bonifartius 𒂼𒄄 @bonifartius@social.cleverlibre.org

RT @bonequest
"the worst possible thing" https://bonequest.com/8796

Leftist ideology follows a principle called "solve et coagula", from medieval alchemy. The idea is that, in order to create something new, you have to first dismantle it (analysis) and then reform it into what you want (synthesis). It's easy to see how this idea works in chemistry (the physical realm) but the medievals were far from stupid and understood that this idea is also reflected on the metaphysical level; so if you look hard enough, you'll find that "solve et coagula" describes a lot more than just chemical reactions.

This relates to leftism because every major form of leftist thought, including its precursors among the most radical members of the French revolution, relies fundamentally on the idea that social structures can be dissolved into their basic components and restructured in a way that brings about utopia (or some other desired form).

Examples:
* dissolving traditional religion and building a religion based on rationality or the state (Robespierre)
* abolishing the family and creating a society where kinship is completely communal
* dismantling the capitalist mode of production and using its remains to build a communist version
* same with race, gender, etc

They try to do this with basically any power structure that gets in their way, with the idea that it's the structure itself that produces social ills, so taking on a single power structure is really a way of completely reorganizing society.

It's also worth noting that solve et coagula is different than just bulldozing over something and replacing it with something different. Solve et coagula recognizes that a structure's constituent parts have power in and of themselves, and should be USED to create something new, rather than discarded. This is especially prominent in the idea that the means of production have to be SEIZED, rather than destroyed, in order to bring about communism.

This idea is also present in projects less associated with leftism, like synthetic meat and artificial gestation... but even those things are referenced by leftists through ideas like "biopower".

Ultimately, solve et coagula isn't purely a leftist idea, but it's an EXTREMELY COMMON ethos in the modern era, and you should watch out for it because the people using it seem to be invariably doing it for evil purposes.