What is called “paleofusionism” or the “new fusionism” is making headlines for its merger of hi-tech advocacy and traditionalist conservatism. It was the combination of these movements and philosophies that was seen as important in the coalition that elected Donald Trump for his second term as president, and its religious overtones are unmistakable. The conservative magazine First Things (February) provides an in-depth look at the new fusionism, with its editor R.R. Reno writing that there are tradeoffs that religious conservatives are facing in making common cause with such techno-futurists as Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen, such as regarding their belief in overcoming matter through technology and fulfilling our role as the “apex predator.” Yet Reno adds that both camps share opposition to Democratic policies, “woke” culture, and a belief in natural law and “the constrained vision, which honors the authority of reality.”
In another article, Nathan Pinkoski reviews a recent book by Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, which outlines the more specific agenda of paleofuturism. Roberts portrays technofuturists and traditionalist conservatives (or paleoconservatives) as the “party of Creation,” the defenders of God-given order, and the other side of the “party of Destruction”—progressive “revolutionaries” who seek freedom from tradition and our existing limits and who promote decadence. Roberts, a traditionalist Catholic, writes that this partnership is more than a tactical alliance against woke excesses. He and fellow paleofuturists push an “abundance agenda” which pulls “every plausible lever” to achieve pro-family conditions, large families, and population growth. Pinkoski concludes that the differences over issues like contraceptives and IVF, which the technofuturists (and Trump) avidly support, portend an uneasy marriage between these camps, as they display different imaginations and visions of the future.
(First Things, https://www.firstthings.com)
