Most political discussions rely on the old left/right spectrum, your either on the left or on the right of a political question. Most people would say that Conservatism is on the right, now what do most people regard as the extreme right of the spectrum, Nazi's. So if Conservatives are on the right and Nazi's are on the right they must be the same!
I know I've heard that said, but in general there are two types of people who say that, the ignorant, who don't know any better and the malicious, who do know better but who don't care because they want to cause harm. It is important that we can counter both types as it is simply untrue.
Nazi's are Fascists so everything I wrote in the last post is true here, but Nazi's are a specific type of Fascist, different enough both in history and ideology to warrant their own entry. They are much more ruthless than fascists, they believe in the supremacy of force over reason and that war is an advanced state of being, superior to peace as the Nation works as one in a way it does not during times of peace. They believe in the "big lie", the truth is not simply a casualty, the truth is an orphan that may be disowned at any time. This is different to spin or normal political lying, this is something that is built into the very structure of Nazism. The greatest of all the "big lie's" is the Jewish World Conspiracy, there is no evidence for such a thing but Nazism is built upon this. It is the thing that truly divides Nazism from Fascism, Fascism is no more Anti-Semitic than any other political philosophy, it may or may not be but it is not built upon it. Nazism is, and it is this that sets it apart from every other political philosophy.
So what is the Jewish World Conspiracy?
It is the idea that all, most or some Jews are involved in a global and long running conspiracy to control everything. The theory says they secretly either control or seek to control Governments, business and culture. The problem for the theory is that there is next to no evidence for it, but in typical conspiracy theory modus operandi the lack of proof is used as proof of the effectiveness of the conspiracy!
How is Conservatism different?
We believe that the Government should be loyal to the people, no system of Government that imprisons or kills it own citizens for belief instead of action is Conservative, it is immoral. Simply belonging to a particular segment of society should not mean that you risk imprisonment or death. It should be actions that put you at risk of censure and that the rule of law should prevail and not simply whim or force. We also believe that war and peace are things that can and do occur and that we should prepare for both not simply for one. We are not Pacifists but we are not war-mongers either, we fear defeat not war and we do not fight wars simply for glory as nothing in war is certain. Wars should be fought because they are vital to the security of the Nation and it's interests. We further do not believe in the "big lie", while conspiracies exist that is not the same thing as a conspiracy theory, we do not believe that the world is a web of conspiracies, we believe that the world is mostly rational and that we should be as well. That truth is superior to lies as lies lead to a view of society that can be very much in conflict with reality.
The person who is ignorant and believes that everything on the "right" is the equivalent of the Nazi's should be told a historical truth and that is that Conservatives were sent to concentration camps, for most that will be enough. For the malicious there isn't much hope as they aren't interested in the truth, they are interested, ironically, in spreading another, "big lie".
Conspiracy Versus Conspiracy Theory
Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future
Surely this problem of categorisation goes away if you recognise that the job of a political taxonomist is sort out belief systems according to their politcal impact and not their ecnomic nicieties.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, the place one falls on the left/right scale depends upon the degree of staism in one's beliefs. At the extreme left is the totalitarian who believes that the state is all and the individual is nothing. On the extreme right is the true anarchist (not the faux 'anarchists' of 19th century Rusia or 20th century Spain who were just totalitarians by another name) who believes that the individual is king.
On that scale Mr Hitler and Mr Stalin stand far to the left, despite that one believed in the dictatorship of the german volk and one of the proletariat. Both saw the State as all encompassing.
Now many observers argue that the Coomunists and the Nazis can't be both on the left, because they hated each other more than they hated the western democracies. My answer to that is that of course they hated each intensely, because they were both trawling in the same waters and suggesting very similar statist solutions. Coke fights much harder against Pepsi than it does against tea, but both fizzy drinks would regard themselves as distinct from each other. SUch it was with communism and fascism.
Rococo Liberal