110 years ago, the Futurists of
1914 began to splinter into factions - but they had already made their biggest
impact, and now, 115 years since they basically started in 1909, their vision
has won.
Forget simply "fascism" to describe what the age of
Trump/Musk is about to look like - it's more complex, radical, dangerous and
at times visionary than that - 2025-2030 is going to be New Futurist - or to be
blunt, just Futurism Redux.
The main interests and aims of Futurism's manifestos were to celebrate a new age of the Machine - an age of speed,
violence, money, power, nihilism, war, global travel, and disruption. It was
not to be an age of peace, stability, good government or democracy - it was
about a radical and total overturning of the values of the world order up to
that stage in history.
Now, 2025 is set to fulfil this hope and programme - The richest man in the world, a tech visionary
businessperson who fetishes rockets and cars, and instant messaging, is the
disruptive Futurist par excellence - part Marinetti, part Mussolini. Now he is
in charge of America, along with another Futurist - the twisted-master of the
modern/postmodern media - the supreme nihilist - Donald Trump.
The West is
fragmenting like a modernist poem - France, South Korea, the USA... with
fascism rising or present in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and yes, USA
and Italy.
The Futurists were epitomised by the automobile, just as Musk is by his Tesla. "Move fast and break things" - the famous mantra or motto of the Tech Bros, is basically the main tenet of Futurism. The Futurist Manifesto: "We will glorify ... patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman."
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