Thomas explains to me: ‘What we're involved in is necromancy. It's about raising our own consciousness to match what nature requires of us, and by doing that, we're saving Britain from the filth it's in.’

Necromancy, according to its dictionary definition, is ‘a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead; black art magic in general, especially that practiced by a witch or sorcerer; sorcery; witchcraft; conjuration’. ¹ In this context, however, Thomas speaks of necromancy as a rejuvenation of the ideology of ‘traditionalism’ which will harmonize human beings within their ‘rightful places’. The appropriation of medieval entanglements by ethno-nationalist groups means that the ‘logics of the past’ are seen to be bastions of white ethnic history where a homogeneous existence once reigned within a conflict-free nation (Rambaran-Olm et al., 2020: 356). As Kao (2020) argues, the use of racialized medievalism and paganism by eco-fascists is rooted in an identitarian ecology that is always alert to the potential threat of pollution. It is this very attempt to resurface and re-embody these logics of a past tradition and prevent ‘pollution’ in both the environmental and physical sense that the word ‘necromancy’ was used by Thomas. Well versed in both English history and forms of paganism, we spend the afternoon drinking and smoking in an overpriced bar in Clapham. With nervous energy and a rapid pace of speech, Thomas informed me of the differences between Wicca, Odinism and Druidry, while my minuscule knowledge of British occultism managed to keep the conversation somewhat reciprocal. Though we spoke for a couple of hours, this was one of the few interviews I was unable to record. The very presence of my recording device would conjure an apprehensive and uneasy body language. I asked if he was okay, seeing how his enthusiasm and tone had dimmed. ‘Being recorded really brings out my anxiety, I just freeze and can't think’, he told me, and after two brief attempts, and many apologies on his behalf, I decided it best not to record the conversation, seeing the embarrassment it seemed to bring about.

‘It's tripped me up so many times’, he continued. ‘How come?’ I ask. ‘You know, just … life, when you need to be ready.’ He explained while looking at the table, ‘I used to be on Diazepam to treat it, then I tried Xanax for a while, but I've purged myself of that stuff since. Had to detox for ages … those things rot much more than they heal.’

The words ‘purge’, ‘rot’ and ‘heal’ make an appearance time and time again throughout this chapter, pertaining not only to the body but also to the ‘health’ of the nation-state. In this particular context, Diazepam, a medicine used to treat anxiety prescribed by Thomas's General Practitioner (GP), and Xanax (which I later learnt was purchased off the internet), not only failed in their healing effect, but apparently caused a form of corrosion which required a ‘detox’ of fasting, prayer and constant hydration. Thomas detailed to me that part of the detox was his strict abstinence from any medication prescribed by his GP to avoid this ‘rot’. Far from being perceived as a medical side effect such as depersonalization or muscular numbness, I soon learn that this is perceived to be due to modern pharmaceutical corporations’ intent to keep his body and country in a state of false consciousness resulting in climate change, physical decay and the destruction of the environment.

The data presented in this chapter is situated within a two-year ethnographic project in London that was conducted as part of my master's and present doctoral research. Reflecting the fragmented and multilayered nature of the contemporary far right, my fieldwork led me to research a variety of groups and individuals that often embodied disparate and contradictory beliefs and practices. In the context of this chapter, I became acquainted with Thomas (28 y/o) in the summer of 2018, who later introduced me to the other two interlocuters: David (26 y/o) and Jay (21 y/o). My first interaction with Thomas was at a private talk given by a famous right-wing historian where we did not speak. The following summer, however, we met once again during the Free Tommy Robinson protests in Trafalgar Square and instantly recognized one another, connecting on the fact that we had both come alone and found it bizarre that a naked bike tour of London was passing through at the same time as the protest was happening. Though we exchanged numbers after the protest and engaged in a long discussion on Heidegger, Thomas was completely reluctant to be interviewed or become my interlocuter. After a few months of sporadic meetings, however, I received his trust and he finally agreed under the condition of full anonymity. He later introduced me to Jay and David whom he had met the previous year through mutual friends loosely affiliated with the now dissolved Generation Identity UK. The data presented in this chapter is sourced from interviews and participant observation in the field where we would either meet together or individually throughout the year that followed.

The common thread between them seemed to reflect comradery as well as a common desire in the purification of both their bodies and the environment in which they lived. When asked how they would identify themselves, the word ‘traditionalists’ was used, which embodied the view that notions of progress and individualism were opposed to a transcendental order of natural hierarchy as espoused by figures such as Julius Evola. ² A state of political decadence, racial mixing, all perpetuated by a loss of masculinity in the West, were believed to be the core reason why Europe was heading towards ecological – and cultural – degeneracy and collapse. A strict eco-praxis, including vegan diets, avoidance of any form of vehicle transport, and the growth of fruit and vegetables in their respective households, were seen as solutions.

My encounter with my interlocuters presented a stark contrast to the assumptions I had been building before my aforementioned interactions. Indeed, from a gendered perspective, it is often assumed that ecological concerns are considered to be ‘stereotypically feminine’ by the far right (Bloodheart & Swim, 2010), while anti-environmentalist sentiments and meat consumption are seen to reflect masculinity and industriousness (Gelfer, 2013; Anshelm & Hultman, 2014).

This group of traditionalists, however, dispelled this assumption that I had been building with the data, echoing Lubarda's (2020) claim that the label ‘far right’ inhabits a wide, complex variety of beliefs regarding the environment. While beliefs concerning leftist infiltration and cultural Marxism were strongly held, an esoteric view, similar to the myriad of ‘neo-Romantic anti-industrialist’ thought among early twentieth-century nationalists, was evident; man and nature are not only far from separate, but there is also a strong and eternal link between the environment in which people live and the resulting character of said peoples (Dietz, 2008: 809; Turner-Graham, 2019: 58). Thomas's feelings of anxiety were not simply in his mind and body but were seen as intimately connected with the nation-state and its nature. Healing in the ‘real’ sense, I was told, for this group, comes from a combination of environmental activism, a vegan diet, strenuous physical exercise including yoga, waking early to see the sun rise and, most importantly, abstinence from any form of ‘degenerate’ behaviour. This chapter thus wishes to highlight how it is that conspiratorial thinking regarding climate change (in this case Jewish conspiracies of cultural Marxism) can embed itself within eco-fascistic thinking and the consequences this has in terms of the body.

The importance of bodies

The ruthless emphasis of far-right ideologies on the subordination of the individual to a ‘pure’ ethnic community is well documented (Heineman, 1999; Sinke, 1989; Proctor, 1997; Koonz, 2003; Nolan, 2005). This obsession with health and purity was itself one outcome of the long modern European turn from the ancient preoccupation with the soul as an intimation of cosmic order, to the body as the location not only of pleasure, pain, demand and desire but also of ‘personal identity’ (Cocks, 2007: 96). Striving towards purity, in this context, is a discursive judgement made regarding the future in relation to a supposed past ideal (rural, non-cosmopolitan, white, cis gendered, heteronormative, able bodied, etc.), free from heterogeneous or inferior (i.e. non-white, non-heteronormative, etc.) elements. Adherents, then, purport to defend the white race against the threats of ‘impurity’, by working towards the redemption and rejuvenation of the nation; this is summarily known as the ‘rebirth myth’ or ‘palingenetic ultranationalism’, which is then intertwined with personal sensations of religious revival and personal rebirth (Coupland, 2016: 120; Griffin, 1995: 13).

While such notions of racial hygiene seem like a haunting memory of Europe's past, they are proving to have an increasingly coercive influence on the present. Considering increasing electoral success from populist radical right parties, commentators point to traces of the rebirth rhetoric in the Brexit campaign's slogan ‘Take Back Control’ (Green et al., 2016). Manifestations of this rhetoric reared their ugly head on 16 June 2016, when far-right terrorist, Thomas Mair repeatedly shot and stabbed Labour MP, Jo Cox in an attack during the EU referendum campaign. Police discovered Mair's house to be sparse and obsessively orderly, with tinned food carefully arranged in precise rows, with each label pointing in exactly the same direction. According to members of his family, he had been treated for obsessive-compulsive disorder, with such a great deal of anxiety about cleanliness that he had been known to scrub himself with pan scourers (Cobain, 2016).

The reason I bring this to the reader's attention is that while the historical, social and political aspects of the far right are of great importance to its studies, it is, as Mosse (1999: 10) argues, ‘only … when we have grasped fascism from the inside out, [that we can] truly judge its appeal and its power’. The study of bodies matters (Connell, 1995: 51), for they are the site of symbolic interpretation, where personal and social identities coalesce (Mangan, 2000: 32). This chapter argues that, for my interlocuters, both the nation and the body are seen as having been corrupted and require redemption and purification through a return to pure tradition reflecting ideologies of purity and their physical embodiments as a desire for ‘order and stability, for clear (symbolic) boundaries’ (Forchtner, 2019: 296).

Rising from the ashes

As a teenager from Iran, I remember receiving the odd British National Party (BNP) leaflet in the post. I would throw it in the bin as soon as I caught sight of the logo on the corner, as if the paper would come to life if I wasn't fast enough. Being left with the chilling thought that the BNP had been in front of our door, I often wondered whether they had any success in converting people through paper.

Though the British far right has been represented by several parties, from the British Union of Fascists (BUF) in the 1930s, League of Empire Loyalists in the 1950s, to the present-day BNP, none of my interlocutors detailed in this chapter claimed to have membership of any official political party. Radicalization was not done through leaflets, nor from being stopped by party members next to stalls of right-wing literature and migration statistics, but rather from behind their computer screens at home. David tells me how he would hear about the increase in ‘halal restaurants’, ‘rising immigration, grooming gangs, and Islamism in Europe’ but doesn't recall taking it seriously or having much interest in politics generally. ‘I remember thinking … who are these nutters?’ he tells me while smoking a cigarette on Hampstead Heath – a large park in north London. ‘Saying that, I do come from a very liberal family so I'd always been brought up to live as though nothing's wrong … like sheep waiting to get the cut’, he says while throwing his cigarette on the floor and stomping it out. As we walk away, he turns back, picks up the cigarette butt and puts it in the small pocket on his t-shirt. ‘Old habits die hard’, he says smiling, which I later realize, is not in reference to smoking – but to his former anti-ecological carelessness.

According to my interlocutors, a mixture of researching online theories on various forums, along with the rise of what they call ‘leftist politics’ in their everyday life, culminated in a ‘wake-up call’ which radically changed them. This ‘wake-up call’ is also referred to as being ‘red pilled’, a metaphor taken from the movie The Matrix which has been central to fascist rhetoric within anti-feminist masculinist political subcultures (Nagle, 2017: 144). The other side of ‘waking up’ is a constant awareness of ‘race realism’. The corruption of the white race by a Jewish Zionist elite. David elaborates on how he started noticing the semblance of what he was reading online to his lived experience: ‘I remember reading this thing … how everyone gets to be proud, right? Black pride, gay pride, this pride, that pride, everything except for being white and being male … that you're supposed to be ashamed of.’ He goes on to say: ‘I saw book shops push critical race theory to the forefront, movies and news reports had clear leftist messaging, adverts always had white women with a Black or Asian man … and I was like hang on … something's not right here.’

Hermansson et al. (2020: 114) write that by cloaking Nazi propaganda in movie references such as The Matrix, the viewer is provided with a new framework through which genocidal notions can be interpreted in an appealing manner. While the question may arise as to how anyone can seriously adhere to the same ideology which was responsible for the Holocaust through the lens of Hollywood movie references, Ernst Bloch reminds us that, when studying fascism, one's focus should not exclusively rest on the ‘seriousness’ of its rhetoric, but rather its ‘energy’, ‘the fanatic-religious impact’ which does not simply come from ‘despair and ignorance’, but rather from ‘the uniquely stirring power of belief’ (Rabinbach, 1977: 13–14). The term ‘necromancy’ coincides with this imagery of ‘energy’ and ‘rejuvenation’; a form of shock which wakes what is dormant.

Indeed, during a meeting with David and Thomas, I ask about the BUF badges which they wore on the lapels of their bomber jackets. David simply replies, ‘The symbol spoke to me’, while Thomas, the more esoterically minded of the two, informs me that ‘it's a symbol of energy and electricity, waking Britain up. … I feel dangerous when I wear it’, he smirks. The symbol itself is that of a lightning bolt, similar to those one would usually see on a warning sign for high voltage. This ‘awakening’, however, is not seen to be sufficient, as Thomas elaborates: ‘people think being red pilled is enough, like “okay, I clocked onto the subversion, I'm red pilled about the Jews”, but now what? You're still lost.’ He starts tapping his finger on the table: ‘it doesn't mean anything unless you're actually connected to something’. Among the interlocutors outlined in this chapter (Thomas, David and Jay) there is a shared experience regarding life before traditionalism which is characterized as a ‘lost’ state. A state without this ‘connection’ Thomas speaks of. Most stories revolve around ‘decadent’ behavioural patterns such as taking drugs, eating meat, playing video games and rarely engaging in physical activity. ‘How I used to live was disgusting’, enunciated David. ‘You don't even want to know the shit I used to get up to … I was rotting away. You know the worst bit? I had no shame about it. No shame at all.’ This ‘disgusting’ past was seen as a byproduct of the decadent times they situate themselves in, from being educated in schools where they were taught to value diversity and egalitarianism, to indoctrination through films and advertising that they were exposed to. There seems to be a corrupt past life which they tirelessly try to move away from. As Ahmed (2014: 104) points out, shame involves a ‘different orientation from disgust towards the subject and others’ where the subject may be ‘filled up’ with something bad, but this ‘badness gets expelled and sticks to the body of others’.

The figure of the Zionist Jew who seems to be pulling the strings behind every problem they as individuals, and Britain as a whole, seem to face, is a theme that is in almost every single one of our conversations. Seen to be plotting against the white race on two fronts: a) the mental (film, music, entertainment, media) and b) the biological (pharmaceutical drugs, fluoride in tap water, hormones in meat products, fast food), Jews are seen to be attempting to emasculate the white male by reducing his sperm count and testosterone levels, and ideologically ‘subverting’ him into emasculation. Racial mixing (specifically white women having relations with non-white men), the perceived loosening of national borders and ecological pollution are said to be a consequence of this emasculation; a giving up of territory to the foreign entities.

Indeed, there is a long history of ‘whiteness’ being conceived in part as a sort of physical hygiene, representing ‘the lack of a mark of pollution’ (Berthold, 2010: 2). I initially interpreted such beliefs as also relating to the ‘whiteness as innocence’ discourse, where whiteness is seen as not being able to ‘do wrong’, due to being inherently on the moral and ethical high ground, while also a guiding ‘light’ to other peoples and nations (Jonsson, 2021; Wekker, 2016). Hence when one lives in an apparently corrupt state, any personal failures can always be put down to an external ‘Other’ – as is elaborated in Sartre's anti-Semite and Jew, where he writes that ‘the existence of the Jew merely permits the anti-Semite to stifle his anxieties at their inception by persuading himself that his place in the world has been marked out in advance, that it awaits him, and that tradition gives him the right to occupy it’ (1948: 38).

However, Thomas assures me that ‘Jews can't help but do what they do because they're genetically primed to do it – it's a survival strategy’. ‘So, is everything everyone does a survival strategy?’ I ask. ‘More or less’, he shrugs. ‘I don't blame Blacks or Muslims for wanting to live in the greatest civilization humanity's ever come up with. Who would blame them? The blame is with us. White men who allowed this to happen by going back on our ancestral responsibilities.’

The only actor who has been endowed with intellect and rational thought is the white man, who makes it his responsibility: ‘The blame is with us.’ Those not part of this in-group of white men – Jews, Black people, Muslims – are reduced to beings without agency, a type of Othering which, when taken to the extreme, is the backbone to genocides and death camps (Dehzani, 2008).

What strikes me is how similar this is to the rhetoric espoused by far-right terrorist Brenton Tarrant, who in 2019 took the lives of 51 Muslims when attacking a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand (see chapter 1 by Thomas in this volume). In his Great Replacement manifesto he writes that

Contrary to my expectations, David and Thomas's response to the attack was wholly negative: ‘What do these retarded acts of nihilism accomplish?’ Thomas says in anger:

The feeling seems to be mutual among my interlocutors, along with the idea that their own ‘consciousness raising’ has an impact on the land and its people. It is within this discourse that two distinctions arise that highlight the stark difference between left-wing eco-activism, and the variant of eco-fascism espoused by my interlocutors. The first pertains to the fascist hermeneutics surrounding the term ‘consciousness raising’. While it is often associated on the left with figures such as Lukács, pertaining to a practice of collective awareness of the inequalities under which people live (Lukács & Livingston, 1971), the interlocutors in this chapter take a non-materialist approach to the matter. The agent of the struggle shifts from proletariat under capitalist rule, its systems of exploitation which seek profit in spite of its ecological ramifications, to white men under the rule of the Jewish elite whose systems of subversion and plotting have caused an imbalance in the ‘natural’ ecosystem: environmentally, racially and against their bodies. This also shifts the terrain on which struggle against ‘Jews’ is conducted – that is, not the economy – where Jews are the capitalists – but now the terrain of culture and the inner landscape – the body, the self, where Jews are now perceived as targeting. The second difference exemplified is the concept of ‘struggle’. They thus saw it as their responsibility as white men to purge themselves from this decadence through highly specific routines in physical exercises, rituals which I am told are variants of sun worship, and an inner expulsion of any sort of ‘Jewish media’.

The combination of these two distinctions (the first being the term ‘consciousness raising’ and the second being the concept of struggle) leads to the most significant difference – namely, that their view on climate change is rooted in mysticism. As Zimmerman (1990: 213) argues, ‘National Socialists promoted a perverted “religion of nature”’, as opposed to ecologists, who gave a more nuanced, demystified and rational perspective on the matter (Garrard, 2010: 261). This reflects clearly on Peter Staudenmaier's (2011) essay Fascist Ecology, where he points to the refusal of Nazi ideology to locate the sources of environmental destruction in social structures, instead laying the blame on Jews through conspiracies. The struggle against climate change is thus not purely on a material basis, but reflects a mysticism associated with blood and soil ideologies (Klemperer, 2013), which is then embodied in the struggle to maintain their bodies and the environment in the face of decadence. This view reflects Smith's (2009: 50) suggestion that for nationalists, people and their homeland become increasingly ‘symbiotic’ in ‘ethno-scapes’ where environmental destruction is a symptom of alienation from the homeland and the community's culture.

Both the nation and the body are seen as having been corrupted which simultaneously require redemption and purification. This respect for one's body is seen to go hand in hand with respect and adoration for the environment, relating to what David calls a bad ‘habit’ when he threw his cigarette butt on the grounds of Hampstead Heath. A strict vegan diet, avoidance of any form of vehicle transport (for which I was gravely admonished), and the growth of fruit and vegetables in their respective households was a cornerstone of their practices. The importance of physical exercise, and the cultivation of a ‘sports-friendly image’ which contrasts ‘powerful bodies’ with ‘physical degeneration’ in the service of an ideal of ‘racial quality’ has been well documented in fascist thought (Mangan, 2000; Reichel, 1999; Schmitz & Kazyak, 2016).

I previously alluded to Griffin's (1995: 26) argument that fascism is a genus of political ideology whose mythic core orbits the rejuvenation of the nation following a period of perceived decline. Mann (2004: 12), in his critique of Griffin's idealism, argues that ‘surely, fascists must have offered something more useful than the mythical rebirth of the nation’ (my emphasis). In the framework of Mann's argument, ‘usefulness’ is translated as ‘power organizations’, ‘economic programs’ and ‘political strategies’ (2004: 12). I wish to point out that what seems to be ‘offered’ in this state of ‘knowing’ or being ‘red pilled’ is what marks a fundamental break for my interlocutors. Both David and Thomas assure me that they feel fitter, happier and ‘more at one with nature’ since ‘taking on this responsibility’.

Such modes of being and acting are seen to be dictated by nature itself. In line with Thomas's quote at the start of this chapter, the term ‘necromancy’ entails not the raising of the ‘dead’, but a dormant consciousness or potential of a mystical harmony and order. Ecological disasters, while caused by material factors, are here believed to be primarily manifestations of this ‘meddling’ with this mystical ‘harmony’. A harmony which relates to ethno-pluralism – where the preservation of mutually respecting (but separate) bordered regions based on ethnicity is seen to be the most ‘correct’ way to exist (Spektorowski, 2003).

More important, however, is Thomas's assertion that these are not ‘his’ truths since traditionalism is the way in which nature ‘teaches’ humans how to be. This is highlighted in Thomas's elaboration on ‘being what nature chooses’ along with his belief that white men are the only ones with agency. Ecological collapse is seen to be in my participants’ hands. The correct way to be is not determined by them, it is an outside imposition. This signifies how their ideas on climate change activism are simultaneously situated in neoliberal discourses of individual responsibility (Featherstone, 2013). Furthermore, the view of nature being able to ‘teach’ echoes a view of nature posited by Ernst Haeckel, who ‘contributed to that special variety of German thought which served as the seed bed for National Socialism’ as he argued that there are laws put forth by nature for civilizations to thrive (Gasman, 1971: xvii–34).

Other than the evident Social Darwinism in their thought, ideas surrounding necromancy, consciousness raising and mysticism emanate, at least partly, from figures such as Julius Evola, a twentieth-century occultist who advocated for a form of radical traditionalism, while necessitating male domination over women, strict gender roles, elitism and rigid hierarchical structures (Furlong, 2011: 163–164). ³ Through following Evola's guidelines, my interlocutors reclaim their bodies from corruption through techniques such as abstention from any form of sexual pleasure. Thomas later shows me a passage from Evola's book Introduction to Magic, where Evola posits that sexual desire ‘paralyses’ and weakens, ‘especially in people with nervous temperaments’, going on to advise that ‘the fluidic body is energised by a vegetarian diet, fasting, and even magical aromas’ (Evola, 1927: 73).

In this section of the chapter, I have attempted to elaborate on how my interlocutors conceive of their decadent pasts and how the ‘health’ of the nation is juxtaposed with their own conceptions of their ‘improved’ health, embodying Griffin's notion of a rebirth and rejuvenation in thought – and surely how by focusing on their own improved health they are also improving the health of the nation – they are becoming the strong men that the nation needs in order to rescue it from degeneracy; the enactment of their symbolic necromancy. Before moving on to the next section, I wish to briefly point to David's conception of shame. Specifically, the two sources of shame that he alluded to: 1) the liberal system which he believes is trying to shame him for being a white male, and 2) the shame he feels about his own ‘disgusting’ past. In reference to the former, this shame is rejected on the basis that it is essentially an attack on his identity from an enemy which aims to strip white men of certain rights to the benefit of (weaker) women and minority groups in general. This is widely noted as being a key rhetorical technique in the far right's pattern of targeting young white men for radicalization – that they are the real victims – and that by joining them, there is a potential for reclaiming those very privileges that have been taken away from them (Davey & Ebner, 2017; Gartenstein-Ross & Grossman, 2009; Kimmel, 2003, 2017; Kimmel & Ferber, 2000). As Marks (2020: 109) puts it: ‘fascism aligns with misogyny of necessity, as the armourisation of the male self’.

According to David, the latter form of shame, namely the one in reference to his past life, was not believed to be ‘the worst bit’. It was not his actions, but rather the lack of ‘shame’ that he had towards those actions. In this case, shame is deemed to have a positive influence, as it is an outcome of the ‘awakening’ which led him to a better life. Shame becomes ‘crucial to the process of reconciliation or the healing of past wounds’ where ‘one's body seems to burn up with the negation that is negation that is perceived’ (Ahmed, 2014: 101–103). The next section will elaborate on my observations of how this shame is not only always present but harshens with every transgression of the patriarchal norms which have been set as an ideal.

Eternal fall

He starts to set up his speakers while I look at his bookshelf. Expecting to find texts from prominent fascist writers like Evola, Faye and Dugin, I instead find a list of what can only be described as self-help books: The Power of Now; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; Thinking, Fast and Slow; Rich Dad Poor Dad. While there was only one row of books, my skim of the titles didn't find anything that could merit the explicit label ‘nationalist literature’. When finished setting up, he shows me a very old book containing black and white pictures of muscular men flexing in a variety of positions. Each chapter illustrated the ways in which a particular exercise should be executed correctly to achieve the optimal body. Jay is 21, incredibly hyperactive, and has come to London from Coventry to study history at university.

Initially, I found him to be the most difficult person of the three to speak to. Mainly because he was incredibly suspicious of my presence and not the least shy in voicing his mistrust and dislike. The feeling was very much mutual. I found him incredibly irritating as he had a remarkable talent of speaking incessantly with a combination of arrogance and pessimism. After a few months of interaction, and the realization of a mutual love for the band Death Grips, tensions gradually subsided, and he became one of my most vital interlocutors. While the group was vocal on virtually every aspect of society they felt had a defect, it was Jay who first opened up to me about his feelings towards his own. While slim in stature, he would speak endlessly about the importance of a muscular physique. ‘I don't care who you are, if you've got a body like a tank then nobody can say anything to you’, he would tell me while showing me his arms and pointing out every flaw he could find: ‘look at this shit, man … I look like a fucking swami!’

From their first interviews which were rampant with passionate rhetoric about country and the preservation of the white race, the intensive training routines they had set up and the vitality that they assured me their ideology had brought them, all this, I later found, was glued together with patterns of deep nihilism, anger, self-defeatism – and shame. An obsessive concern with specific body parts like the forearms and neck was consistently contrasted to an ideal of masculinity – referred to in the ideal as being ‘alpha’.

Thomas, who is of similar physique to Jay, informed me of the research he'd done into testosterone injections. ‘It's different from steroids’, he told me: ‘it's like the supplements we take to supply with whatever we're missing from a vegan diet, but just a lot more expensive.’ To afford the treatment, he'd been working double shifts at his job as a security officer at an entertainment centre. The decision was applauded by both Jay and David, who also have similar intentions of acquiring the treatment, but don't have a stable income, and are therefore unable to save up for it. While desires to be more muscular are generally common among young men (Pope et al., 2005), Thomas, while dealing with the experience of being diagnosed with anxiety in his assessment by mental health workers, alluded to being diagnosed with body dysmorphia too. While I did not press on this point when it was brought up, I questioned him regarding the diagnosis during a meet-up at a bar after he seemed frustrated about the lack of progress on his physique. ‘Look, there's nothing wrong with me’, he tells me. ‘They probably say that shit to anyone who's not in line with their Jew science’, he asserts after shrugging off my questions and showing a mounting irritation. Jay chipped in with his take on psychotherapy being an inherently Jewish practice, and that ‘they'll do anything to stop white dudes from improving’. The subject then changes to how therapy as a whole is part of an elaborate Jewish scheme. While one would think that notions of self-improvement linked with psychotherapy would be resonant to the overall mission of the participants, the discipline or any kind of therapeutic practice in line with an institution was itself was seen as highly suspicious, aligning with anti-Semitic notions of a ‘Jewish science’ as ‘corrupting’ and ‘directed at poisoning the health of the Aryan nations’ (Frosh, 2015: 9).

While a combination of cold cynicism and passionate idealism was embedded in most of their conversations, they were compassionate and empathetic towards each other's failures. Stories of bingeing on fast food, drug relapses, skipping exercises and rituals, waking up late became more and more common as the months went by. The reaction to these stories was one of encouragement and motivation to do better next time. However, the goal was very much fixed – the past of the nation needed to be resurrected just as they believed their own greatness and sense of masculinity needed to be too. They were stuck in a cyclical pattern where mental health issues formed bonds of intimacy and friendship, with an ideology that exasperated and encouraged the worst of the symptoms resulting in hyper vigilance towards their minds and bodies, with little room for questioning of the ideal.

The term ‘body fascism’ normally refers to someone with extreme views about how somebody should look. ⁴ Kimmel (2014) writes that while many think the word ‘fascism’ is a bit extreme, he points to the vital similarity in the way in which fascism views political violence and war as a means to achieve national rejuvenation towards an ideal, and violence towards our own bodies in the way that we assert that stronger, healthier-looking bodies have the right to displace (and replace) weaker, less perfect-looking bodies. This ideal has its historic legacy within fascist thought. Mirzoeff (1995: 277) highlights the profound relevance to the body as political icon, the image of a cosmic human body – ‘image of the vast contained in a little’. Through masculinist stereotypes, fascism works not only with abstract symbols of strength and resilience, but with living human symbols as well (Mosse, 1996: 247). The true fascist man must

As Klemperer (2013: 15) explains: ‘Nazism permeated the flesh and blood of the people through single words, idioms and sentence structures which were imposed on them in a million repetitions and taken on board mechanically and unconsciously’. At the heart of these efforts to establish ideals of masculinity through increasingly sophisticated measurement schemes was the pervasive anxiety at the turn of the 20th century to link problems in society with the weaknesses of individuals – and in turn to identify the weaknesses of individuals with their somatic makeup (Vertinsky, 2002: 144).

Equally important, however, is how this aesthetic sharpened and refined the image in contrast to a ‘decadent Other’. While in Nazi Germany, images of Jewish physiology were made to contrast a pure Aryan race, today this same contrast can be found in the far right's rejection of body acceptance movements, which they deem to be a result of the propagation of cultural Marxist thought. Here it is important to note that, for my interlocutors, their own superiority was not a given. Just because they were able-bodied white men did not automatically render them to be in line with their own ideal, only the potential. Equally as important to note is the paradoxical notion of how the ideal past was always present. Thus, the temporality of a great past and the ‘potential’ for a great future was always in their hands, and by purifying their body they realize not only their own potential, but that of a nation free from ecological disasters. As obvious as it may seem, I think it is vital to note that the golden past that is imagined does not have the industrial, technological or material factors which could have ever brought about such ecological disasters. Thus, in a sense, the potential is always already an impossibility. Due to their perception of the nation and their bodies’ temporalities, any perceived issue is instantly put down to their own individual failings. The more I got to know my interlocutors, the more this unreached potential and ideal seemed to be a source of torment.

Conclusion

In this chapter I have outlined the importance in recognizing the body's significance in the study of eco-fascism and to understanding the far right in general. Specifically, how far-right rhetoric surrounding the idea of ‘control’ has the potential to produce idealizations of a reasserted sense of masculinity and the rejuvenation of British ecology. Practices which aim at ‘necromancy’ attempt to reassert the values of a pure past when order, hierarchy and strict gender relations resulted in a supposed harmonious society. Attempts at this rejuvenation are, however, laced with failure and consequently result in feelings of shame and self-negation. Indeed, while progressive movements, arts and sciences have attempted to exorcise the present from oppressive and corrupting spectres of the past, the interlocutors in this chapter seek to conjure these spectres to the fore of British life in order to purify it; a form of necromancy. While vegan diets and environmentalism are often associated with leftist politics, such cases remind us of the importance of not essentializing lifestyles with ideological outlooks and not to make assumptions about inevitable causal and ideological links. It is a necessary reminder that environmentalism can conjure white supremacist feelings of a connection to ‘roots’ and racist understanding of ancestry too.

During my time with Thomas, David and Jay, while they would espouse the most extreme rhetoric, I could see that they were very much suffering with serious mental health issues which were exacerbated by the ideas they strongly upheld. The increase of ecological disasters was consistently aligned with their own worsening state of being. This chapter thus wishes to contribute to the further understanding of eco-fascism, not purely through the rhetoric used and the consistency within its ideological outlook, but also the symptoms of mental health issues evident within its praxis and the consequences of eco-fascistic outlook, specifically concerning the body.