Statism: Collectivist Social Systems; Totalitarianism; Socialism, Theocracy and Oligarchy
#4 in a series of Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right: A 21st Century Citizen Guide (2nd Expanded Edition)
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4. STATISM: COLLECTIVIST SOCIAL SYSTEMS
A social system is basically the system around which a country organizes its politics and economy. The common term for a social system rooted in collectivism is statism:
© 2022 Anders Ingemarson; from “Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right: A 21st Century Citizen Guide (2nd expanded edition)”
Statism comes in many shapes and forms on the same spectrum from bad to evil as collectivism. Historically, humanity has spent a lot of energy on inventing and re-inventing statist social systems. Consequently, most social systems advocated by both the political left and the political right are statist in nature and vary mostly in degree but not in kind.
Let’s look at the various statist social systems starting with the worst.
4.1 Totalitarianism: Extreme Collectivism/Statism
Looking at the extremes illustrates that statist systems on the political left and the political right are two sides of the same coin. On the extreme left we traditionally find communism, and on the extreme right fascism.
Communism is often defined by “class struggle.” Class is the most common collective or group of choice for communists. Historically, the oppressed classes were workers (the Soviet Union) or peasants (Maoist China), and the classes accused of oppression were the upper and middle classes. Communists set out to reverse the alleged oppression, sacrificing the latter to the former.
Communism’s main characteristic is public ownership of the means of production and abolition of private property, steps supposedly required to end the class struggle. Without access to your property—the fruits of your labors—your individual rights are violated in the most fundamental way. Ironically and horribly, this means that under communism everybody’s individual rights—peasants, workers, the middle and upper class, and members of any other “oppressed” or “oppressing” group—are sacrificed for the benefit of the collective in the name of the “public good.”
Fascism in its most common form demands the sacrifice of the individual to the nation, its collective of choice. The nation, according to fascists, has rights above and beyond the individual rights of the inhabitants of the country in question.
Fascists allow citizens to retain the responsibilities of owning property but regulate it so heavily for the “public good” that ownership amounts to little. If you’re not in control of what you own, your individual rights become meaningless.
Racism, the sacrifice of certain groups to others based on ethnicity, is the crudest and most primitive form of collectivism. Since the atrocities of Nazi Germany during WWII it has been primarily associated with fascism. But racism is common across the collectivist spectrum. For example, the Communist Soviet Union committed genocide against multiple ethnic groups such as the Crimean Tatars and the Kulaks. Historically, racism in the United States was prevalent both on the statist political right and left. Today, it is again on the rise on the political left as indicated by its widespread focus on a race-based agenda founded in critical race theory (CRT), and on the right in the form of white supremacism.
Both communism and fascism are expressions of extreme collectivism, sacrificing individuals to some collective on a grand scale. From 1900 to 1987, such statist regimes slaughtered an estimated 262 million people, and oppressed countless additional millions.
Communism and fascism are totalitarian in nature, as they require total submission of the individual to the state. Traditionally, they are placed on opposite ends of the political spectrum. However, in terms of morally Right and Wrong, both occupy the evil totalitarian end of the collectivist/statist spectrum:
© 2022 Anders Ingemarson; from “Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right: A 21st Century Citizen Guide (2nd expanded edition)”
Thankfully, totalitarianism has been on the decline since the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s. Today, North Korea and Cuba are the two remaining familiar examples of communism. China’s transition from communism appears to have stalled in recent years. If collectivist forces of the nationalist kind prevail, China may evolve into a fascist social system. But if the individualist elements can be resuscitated, China may transition to a milder form of statism (see below).
Next, let’s briefly discuss a few other authoritarian statist systems that are “flirting with totalitarianism.”
4.2 Socialism, Theocracy, and Oligarchy: Flirting with Totalitarianism
Socialism, theocracy, and oligarchy are authoritarian statist social systems straddling the line between totalitarianism and less severe forms of statism.
Socialism comes in many flavors that have one thing in common: the state, or some form of cooperative or other public entity, owns or controls a substantial share of the property in society. Hence, socialism is often just a less consistently implemented statist version of its totalitarian cousin, communism, violating individual rights on a large scale by denying citizens the fruits of their labors. The most well-known socialist system today is Venezuela.
Theocracy is a form of statist social system in which God or some other deity is recognized as the supreme ruling authority and has so-called divine rights over the members of society. The deity allegedly gives divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the day to day affairs of the society in question. The form of this guidance depends on the teachings of the deity as interpreted by the intermediaries. But the common denominator is that the individual rights of the members of society are violated in the name of the alleged divine rights of the deity. Individuals are required to sacrifice for the good of the deity, however that good is defined by the human intermediaries. Iran is the best example of a theocratic social system in today’s world, where mullahs and ayatollahs serve as the intermediaries between the deity, Allah, and his worldly subjects.
Finally, oligarchy is an authoritarian statist social system in which power rests with a small number of people. They may be distinguished by nobility, family, wealth or education, or by corporate, military, or other background. The most familiar example today is Russia, which has transitioned from communism to an oligarchy where an elite with communist, corporate, and military background is ruling the country. Russia’s oligarchical social system has strong influences of nationalism, demanding the sacrifice of individual citizens to restore “the greatness of Mother Russia.” (As of writing this in March 2022 it appears Russia has taken a decisive totalitarian turn from oligarchy to fascism)
Communism, fascism, socialism, theocracy, and oligarchy are convenient labels for totalitarian and other statist social systems. But it is important to realize that they almost always overlap in their practical implementation, and a given society may contain elements of several of them. For example, China is still officially a communist country, but it allows private property and offers some level of protection of individual rights. In this sense it is no longer totalitarian (although it is with respect to some of its minorities, such as the Uyghurs). But it still has socialist elements with a large sector of publicly owned property. And with a clique of Communist Party officials maintaining strict control, the country also shows oligarchical tendencies. The Communist Party leadership also promotes nationalism, wanting to return China to some of its alleged past glory, an indication that it may revert back to totalitarianism, this time of the fascist kind.
On the traditional political right-to-left spectrum, socialism is placed on the left and theocracy on the right, while oligarchy lacks a distinct home. On the moral Right-to-Wrong axis all three are grouped together just short of totalitarianism, as all three violate individual rights on a large scale by demanding sacrifice of its members to the collective of choice, be it the nation, the faith, the class, the public good, etc:
© 2022 Anders Ingemarson; from “Think Right or Wrong, Not Left or Right: A 21st Century Citizen Guide (2nd expanded edition)”
Thankfully, the United States doesn’t fall into any of these categories, but our country is nevertheless rife with less-severe forms of statism. Let’s take a look at our particular version of a statist social system, welfare statism.