Dreaming of Superhumans: Reactionary Eschatologies in the 21st Century

This paper examines the “superhumanist” legacy of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy in contemporary reactionary movements, and shows that they promote a dark metaphysics that contains a hierarchized eschotology of exclusion and violence. The paper looks at two specific strains of this reactionary “superhumanism” – effective accelerationism, and “BAPism” – traces their legacies in Nietzsche’s thought, and argues that they owe their popular appeal in part to their superhuman ambitions, their "eschtaological" scope. In other words, I suggest that while these movements engender frightening political programs and messages, their appeal and power is ultimately grounded in their visions of superhumanity, and therefore speaks to an ontological dissatisfaction with merely “human” life. I conclude with thoughts about how to respond to these reactionary movements, and consider what competing visions of superhumanity might be able to contest them.