Posted by
The Gunny on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:08:02 AM
WHAT ARE ALL THOSE ISMs PART II
In part one, I wrote a sketch of four political/economic isms; socialism, communism, fascism, and Marxism. In Part II I will attempt to describe five more isms; capitalism, anarchism, corporatism, totalitarianism, and conservatism. As mentioned before, these political isms are also economic systems concerned with the production and distribution of goods. Capitalism is the only economic system that can claim to be a moral political system because it is the only system dedicated to the protection of individual rights, property, and contract. Of all the isms, capitalism is not an ideology.
Capitalism: An economic system in which businesses are either privately or corporately owned. Successful businesses are able to make a profit and continue to be successful by prudent reinvestment of those profits. Capitalism is also known as the “free market” or a Laissez Faire doctrine that: “opposes governmental regulation or of interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws.” The American economic system is unique to us because without individual and property rights capitalism could not flourish. The role of government to provide these protections is the only proper function of government. That is why capitalism is not only an economic system it is a system of government based on freedom and individual rights. What are needed in a capitalist market are risk takers willing to risk all in the pursuit of wealth, and willing to lose it all if they fail. In American capitalism, the more the economy flourishes, the stronger America becomes and vice versa.
Anarchism: When I came across this ism I couldn’t help thinking what a mess the world would be if we all lived by the tenets of Anarchy. The first problem with Anarchism is you have to presume that all people are naturally good; you must assume everyone will play nice with each other. Anarchists believe that social institutions are an imposition on the natural order of things. The hippy communes of the 70’s and 80’s tried to live free and unfettered with no rules or order. They were a dismal failure because human nature simply cannot abide sitting around stagnating for very long. Living in a commune means you have to sacrifice your personal time for the good of the community, and for most folks, this goes against their nature to be self-serving. A healthy selfishness means you love life and you understand that life cannot be lived constantly doing for others rather than yourself.
Some folks confuse freedom with having no boundaries, no rules, no social obligations, and believe that anarchy is Utopia. I can’t think of a more naïve notion, because all it takes is for the first armed thug to come along and turn Utopia into hell.
Corporatism: The word has nothing to do with the organization of a business. The only thing in common is the name which has its root from the Latin word for body, corpus. The best analogy I can come up with is that under Corporatism, society and government would be controlled by labor unions representing each branch of business. It’s simply a form of socialism. Another word for corporatism is syndicalism, a movement to bring industry and government under the control of labor unions very much the same as Medieval Trade Guilds. This would be accomplished through such actions as strikes and sabotage. Basically, society together with their economy would, according to their interests, form groups called corporations with representatives of those groups settling problems through negotiations and mutual agreements. This would be starkly different than the collective bargaining that competitive businesses and unions conduct now. Corporatism could very well have as their motto, “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Totalitarianism: The poster boy for a totalitarian state was Iraq under Saddam Hussain. Cuba is other example that comes to mind. This is, as you can well imagine, not something to be desired by the people of a country. Businesses would remain in private hands, but they would be tied closely to the rulers of the state. There is a total lack of private space for citizens of a totalitarian state. When the state has utter control of religion, education, social, cultural, families, health care, and economic livelihood you have a totalitarian state.
Conservatism: I saved this for last because, to me, it is more important that people understand just what conservatism is and what it isn’t. In college classrooms, students are told that conservatives want to stubbornly maintain the status quo that they want to oppose, at all costs, any sort of progress. Liberals today equate conservatism with Islamic fundamentalism. However, the truth is that conservatism wants to maintain what is known as classic liberalism. To define conservatism as the desire to maintain and preserve the past is a typical modern liberal tactic to twist the meaning of words to fit their agenda. Speaking of living in the past, how many liberals do you know who wish they could go back to the days of Woodstock? Conservatives actually are always open to change, just not change for the sake of change. And they believe in the classic definition of liberalism. We can no longer use the word liberal without thinking of socialism, nor can we use the word conservative without conjuring up Islamic radicals. We can thank our socialist friends for 70 years of purposely creating this confusion. On the web, Conservative-resources.com clears this up by explaining that “liberalism is a standing argument between classical liberals and modern liberals, who are usually called conservatives and liberals, respectively.
America made its greatest progress when we followed the classic liberal (conservative) principles. Our founding fathers believed in classic liberalism and they were obviously not averse to change.
The following shows the differences between conservatism and liberalism.
Defining Principles Conservatism Defining Principles of Liberalism
1. Belief in natural law 1. Positive Law
2. Belief in established institutions 2. Progress
3. Preference for liberty over equality 3. Equality over liberty
4. Suspicion of power — and of human nature 4. Benevolent government
5. Belief in exceptionalism 5. Human perfectibility
6. Belief in the individual 6. Community
This is a good place to stop my discussion of the major isms. I did not mention libertarianism because to me they are too far ahead of their time to be of much use in this discussion. I wanted to leave you with a look at the differences between conservatives and liberals and will post another blog on this subject as Part III.