Futurism

Futurism was an originally Italian artistic philosophical movement based on a Ultra-Modernist spirit based on beauty an action. It believes beauty is found in the new, speed and dynamic culture; said culture is achieved in rebellion and action against the past, and following that logic all futurists sought to understand the means to find that beauty.

Futurism thus believes in revolutionary thought in beauty, promoting violence, the abolition of past traditions, hyper-industrialism and the whole of human passion and emotion. It rejects any form of utilitarianism, moralism or conservatism; choosing instead to lean on individualism and similar conclusions.

In its search for action, futurists have supported a range of political movements in the past, from fascists, to  socialists, to even  anarchists. However many of its involved politicians and philosophers, specially its founder, F. T. Marinetti, have lead or developed their own political movements.

[[File:Marinetti.png]] Italian Futurism [[File:Marinetti.png]]
Futurism began as an Avant-Garde movement on February 5th, 1909 in Italy when Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti published "The Manifesto of Futurism" in the magazine La Gazzetta dell'Emilia, later republished in the French newspaper Le Figaro. Futurism was characterized by a fetishization of everything new: industry, technology, automobiles, planes, youth, speed, and violence; and conversely, a rejection of anything seen as old. Futurism often had nothing in the way of limits, seeking to offend more than to please, futurist plays would often involve their audience in non-consenting ways like gluing their clothes to their seats.

Early exponents of Futurism were involved in many movements of nationalist character,  Marinetti specially would actively support Italian nationalism and Italian entry to the war. Besides his eccentricities, most early Futurists would be interventionist, many such as Luigi Russolo, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà and Marinetti himself would fight for Italy. The biggest exception would be Gino Severini and Giacomo Balla, both who would support fascism in some way later in their lives.

In 1918, Marinetti, together with Emilio Settimelli and Mario Carli founded the Futurist Political Party, the party was designed to be what Marinetti called a "compact fusion of an artistic, political and military engagement." This militarism and already existent nationalistic sentiment would lead the party to ally and organize with Benito Mussolini's Fasci Italiani di Combattimento and  Arditi movements, believing them to be representative of a progressive generation of Italian nationalism.

The party would expose wildly varying ideas, from staunch secularism, to  georgist economics, to  adhocratic bureaucracy, and a great  nationalistic sentiment, demanding for military presence until the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire and a dogmatic souverainism. Carli would also form his own Arditi journal, exploring the philosophy in what many call Arditism; this would show strong resemblances to the Futurist program, leading to close cooperation between both circles in what developed Ardito-Futurism.

Even though the movement was nominally anti-Socialist, it actively sought for left-wing members in anarchist,  left-syndicalist and  communists. Instead their anti-Socialism came from opposing the Italian Socialist Party, which was believed to be cowardous and representative of conservative institutions, as opposed to the Bolsheviks and Communists alike, who had aesthetic and revolutionary fervor

Compared to the Arditi, Futurist relations with Mussolini were far less friendly. Marinetti and Mussolini would become personally close meeting frequently during the whole of 1919. From their earliest meetings in late 1918, Marinetti would show skepticism towards Mussolini, in what he saw a "Napoleonic elitism," although never public, these feelings would be essential for their later relationship.

Similarly Mussolini was also skeptic towards Arditi socialist-like ideals of revolution, something that would conflict with Fascist class collaborationist theory. However, either due to opportunism or genuine revolutionary ideals, Mussolini would still ally deeply with the Futurists. As Marinetti saw him as a "man of steel and the future," he sought to keep up that rhetoric in his speech and figure.

[[File:RegDelCarn.png]] Fiume enterprise [[File:RegDelCarn.png]]
The Fiume enterprise or Regency of Carnaro was a city-state cultural movement, lead by Gabriele D'Annunzio, this city experiment would come to aestheticization of the political form to protest League of Nations policy surrounding Rijeka/Fiume's legal status, asking for Italian annexation of the city, much to the dismay of Yugoslavist policy.

While the experiment was never explicitly futurist, in its search for an aesthetic un-dogmatic state it followed similar trends to Futurism. These trends range from a support of free love, corporatist economics, individualism, aestheticism and revolutionary ideals. As such, many prominent futurists would visit or even support the city during D'Annunzio's 3 year rule.

These similarities would bring many futurists to support or even actively participate in the League, most relevant being Mario Carli, who would organize many Arditi men in support of D'Annunzio's rule. Marinetti himself would show support for the experiment even if not directly involved, similarly other Futurists like Giuseppe Bottai and the Futurist aligned Alceste de Ambris participated in the city-state.

[[File:DeadFutur.png]] End of the FPP [[File:DeadFutur.png]]
As the 1919 elections came near, Marinetti published his essay called "Futurist Democracy", gaining great attention from Italian circles. As Futurist popularity grew Mussolini agreed to a deeper ideological alliance in what became known as "Futur-Fascisti" ideology.

However, as electoral results proved to be underwhelming, Mussolini would split from the Fascio's revolutionary wing, in place of a less proletarian conservative worldview. The Ardito-Futurists would protest this, developing to also protest supposed monarchist sympathies and Mussolini's personality cult. These protests would be proven pointless, as the Ardito-Futurists were outvoted by the new conservative Fascio.

After this fiasco, Marinetti would abandon politics, choosing instead to develop a new form to Futurism known as "Aero-Futurism" or "Aeropittura." This movement would be far more internationally recognized but far less politically relevant or active. Most politics involving the movement would instead be subtler, with artists with greater involvement in the Novecento movement being more aligned to fascism, while others not as much.

[[File:RusFutur.png]] Russian Futurism [[File:EgoFut.png]]
Developing at a similar time, Russian Futurism was an artistic philosophical movement based on similar ideas to Italian Futurists of vulgarity and rejection of the past. The first explicitly Futurist society would be the Hylaea group, founded by Benedikt Livshits and David Burliuk, the movement would only start to call itself Futurist in 1912, when it published its manifesto "A Slap in the Face of Public Taste."

Their poetry would center around an anti-urbanist worldview, one originated in artistic primitivism leading to neo-folk thematic in great part of their work. This however, should not bring you to think they were in any form conservative, they extensively criticized past "tight" art.

Conversely, the Hylaea group would ask for bold grandeur behavior and art. Similarly leaning towards revolutionary ideas of violence, in a cynical and vulgar anti-traditional protest. This fervor would lead many of its main leaders, such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vasily Kamensky, Velimir Khlebnikov and Burliuk himself to socialist-like ideals.

In the artistic realm, Russian Futurists would become famous by their experimentation with rhymes and structure, ranging from "front rhymes" to "reverse rhymes." Russian Futurists would also become famous for their use of neologisms, mixing archaisms, completely new terms and imported European terms to their poetry.

[[File:EgoFut.png]] Ego-Futurism [[File:EgoFut.png]]
Very distinct to the Hylaea group, Ego-Futurists would develop from Saint Petersburg urbanist societies as opposed to the Muscovite folk character of the Hylaea group. Lead by Igor Severyanin, the movement would be founded in 1911, being the first record of self-proclaimed Futurism in Russia.

Vastly different from Hylaean aversion to the West, Ego-Futurists would be strongly Europhilic. Being openly Futurist from the get-go, they sought to import Egoist, Theosophical and Futurist philosophy to Russian poetry. This Europhilia is reflected upon their use of neologisms, being mostly focused on introducing foreign words into Russian vocabulary.

Ego-Futurists would also diverge in philosophy, believing in a Pan-theist justification of Egoism and general individualism. This seemingly contradictory set of beliefs made Severyanin into a rather expansive figure, one that never denies the collective soul but embraces it, much to the dismay of other Ego-Futurists

As many Ego-Futurists began to be critical of Severyanin's ideas and supposed cult of personality, they would organize around Ivan Ignatyev, a much more conventional Egoist Individualist. And as pressure increased, and Severyanin distanced himself further from his own group, he would resign from Ego-Futurism, claiming that "[He was] the future."

After the split, Ignatyev would become the leading figure behind the movement, claiming "Ego-Futurism has renounced Severyanin." During this period Ego-Futurists would condemn all civilization and deny Severyanin's universalism, going in depth about what God and intuition actually means to an Ego-Futurist.

Ignatyev would also greatly attack Hylaeans, in similar manner to Severyanin. He would accuse the group of being barely Futurist by being undistinguishable from Impressionists, something they would also accuse Severyanin of being. Similarly they would accuse Hylaeans of being theoretically and philosophically inconsistent, also a pattern with Severyanin. After said scandals, Ego-Futurism would fade out of the avant-garde scene until the 1920s.

[[File:RusFutur.png]] Cubo-Futurism [[File:RusFutur.png]]
Succeeding the Hylaea group, Cubo-Futurism would be the full admission of Futurist ideas into the Hylaea movement, fully abandoning Symbolism as well, and as the name implies, Cubist principles would also be incorporated into the movement. As WW1 came, this period would be marked by stronger politicization of the movement in a general trend towards the revolutionary left.

Although with disputed origins, the most relevant development of Cubo-Futurists was Zaum, the language of Futurist poetry and the future itself. Developed primarily by Khlebnikov and Alexei Kruchenykh, Zaum was developed to create full expression, a new language that doesn't restrict the poet or artist in any way, pure phonetic harmonic sounds.

This period also saw the offensive nature of Cubo-Futurism at the forefront, as they gained far more traction, they were able to expose more of the populace to their unorthodox behavior to an audience. At points they would explicitly design their poetry to cause riots, among them, Mayakovsky was the most pro-active in that behavior.

The movement would see instability, when at its peak in early 1914, Marinetti surprisingly visited Russia. While he planned on meeting Russian Futurists, he would struggle to meet with its main figures, instead being praised by establishment art journals. This would create further skepticism in figures who already tended to dismiss Marinetti's theories, Livshits specially would argue Italian Futurism lived in the present while Russian Futurism lived in the beyond. This leads him to write the divisive manifesto "We and the West," one in which he argues for Russians to embrace Asiatic origins and reject any form of Europeanism.

Hylaea would effectively decentralize with the split. Khlebnikov would move away from Moscow to the Volga, Livshits would take on a more independent figure, Burliuk, Mayakovsky and Kamensky were touring all of Russia, Ego-Futurists were already underground, and even Severyanin was generally out of the public image.

Personality and Behaviour
Futurism is often written as a manic artist who is obsessed with things that are new and go fast. If he is angered (which is very easy to do), he will immediately resort to violence.

Stylistic Notes
Futurist is constantly obsessed with speed. This can result in him suddenly yelling in all-caps, all bolded or even having his words run into each other with no spaces.

Futurist Political Party Design
Futurism_flag.svg
 * 1) Draw a ball
 * 2) Fill the space below with Navy Blue.
 * 3) Draw a white sword and laurel wreath
 * 4) Draw the eyes and you're done!

Friends

 * [[File: Hfash.png]] Homofascism - Hey there, sexy ~.
 * [[File:Sansepolcrismo.png]] Ardito-Fascism - Modernism as seen through nationalism, make Italy sovereign!
 * [[File:Soc.png]] Socialism - Modernism as seen through internationalism, stand on the solid rock of "we"!
 * [[File:Indust.png]] Industrialism - Sing the man at the wheel, the factory will overtake him!
 * [[File:Darwinist.png]] Social Darwinism - Art is to become a slap in the face of sloth!
 * [[File:Georgist.png]] Georgism - Nationalize the land for the people!
 * [[File:Republicanismpix.png]] Republicanism - Abolition of the ceremonial patriotism!
 * [[File:Synd.png]] Syndicalism - Means to a multi-colored surf of revolutions!
 * [[File:Vpered.png]] Vperedism - Bourgeois culture needs only a house on the river!
 * [[File:Natbol.png]] National Bolshevism - Glad to see Limonov reintroducing futurism for the new generation.

Frenemies

 * [[File:Jihad.png]] Jihadism - Down with the old pagan gods!
 * [[File:Orthlen.png]] Leninism - Thanks for supporting my state! But why did you have to shut down the Proletkult?
 * [[File:Mussolini.png]] Fascism - Nationalism fell off.
 * [[File:Gramsci.png]] Gramscianism - I wish I had allied with you instead of Mussolini.
 * [[File: Cosmic.png]] Cosmicism - Wait a minute... you aren't [[File:Vpered.png]] Cosmism...
 * [[File:ReactPix.png]] Reactionary Modernism - I am constantly compared to you even though I'm a real philosophy!
 * [[File: Technocracy.png]] Technocracy - Hey I also love technocratic governme- oh...
 * [[File:Illeg.png]] Illegalism - Novatore what the fuck are you talking about

Enemies

 * [[File: ML.png]] Marxism–Leninism - Socialist realism is as close to reality as the USSR today
 * [[File: Anprim.png]] Anarcho-Primitivism - NO! NOT THIS TYPE OF PRIMITIVISM!
 * [[File:Fem.png]] Feminism - Fight against moralism, feminism, and every utilitarian opportunistic cowardice!
 * [[File: Moder.png]] Moderatism - Lol realist nerd!
 * [[File:Demsocstar.png]] Democratic Socialism - Conservatism in red paint.
 * [[File:Christy.png]] Christian Theocracy - GET THE FUCK OUT OF ITALY!
 * [[File:React.png]] Reactionarism - The past has been surpassed, you serve nothing but cowardice.
 * [[File: Anpacf.png]] Anarcho-Pacifism - Cowardice formed into a ball.
 * [[File: Monarch.png]] Monarchism - The meanie who corrupted Mussolini.

Literature

 * The Futurist Manifesto (1909) by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
 * Manifesto of the Italian Futurist Political Party (1918) (Italian) by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
 * Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle (Italian) by Alceste De Ambris and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Wikipedia

 * Futurism
 * Futurist Political Party
 * Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
 * Manifesto of Futurism

Videos

 * Futurism and Constructivism: Crash Course Theater #39 by CrashCourse
 * FUTURISM Explained by Jackson Kliewer
 * Italian Futurism: Boisterous, right-wing and prescient by The Economist
 * The Foundation & Manifesto of Futurism by Cultured Thug