As the planet rapidly heats up, fueling escalating environmental disasters worldwide, an insidious force lurks in the shadows – the far right. In his thought-provoking new book “Disaster Nationalism,” pioneering Marxist thinker Richard Seymour meticulously unpacks how extremist movements from Brazil to India shrewdly exploit ecological catastrophe. Rather than mobilizing action on the climate emergency, these groups conjure fictional doomsday enemies to exhilarate supporters, even as the world literally burns around them.
The Rise of Apocalyptic Fictions and Real-World Disaster
Seymour argues that mainstream explanations for the explosion of far-right disaster nationalism fall woefully short. It’s “too consistent over time and too global,” he writes, to stem from narrow phenomena like the backlash of fading white supremacy or Russian troll farms. A “violent reset” to “restore traditional consolations” of ethnic purity, patriarchy, and religion holds allure when faced with misery, insecurity and humiliation.
“Fictional collapse is so appealing,” Seymour says, because “you can’t shoot climate change.” As environmental devastation ravages the planet, apocalyptic fantasy provides a perversely revitalizing foe – a face to punch amid the overwhelming chaos.
Spontaneous Conspiracies Fueled by Disaster
Seymour explores how during the devastating 2020 Oregon wildfires – arriving on the heels of chronic local crises like rampant poverty, alcoholism and news-desert conspiracism – far-right Christians didn’t blame capitalism or climate change. Instead, with no evidence or coordination, they “spontaneously” fingered Antifa and Democrats, painting themselves as heroic victims thwarting communist takeover even as the fires raged.
“It’s far more attractive, exciting even, to attack a personalised enemy … All of us are susceptible to this, albeit not equally. There’s jackboots for all of us.”
– Richard Seymour
Solidarity Beyond the Human
Rather than scolds touting optimism or abstract calls to “organize,” Seymour advocates for tangible forms of life “where people need each other” across social divides. But crucially, he extends this comradeship beyond solely humans to the entire living world, the bedrock of an eco-socialist vision.
“If you imagine that you live in a planet where everything alive around you is purposive and has an intentional relationship to you,” says Seymour, “I think that motivates better behaviour.”
Amid the sixth mass extinction and a destabilizing biosphere, we ignore our unacknowledged dependencies – to other people, other species, other living systems – at our existential peril. For Seymour, this fundamental, ecological solidarity lies at the radical heart of the socialist project.
“What else are we talking about, if not love?”
– Richard Seymour on the meaning of socialism
As Crises Mount, a Path Forward
As ecological collapse accelerates by the day, the seductive sway of disaster nationalism shows no signs of abating. Extremist forces will continue exploiting environmental calamity to sow division and demonize “enemies,” with increasingly dangerous and authoritarian consequences.
But Seymour’s radical case for solidarity as a form of universal love, rooted in the recognition of our shared dependency within the fragile web of life, points to a transformative alternative. In an era of deepening planetary emergency, it is perhaps one of our strongest guides out of the dark – and into a livable, liberatory future.
