I have received many responses to my recent
article on apoliteic music. Due to time constraints (unfortunately, time is not cyclic for me!), I could/can not answer all the responses, but I would like to comment on some of them here, in my blog. The first comment is on Kevin's response.
Hello Anton,
I just finished reading your article "Apoliteic Music" and found it quite interesting. Especially the topic of Apoliteic and its relation to Jünger and Evola. Although I'm not convinced many (perhaps only a handful really) understand Ernst Jünger in the neofolk/industrial movement, despite his name dropping.
You are absolutely right. I asked a few artists who participated the
Der Waldgänger compilation, and they told me that they had not read Jünger's
Der Waldgang. I am sure, however, that some of the bands (or at least some of their members) did read this work: e.g. Von Thronstahl and Lady Morphia, while other artists might have read some other Jünger piece(s). As for genuine understanding of Jünger: well, let us think who is Jünger for an average
apoliteic artist. He is a German nationalist, a Warrior, and a writer who glorified Aristocratic Values and criticised the decadence of the modern world. For some artists this short profile is sufficient, and since Jünger is an icon in specific "highbrow" circles, it is "trendy" and "cool" to refer to him. However, in the terms of the musical scene, the
apoliteic message does not suffer much from such a sketchiness: only a true
gourmet can distinguish between allegedly similar wines, and these people are rare.
I would almost contend that the "non political" answers to right wing allegations you mention with for example Folkstorm have more to do with being not able to provide appropriate answers or using fascist imagery for "shock value" and purely aesthetic purposes.
There are two issues: (1) reaction to the challenges of modernity and (2) employment of fascist imagery for aesthetic purposes. Since the first issue is dealt with in your article (on which I will comment later), I will consider only the second issue now.
Saying that fascist imagery is presented just for "aesthetic purposes" is a common excuse within the
apoliteic Neo-Folk/Martial Industrial scene. I would not take it at face value.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s fascist imagery was rather popular among certain British bands and artists: Sex Pistols, Siouxsie Sioux, Throbbing Gristle, Joy Division and some others. It was time of "high Thatcherism" and left-wing cultural rebellion against the bourgeois society. Sex Pistols wore t-shirts with swastikas and at the same time sang "
God save the Queen, and her fascist regime". That was what I call the "spit in the face of bourgeois society". The case of
apoliteic music is totally different. There is not just imagery but the
message articulated through music, lyrics, interviews, band names, album and song titles, cover art, style of dress, live performances. Back in the times of "high Thatcherism" fascist symbols were shocking and often "pointed cultural strikes", but now we have a scene with its own values, icons, and norms. It is important to stress that
apoliteic bands and artists are explicitly perceived as (metapolitical) fascists by their numerous fans too: see, for example, such Last.fm groups like
Neofolk Against Tolerance,
Intolerance,
White Europe,
Corneliu Codreanu, and
Honour, Heritage and European Pride!.
Finally, why should we isolate "aesthetic purposes" from fascism? Were not modernist buildings, massive marches, fims, etc. built, arranged and shot in the interwar period for genuine aesthetic reasons? As Roger Griffin argues,
[Italian and German fascist parties] became the protagonists and animators of a vast programme of cultural production, the most conspicuous of which took the form of ‘spectacular’ or ‘aesthetic’ displays of revolutionary energies (Roger Griffin, A Fascist Century: Essays by Roger Griffin. Ed. by Matthew Feldman (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p. 192.).
The issue of the "aesthetic" use of fascist imagery surely deserves further discussion. However, the argument that the employment of fascist imagery by specific Neo-Folk/Martial Industrial acts pursues an "aesthetic" aim and
therefore has nothing to do with fascism is misleading: both Italian Fascists and German Nazis were committed to the aestheticisation of social life.