Posted by
Cassandra on Saturday, September 27, 2008 11:53:18 AM
Who
needed further proof that the current notions about the political
spectrum are a myth, here it is. The financial crisis is interesting in
that is leads to political players reverting to their default attitudes
towards individual freedom and the role of the state. In French
President Nicolas Sarkozy we find a prime example. Be prepared for the shake-out to produce more revealing knee-jerks in the coming weeks and months.
At
the root of the false spectrum is the public relations stunt that was
sprung by the Left after World War II with the annihilation of the
ultra Right, in the defeat of National Socialist Germany. Myth-making,
PR stunt, are two ways of putting it; another is defining it as
'actively altering the perception of reality'. (Only this has to be
done artfully and in a coordinated fashion; not like some amateurs who
are currently trying to paint Sarah Palin simultaneously as the hot and
gullible hayseed, Ellie Mae in a postmodern rendition of the sixties TV
series The Beverley Hillbillies, and as a gun-toting, Bible-thumbing,
reincarnation of the Puritan niece of Oliver Cromwell - all at the same time.)
That
aside, the dialectic myth sprung on us was that on the Left we have the
humane, altruistic Socialists, whereas the Right consists entirely of
vile egoistic Capitalists preying on the good hearts of the poor
masses. In this dichotomy we find in Adolf Hitler the arch Wall Street
Capital C Capitalist of all time; and 'third way' small l liberals as a
compromise between the two polar systems, somewhere in the middle of
the spectrum. There is obviously something wrong with this skewed
picture.
Both Left and Right are two branch departments of the
same collectivist school of thought, that demands the individual to
subordinate to the collective body (group, state, race, social class,
nation, etc.). Although they often subscribe to the oxymoron of
regulated free-market capitalism - neutrally described as 'best
practice' - a majority of European Christian Democrats are at core of
that ilk. The same is true of American paleo conservatives. Which
stands to reason, because the structure of collectivism is religious
thought stripped from the finer theological ethics, and God replaced by
whatever was taken to animate and embody the collective. This is why
these ideologies often take the shape of pseudo religions, rather than
political systems.
Without
going at this time in to the core fallacy lurking on the bottom of this
Kantian/Hegelian pond (we have done that in these pages more often than
we care to remember) - this world view on the political level
translates into statism, collectivism and anti-capitalism; in
variations and intensity it is also suspicious, critical or downright
hostile towards reason, science and technology. It is in effect
directly opposed to modern thinking. Philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin coined the term, the Counter-Enlightenment.
Capitalism and free-markets are the political and economical
consequences of the ethics of individual Free Will, the use of reason
as the source of knowledge, and the assurance that the universe is
knowable. The USA is the only country founded on these basic
philosophical principles, democracy is the social translation. This
Postmodern cartoon shows it is precisely that which anti-modernism
opposes.
Let me at this
point take the opportunity to clarify the European versus the American
alignments. There are European Libertarians seriously misaligning,
declaring for the crypto Socialist Obama and the severely radicalized Democratic Party, unaware that the defenders of free-markets are located at the Republican side of the aisle.
Reverting to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, even though without doubt he's a true philamerican, the Financial Times article "Sarkozy sets out bigger state role"
is evidence that he remains at heart a statist (Gaullist) with a thin
veneer of Liberalism which is shed at the first sign the principles are
called upon. While singing the praises of Capitalism, he's calling for
the chutzpah that is European 'self-regulation,' to be jettisoned in
favor of outright state-regulation.
The coming months are
critical. The crisis offers an opportunity to those who had to swallow
and gag back free market capitalism for the sake of 'best practice',
but who remained emotionally as well as culturally collectivist
thinkers. Old ideals may well be revived. Bets are on for who'll be the
first to drop the n word of nationalization into the discourse.
These
true believers do not want to know that it's their own interventionism
that caused the markets to fail, and when they did, it's the markets
that were at fault (read "Blame Fannie Mae and Congress For the Credit Mess" and Carpe Diem: "Flashback to the 1990s: Origins of the Credit Crisis" by Dr. Mark J. Perry). Before anything else, this circular, truly banal argument needs falsefying.
The
current credit crunch will be used as an excuse to unleash a whole new
generation of big government regulation on to the free world, putting
it in retrograde as it is digging in. Of all the markers required for
global Fascism we come up short but one or two ... nothing a protracted
recession can't cure (posting will follow shortly). We can even venture
a guess what the neotot system will be called: New Capitalism, or
alternatively True Capitalism, entirely Islamic banking compatible.
Already the drones are buzzing that
"this is obviously the end of capitalism as we know it--it doesn't work".
The coming weeks and months will see defining moments in the unrolling
of our future in which Hegel's 'world historical figures' will play
their part: the ethics of the Enlightenment versus the next failed
attempt at Building the Collective Utopia (after over 110 million
deaths, this time they'll get it right ... for our own good, of course).
- Update -
Yahoo!UK & Ireland: "Government to nationalise Bradford & Bingley" -
- Filed on Articles in
"The Dystopia of Paradise" and
"The Economic and Monetary Dossier" -