Existential Justification of Russian Special Military Operation

Session 8 “Total mobilization. Part 2”

I would like to build on the words of Andrei Korobov-Latyntsev, who considers total mobilization as a Jüngerian concept, and on the Jüngerian model itself, which is obvious and in a certain sense does not need any further deepening. Ernst Jünger is an extremely explicit thinker; he is very aphoristic. In his works, he expressed everything he wanted. He clearly said what he wanted to say, so even the comments about it are not of much interest. However, in Martin Heidegger's hundred-volume work there is one of the volumes that is a reprint of Jünger's work. It has Heidegger's notes in the margins. This is very interesting. Here we see Jüngerian thought integrated in the multidimensional and spiritual intellectual universe of Heidegger. And if we turn to Jünger's idea of total mobilization in a Heideggerian manner, then we get an existential theory of mobilization. Practically what is intended. It is worth exploring this in more detail.

We read the thesis of the total mobilization in the context of Heidegger, and what do we get out of it? Exactly what Andrei was saying, that total mobilization means changing how one exists. According to Heidegger, there are two fundamental ways of existing, i.e. Dasein: inauthentic and authentic. When Dasein, that is, our human presence, the thinking presence, asks in the world what existence is and turns to its essence and comes face to face with death, because it is death that is the main existential of Dasein. It exists fully in the face of death, and that's when this question is properly asked, when death is before us and we don't run away from it and we don't turn our backs on it, that's when we exist authentically. In a sense, this can be described both as a total mobilization on an existential level and as what I would call an awakening. This, too, is fundamentally in the spirit of classical philosophy. It cannot happen without coming into contact with Death, simply because it is always a state of being confronted with Death. Philosophy, life, culture, art begin at this point, because there are no works of art, literature, philosophy, there is no life at all that does not follow from this fundamental awakening, from the act of at least one moment of authentic Dasein existence. So, if we understand total mobilization in this way, then we are talking about the fact that society has changed the mode of existence from the non-awakened, inauthentic to the authentic.

Semyon Pegov reflected this very well in his postings. In fact, a "watershed" between two types of existence - authentic and inauthentic - is simply drawn in an example of today's attitude toward the special military operation (SMO). Those who are part of the SMO, those who are called to the front, whether in the rear or directly on the line of contact with the enemy - they are those who, one way or another, exist authentically.  And those who turn away, turn their backs on the SMO, on this war, they exist inauthentically. Therefore, some are mobilized; others are not. Some are awake. Others are deeply asleep. This will not save them from bombing, from dying. But in fact, this will free them from having to turn around and face death. The shell hit that the sleeper gets comes from behind, because the sleeper usually runs away from it. The one who is awake gets hit directly facing it. He sees the last moment. This is his destiny in a way. It can be very scary.

Thus, we are dealing with a rather specific state of being. Nietzsche spoke about this when he was at the front and saw people awakened and thought they would stay that way. He was shocked to find that when the war ended, people fell asleep again. Warriors fell asleep, heroes fell asleep, people who woke up fell asleep. So this is a temporary state, but a priceless one. This state is existential.

And indeed, if we approach the existential theory of society (in Heidegger's Black Notebooks this theory is sketched out in basic terms), then we can say that Dasein is indeed not unique for each individual. That is, there is no Dasein of awakened people and Dasein of unawakened people - it is the same Dasein. A person simply exists either this way or that way. And here we are talking about a very delicate balance. When Dasein exists more authentically than less authentically, the proportions shift into awakening. Society awakens, and irreversible changes in Being occur. A new philosophy, a new culture, a new poetry, a new way of life, and a new human being come to life. And this new human being, even when he reaches awakening - there are no quantitative parameters for it, because people are very different. Some categories of people are obviously outside this existential sphere. Of course, they still belong to it, but act like props. We are talking about a significant part of the nation, no matter if it is the elite or ordinary people. And these significant ones that outline the Dasein may be more awake than less awake, or more asleep than less asleep. I think we are in a 50/50 state, which means that the significant core of our Russian society is half asleep, half awake. Of course, before that, if we compare it with the state of 1990 or 2000, it was safe to say that society was sleeping, was in a completely inauthentic state. There was no history, there were no meanings; there was just a total snorting. And if some passionaries happen to arise against this background, then they do not change anything. If someone is awakened, then he, like Cassandra, speaks of reality, but society sleeps.

And now, halfway through this significant society core, it has begun to awaken. And this is of huge importance. But it is walking a very fine line. Just a little bit more and we are going to wake up. If we don't have enough strength, we'll fall asleep. And this cannot but affect the army and the course of hostilities. This is our life - the life of our people, our society today. This is reflected in the culture: every music video, every message of a war correspondent, every poem by Anna Dolgoreva, every loss and every gain changes this balance before our eyes. This is the balance between being authentic and not being authentic. That is, to be authentic or not to be authentic is decided by everyone today. In this regard, we have mobilization, but it is not total. It will become such when it is one breath further. I'm not saying that the masses are about to wake up, no. I'm only talking about critical mass. Here we can have 50/50. There is a little bit of awakening, and it can be seen in everything. A little bit this balance shifts to sleep - and again the collapse, the change of agenda, and everything is inauthentic, and we fall back into a deep sleep. We stand on the edge, on the frontier, as Dasha Dugina used to put it, - on the frontier between authentic and inauthentic existence. But here we can have a reminder that, in Heidegger's view, Dasien itself is this frontier. This is a very interesting pronoun that is neither "here and not there"; nor too far, nor too close. Our being is located on this frontier. And this balance between the authentic and the inauthentic is our frontier. It separates partial mobilization from total mobilization. Or including an existential or technical dimension of war. There are people who have perceived this war as their own war, which means that they have awakened, which means that they are totally mobilized. And there are people who, even if they participate in it, remain somewhere on the sidelines. They don't let it in and they sleep, even being on the front line.

In fact, we are now dealing with a visual experience of existential social theory, a Heideggerian-heroic one.

And existential justification has nothing to do with what kind of war it is. Because here it is only primary. If there is an awakening, then there will be a war. If there is an Existence, then it is going to collide with Death, because we are all mortal. And it doesn't matter whether we face death in Africa, as Nikolai Gumilev sought, or in World War I battles. That is, it is not war that awakens this. It is authentic existence that seeks this experience. And finds it everywhere. It is very important. In such an existential justification of our SMO, we did not say anything about the enemy. In fact, we should not talk about enemies, because whoever we were at war with, we would have to say the same thing. Because in this case, Death is on the other side, and talking to her is on our side. And it does not matter who we are fighting with. This existential theory of war is applicable to any war that involves awakening and total mobilization.

So, who are we fighting?

I'm going to share my metaphysical intuitions. Still not dialoging, but we are getting there. Attention should be paid to the metaphysical expressions. So, who are we fighting? What we are fighting is a very strange phenomenon. In my opinion, for the first time in our entire history we are at war with the Enemy. That is, with the Enemy capitalized. For the first time we are confronted with forces that can be recognized, not metaphorically but with good reason, as being beyond human proportions, that is, beyond the human limits.

When we were at war with the Teutonic Order, they were Christians of a different denomination. They were people of a traditional society. When we fought the Poles, they were Catholics, a culture close to ours. Lev Sapieha even had the idea of uniting the three confessions - Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox - on the basis of the Slavic mission. Such communistic but Christian intentions anyway. When we fought Napoleon, we fought a pretty tough modern bourgeois world - the bourgeois West. This is more serious. The enemy was greater. When we were at war with Hitler, it was absolutely terrifying. There was no place for us in the Nazi plans. And now we find ourselves at war with something that is a lot more frightening than Hitler. We are at war with what is called the absolute nemesis. Prior to that, they had been relative enemies. But now it is the absolute Enemy. And there has never been such an Enemy in our history. And that changes everything. What kind of Enemy is this? This is the current postmodern globalist West, which in turn is the result of the formation of modern Europe. That means modern Europe has been going to Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Anthony Blinken for 500 years. This is an outcome of world history. Posthumanist formations, i.e., cyborgs, are to follow. As Donna Haraway said, "Cthulhu Zen", that is, a cross between cellophane bags, octopuses, or women living in such a post-apocalyptic mud, cybercrime, which is already actually putting an end to the human species (posthumanism, transhumanism, and singularity). And the Western globalist circles are the last transitional state from human being to algae. And here comes a very interesting point: these globalist circles are disintegrating. If we look at their culture we see that it doesn't stand tall, it's slipping. They can't utter anything. They are degenerating as humans. Transgender parades already hardly allow us to understand what kind of species we are dealing with. There are no economic promises there. This world no longer lures anyone. And it seems to be some kind of senile hallucination of the decaying brain that creates last images from the West. Accordingly we, who have not reached such an extent, who are much more traditional, are struggling with this extreme form of degeneration. Provided that we do not lose human dignity and do not succumb to this unattractive image, we will defeat them. Because we are health, and they are disease. As our Slavophiles used to say, we are not so old, we are young peoples. And here an interesting point arises. We have approached the beginning of SMO, that if we show some kind of courage, fortitude, and they will shatter and fall to pieces themselves. The reason is that all these gay parades against our Russian strong harsh men will not be able to withstand for a long time. It turned out to be false. I have the impression that under this junk of disintegrating humanity a certain fang, a rod, or a laser beam of black light, or rather anti-light, has appeared, which has actually completely dissolved Ukraine.  And it is useless to talk about fraternal people. There are none. For they have just been grounded by the black light that suddenly began to beam from beneath this Western junk. When they're grimacing and squealing, it's completely different. It's no longer the people, it's no longer the enemies. They simply don't exist. But they are replaced by the Enemy, the Nemesis, the very real, absolute Enemy of the human race, to which only theological categories are supposed to be applied. It turned out to be extremely strong, that suddenly, in the face of this junk, we suddenly began to retreat, to tremble, and we suddenly found ourselves in a strange state. Besides, we feel healthy, they are certainly sick. But suddenly the disease starts to win, and not this decrepit disease, but something else breaks out under these masks. And it seems that the force involved in this war on the other side is several dimensions tougher and more ribbed than anticipated. That is to say that suddenly something is happening there that is so serious that we did not take it into account when we looked at the collapse of Western civilization. They look inauthentic. Liberalism has captured them. Everything human in them has collapsed. They are preparing for the mutation of the humanity, transferring their last power to AI. But where did they find such strength? Well, it's not their strength. When you look at them, they barely speak. Once they have to lie, their little pathetic subhuman trills suddenly become a frenzied symphony that is deafening. It becomes the music of the spheres. This means that we are dealing with a very serious phenomenon, which is the transition of human civilization to a lower dimension. We thought it was the bottom, but it turns out it's not. There's something else under the bottom. That is, out of backside, out of matter, out of disintegration, out of nothing, out of back of nothing, someone is alive, someone is out there. And the emergence of these infernal landscapes, which are now being discovered, is a complete game changer in the entire map of this war. We are dealing with a non-human factor. With such a multi-human factor that manifests itself in a very harsh manner. And it's just that our norms there - healthy men, fraternal solidarity, ethical feelings not lost, love for the Motherland - are smashed against such a sharp, black reef, which was not pulled up by the HIMARS, but from somewhere underground. And then we find ourselves in a very interesting situation. We cannot defeat this power by simply normalizing or preserving something human in a non-human element. By doing so, we'll be crushed. First of all, we will find that this black ray penetrates us, too. That it acts not only from the outside but also from the inside. That it paralyzes the operational headquarters, that it hypnotizes the think tanks, that it encapsules us. This is when awakened people find themselves between a rock and a hard place. The human resistance, with all its goals, is squeezed between these black pincers from the inside and from the outside. Here, another fundamental dimension is added to existential awakening. That is, here the war becomes truly eschatological and metaphysical. Another dimension is revealed, i.e., pure eschatology. Because if we are dealing with him, with a true Enemy, then we cannot defeat him by ourselves, without God's help. That is, we are already talking about the fact that we need someone else besides ourselves, besides our heroics, our mobilization, and that someone else is able to dissolve this unbelievably black crystal.

This is how I intuitively see what is happening. I mean, when we talk about betrayal or inadequate decisions or the lack of awakening of society - this is all true. But the wording is wrong. There is something much more serious and deeper hidden here. There is a mystery in this war, a real mystery. There is an existential aspect, and there is also a vertical axis. I have made several publications and statements on this subject. Many people react emotionally. Many feel the same way as I do, but of course the formulations of this metaphysical picture are not yet cast. And again, Dasha's thoughts about the frontier will also be of help, because we thought we were fighting enemies in Ukraine, but we ended up in hell. There's this frontier between the world and hell. And we were definitely not ready for that, because we need other methods for the fight against hell. But this frontier is not only existential, it is also metaphysical. And if that is so, and it is so, then that frontier is also eschatological. And in this eschatological frontier, the society is practically dismembered, stratified into these two camps. Some are drawn into this black funnel and simply disappear, because there is no longer any possibility of dialogue with the enemy or with Western people. Since 2014 it has become impossible to discuss this with the Ukrainians, something has happened to them. Something very fundamental changed in them. It was not because of propaganda. When they began to jump, something happened to them, as if someone entered them. From that moment on, they switched to becoming metaphysically deranged. But they have lost all points of reference even with the Westerners living today. That is, they are all taken over by this black beam. Nevertheless, for those who have resisted are now being illuminated by some kind of light. These are people who can afford to criticize Joseph Biden or the supply of weapons to the Zelensky regime. They emanate light when they express it carefully and cautiously. And this is no longer just a civil or geopolitical position because everything becomes a mystery. And it is very important to discuss all this with people who dare to think and who are at war, because both parts of both formulas are very important here: to be there on this frontier, just there directly, and to have a deep understanding of what is happening. True philosophy is born where it becomes total. However, if it is nothing but reasoning, not meaning anything and not sacrificed for, it is not philosophy anymore. For this reason, Nietzsche's statement that books should be written with one's own blood is true in both the literal and figurative sense.

Translated by Sophia Polyankina