Clarifying the definition of political systems based on values

I believe that it is important to have a correct understanding of the world in order to succeed in every aspect of life. I believe we can all agree that the misuse and the redefining of words impair this understanding.

Very often, the redefining of words is done to advance a political agenda, thus the necessity of analyzing these terms in an impartial way and to search for the root of these terms.

I believe that this exercise should be done to understand the values that shape the political world and the political systems that derive from these values. In order to do this, I will use the political trichotomy model:

This model recognizes that 3 exclusives values shape the political landscape: Stability, Equality and Liberty. These values taken to the extreme will lead to Fascism, Communism and Anarchy.

The definition of these 3 political systems has changed over the years until no real definition of these terms really exists and everyone can find a definition they can use to advance their political agenda. In this presentation I will take on the task of restoring the real meaning of these terms knowing full well that I will get a lot of push back for doing so. But such is the cost of the truth.

Fascism

One of the political term we hear the most is ‘’Fascism’’. It is thrown around like a slur by people who couldn’t define the term to save their lives. The definition of this term has changed greatly after WW2 to a point that it has become misleading.

The word ‘’Fascism’’ comes from the word ‘’Fasces’’, which means a bundle of wooden sticks. The philosophy behind the word is that it is easy to break a single stick, but it is much harder to break a bundle of sticks. This philosophy is often represented by the image of an axe or arrow surrounded by wooden sticks tied up in a bundle. The axe or arrow represents the executive power of the State and the wooden sticks represent the citizens who give up some of their individuality and freedom in order to work together as to achieve greater things that would be otherwise impossible to achieve as an individual.

This philosophy gave birth to the concept of honor and civic duty. In a fascist system, it is considered both an honor and a duty to serve and protect the collective. An individual is often asked to dedicate a portion of their lives in service of the State. This service can take the form of military service, taking political office or producing children and raising these children according to the values of the State or to perform the tasks that allow such a society to function.

For such a society to survive, individuals that are part of this State must commit their lives, as well as the lives of their sons and their fortunes in order to protect this State. Receiving executive power in this system is not seen as taking the reins of power, but as a responsibility one takes for the good of the State and which this person will relinquish after a define period of time. To increase stability, the executive power is often decentralized and divided amongst a define number of individuals.

The earliest example of a Fascist State we can find is Sparta. Every aspect of the Spartan society is produced to ensure stability:

Spartan women are educated and train physically as to produce and raise proper Spartan men. The act of producing these men is considered an essential civic duty for women and they are respected by society for performing this duty.

A Spartan boy will train extensively to become a soldier because it will be his honor and duty to protect Sparta. Once a man reaches adulthood, he is given a land and a wife by the State and will spend much of his adulthood in military service. The men who live long enough to finish their military service can increase their wealth doing trade or producing goods. Once the man dies, his land is seized by the State and redistributed to another boy that reaches adulthood. The extra wealth he has produced in his life is distributed to his children first and to his wife according to inheritance laws.

Since the Spartan population increases over generations, the Spartan people have no choice but to constantly conquer more land, thus the need for Spartan men to be soldier and nothing else. The people of the defeated nations will become slaves and perform the work needed to sustain the Spartan State. How a slave is treated depends on the usefulness of his trade skills.

The Spartan State is governed by 2 kings. One king is tasked with the military aspect of the State and the other king is task with the spiritual aspect of the State. Kings are held accountable and must respect Spartan law like anyone else.

The Roman Empire is known to assimilate aspects of other cultures they find useful. The Spartan system of Fascism is no different. Romans adopted the fascist political model very early. Just like the Spartans, it was an honor and duty to serve the Roman State. Romans were required to spend a part of their adult lives in military service and/or in political office.

Depending on the age of the Roman soldier would serve as a velite, hastarti, principe and triarii. This allowed for 2 things: For the roman soldier to be assigned a task he could perform according to his level of experience and for veterans to be able to remain part of the Roman army after their required military service was complete, if a military career is what they wanted.

The Roman army spent most of their time building roads and governmental structures and very little time fighting wars. Romans understood that Rome’s greatness was in its administrative abilities and not at the pointy end of a sword. It is in the Roman Empire that we see the beginning of bureaucracy. A retired Roman soldier had the opportunity to spend the end of his career in the service of the State by administering it.

Of course, at the end of their service, a Roman soldier was promised a land by the State. To provide this land, the Roman Empire had no choice but to constantly expend its territory, which demanded the service of more soldiers who were promised more land.

Romans who were wealthy used their used their wealth and influence in the service of the State. When a political candidate made electoral promises to get into office, such as fixing the aqueducts, this politician was expected to pay out of his pocket for his electoral promises.

During the period where Rome was a republic, the Senate would elect 2 consults for a period of a year. This decentralization of power and the addition of a term limit kept the power of the State in check and increased stability.

It is also important to understand that the Roman Empire is not founded on race or nationality. Any foreigner could become a Roman Citizen by applying for Roman citizenship and by adopting Roman culture.

Fascism can be observed throughout history. You can see it symbolized in the French Republic, in Germany and even in the USA. In fact, in the declaration of independence that gave birth to the USA we can read:

‘’…But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security …And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.’’

The declaration of independence, on which the USA is founded on, recognizes that the law applies to everyone and that everyone must be held accountable; even the King of England. It also talks about civic duty in which it is a duty and an honor to pledge one’s life and fortune in defense of this State. The government that derives from this declaration is a decentralized government divided in different branches and the leader, who has the executive power, is chosen by a selective few and he will relinquish these powers after a specified period of time.

You can even see 2 fasces displayed in the US senate and representations of fasces can be found everywhere associated with the US government.

I believe that everyone can see the Spartan and Roman influence in the foundation of the American government.

We also hear people call president Trump a fascist. Let’s explore this question:

• When Trump announced that he was running for office, he stated that he could have retired peacefully, but he believed that it was his duty to protect the American State and he believed that doing so was a civic duty.

• Trump risked his safety and spent an estimated 270 million $ to get into office. Thus he committed his life and fortune in defense of the State.

• Trump is constantly trying to unite the nation. He said on many occasions that the American people can accomplish anything if they worked together.

• Trump respects the American army. He honors the army every chances he gets and he provides aid to the veteran soldiers as a recognition of their service to the State.

• Trump said on many occasions that the US army should seize the resources, such as oil, from the nations that are at war with the USA and use these resources to fund the aid to the veterans.

• Trump believes that it doesn’t matter what is your country of origin. By applying for citizenship and by adopting the American way of life and values, you become an American.

So is Trump fascist? According to the Greco-Roman definition of the word, yes Trump is fascist. He is probably the most fascist president in the history of the USA; But in a good way.

Communism

This system is based on the belief that everyone is equal. This equality takes many forms: Communists believe that everyone is the same. A person is like a liquid and it can take any form according to their environment (this is the nurture argument taken to its extreme). They also believe that if everyone is the same everyone should have the same outcome.

Since no one has the same outcome out of life, the Marxists are forced to come up with an explanation for that. Thus, communists believe that the only reason there is a disparity in outcomes is due to injustices. These injustices take the form of classes who have the monopoly of power exploiting the classes without power.

In order to do this society must be divided into identifiable groups according to wealth, origin and identifiable traits. These class conflicts take the form of: Proletarian vs Bourgeoisy; Men vs Woman; White s vs Blacks; Christians vs Jews…

Also, in order to ensure that all outcomes are the same no one can have any property rights and every member of society must be micro managed.

The goal is to achieve a Utopia where there is no government and where all the resources are distributed equally to everyone. Communists will use every means necessary to achieve this Utopia, such as murdering tens of millions of people who have different values and destroying any fact that contradict the communist narrative.

In a system where people and knowledge has no value it is easy to burn books and people alike. They are nothing more than bumps on the road to Utopia. Communists often characterize this as their struggle.

However, since equality doesn’t exist in this world, communists have no choice but to keep murdering people and burning books in the hopes of reaching something that is unobtainable.

Anarchy

Anarchy only means the absence of rulers. Unlike what the conservative would have you believe, it doesn’t mean that an anarchist system would lead to murder, rape and looting. Different systems can exist without a ruler. You can have a society ran by criminal cartels or you can have a society based on the private market and the accumulation of capital. The only true statement that can be made about anarchy comes from John Locke in that a man in a state of nature is neither good nor bad, he is free.

A society founded on freedom is based on incentive structures. The incentive to accumulate wealth is a driving force that pushes individuals to work and innovate. Societies based on freedom often do better than other societies because the lack of regulations by the State allows private institutions to maximize the creation of capital. Also, with a government, these private entities and individuals are able to compete in order to increase their wealth.

A system based on liberty rejects equality. In this society it is understood that the outcome is proportional to the effort invested and to the skills of the individuals. This leads to huge disparities in the wealth of different individuals.

Also, a society based on freedom rejects civic duty. A person that is individualist, by definition, will not sacrifice for a collective. This person even rejects the concept of a collective. This leads to a society that cannot unite to defend itself against outside threats.

Individualists are very unlikely to commit random acts of violence because they have nothing to gain from such an action. They are more likely to leave others alone and focus all their time and efforts on acquiring and spending their wealth.

Unlike the popular belief that an anarchist society would fall apart without a government, it is important to understand that every ‘’services’’ provided by the State can be sold by private enterprises. Companies can make and maintain roads; provide a police force and even provide an aqueduct. All these services can be available for a reasonable monthly fee without having a government forcing its ideology down your throat.

Analyzing political figures

Trump

If we use the political trichotomy model we understand that Trump believes in meritocracy and free markets, but he values stability even more. So he is slightly closer to stability in the model. Also, Trump showed that he doesn’t believe women can succeed on their own, so he created even more quotas for women and invested more money in social programs that favor only women. So he leans slightly towards equality.

Hitler

Often when we talk about fascism, we need to talk about Hitler. However, Hitler used a mix of 2 political philosophies and he was very open about the fact that he advocated for National Socialism.

• He used fascism to rally the German people behind his banner by advocating it was a civic duty to restore Germany’s greatness.

• He advocated socialism by creating social programs; advocated for the equality of women; controlled the economy to influence the outcomes of individuals; he burned books that contradicted his narrative and he used a narrative of class and race struggle to explain the disparity of outcomes in his society.

If you use the political trichotomy model you realize that Hitler was completely to the left and that his main value was equality. However, when the left lost the war, they did damage control and to get rid of their bad actor. They blamed everything on fascism, advocated that Hitler was far right and advocated that it wasn’t real socialism.

Conclusion

By using the political trichotomy model we can clearly see that Trump and Hitler are polar opposites. We can also see that words are constantly redefined to advance political agendas and unless we look at the origins of these terms we are mislead by ideologues.

I hope that this presentation will contribute to clarity in the world.

Gato Villano