associated with wokism. And why would it not, after all, be possible to halt and even turn back the social evolution of humanity? The answer is history. History demonstrates that there is always a reactionary wave after a certain period of social change. And history also shows that such historical moments are always merely temporary setbacks. MAGA is the expression of our reactionary moment. Klemens von Metternich, for his part, was the central representative of the reactionary spirit during his lifetime.

“Despite the restoration of the monarchic order, liberal and nationalist ideas were still being expounded, particularly among the bourgeoisie and at the universities. The Wartburg Festival of 18 October 1817, at which some 500 students gathered to voice their criticism of the status quo, was the first nationwide event held by the movement for national unification. The murder of a writer, August von Kotzebue, by Karl Ludwig Sand, a member of the liberal nationalist student fraternity known as the Burschenschaft, in Mannheim in 1819 heralded a phase of stricter surveillance and harsher repression. The Carlsbad Decrees, adopted in 1819 at the instigation of Austria’s foreign minister, Klemens von Metternich, established a police-state regime of surveillance and repression, designed to keep a tight lid on any opposition activity. As part of the so-called ‘demagogue prosecutions’ by the Central Investigation Commission which was set up in Mainz, draconian sanctions were used to silence leading representatives of the opposition. This was a severe blow to the organisation and development of the nationalist and liberal movement.”

“If the alliance of the European Powers has shown how beneficially the principle of strength gained by the union of many for the general welfare acts in relation to politics, the example of Carlsbad shows the world that the union of Governments for salutary legislative ends is not less possible, and is equally productive of results. The party whose aim is to disunite States as well as individuals has evidently received its death-blow. The truth of this assertion must be apparent to every impartial observer[...]”

As we see, Metternich believed his policies had provided the “death-blow” to nationalism, liberalism, and democracy. This conservative and reactionary individual is also often credited with the claim that “nationalism is the megalomania of small nations”. A phenomenal combination of being so confident and so historically wrong at the same time. And there have been millions like him before us, there are millions like him today, and, unfortunately, there will most likely be millions like him in the future. And all of this seems to be due to the unwillingness of mankind to learn from history. Due to the simple refusal to not take for granted the contents of one’s mind. Due to the obstinate insistence on ahistorical correctness because “I believe so”.

To finish off, one final historical parallel. We have recently seen energetic attacks upon the universities, for instance against the DEI policies in the US, or against pro-Palestinian activism more generally. Likewise, the media entities have also been pressed to comply. And yet again, this is nothing new as far as historical social change is concerned. Below are the thoughts of our good old Klemens von Metternich regarding his crusade against nationalism and liberalism in the post-Napoleonic Europe:

“I have never feared that the revolution would be engendered by the universities; but that at them a whole generation of revolutionaries must be formed, unless the evil is restrained, seems to me certain.... The greatest and consequently most urgent evil now is the press.... All journals, pamphlets in Germany must be under a censorship.”

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/conservatism/Conservatism-in-the-19th-century
https://www.bundestag.de/en/parliament/history/parliamentarism/1800_1848
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/626488a3-6ee4-4e5b-a194-ef324bdeac19/content
https://prezi.com/p/itvkpim7vghp/ap-european-history-the-project-ap-european-history-yearbook-project/
https://www.bookey.app/quote-author/klemens-von-metternich
https://www.thenationalherald.com/metternich-and-the-greek-question-1821-29/
https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/research-report-reversing-the-woke-takeover-of-higher-education-strategies-to-dismantle-campus-dei

Image by Freepik.com