What is authoritarianism?
“It’s Communist! No, it’s Fascism! Socialist, maybe? Oh, I know, it’s Trumpism!”
I was reading another article a few minutes ago, in between ruffling the sheets in the dryer, and one comment caught my eye. It said something about authoritarianism, and made the statement similar to, “…whether its left or right…”.
I think this reveals a common misconception about the concept of authoritarianism, and, in fact, about politics as well.
So, to start with, what’s “left” vs. “right”? To what do those terms refer?
You’ll get different answers depending on if the person answering is, in fact, left or right in their leanings. I’m Progressive, so take that into account here. To me, right leaning politics is (at least in the US) all about rich white guys running the economy.
Some might answer in terms of “traditional” conservative values, but then the last six years has revealed the flaw in that viewpoint. Why? Because the GOP has abandoned those “values.” This reveals that they’ll take any values they can to push and display simply to get the people who DO carry those values to vote for them.
Note, if you will, that the anti-abortion thing was never a thing — until they needed the votes of the Evangelicals. Once they got those folks on board, even the Evangelicals had never bothered at all with that subject. It was all made up, from whole cloth! Just for votes. So, power. That’s it, all for the power.
So, what’s “left”?
Good question. If anyone wants to echo the thing I said about the right, you’ve got an argument to make. I mean sure, power is important, but I do think that for most of the people active in that party, it’s merely a means to the end goals. Plural. Are there some at the top with similar goals to the right? I’m sure there are, money talks, and some of the top Democrats are getting donations from the same Corporate sources as the right. But then, the Democrats have always been more split than the right, so, frankly, the one thing that’s keeping them together now is…Trump.
But I do believe that, to most Democrats, even the rank and file in government, improving life in the US is at the top of the list. Now, given that statement about split goals, that isn’t to say they all agree on how. But for now, opposing the authoritarians is enough to hold them together in one voting block. Oh, and don’t think this is permanent. Nothing about politics is ever permanent, certainly, at least the surface stuff changes.
Now that we’ve got that settled, what’s next?
The world? Well, I’m no scholar of politics, no matter how much it fascinates me, so don’t ask. I’m sure other parties in other countries have similar differences, and I know for a fact that “lefties” in the US are basically Centrists in Europe. In Asia? No clue. Somebody can chime in in the comments, please!
So, now Authoritarianism. Again, I’m no scholar, but others are, and this is what one says in Wikipedia:
The political scientist Juan Linz, in an influential[8] 1964 work, “An Authoritarian Regime: Spain”, defined authoritarianism as possessing four qualities:
* Limited political pluralism, which is achieved with constraints on the legislature, political parties and interest groups.
* Political legitimacy based on appeals to emotion and identification of the regime as a necessary evil to combat “easily recognizable societal problems, such as underdevelopment or insurgency.”
* Minimal political mobilization, and suppression of anti-regime activities.
* Ill-defined executive powers, often vague and shifting, used to extend the power of the executive.[9][10]
You’ll notice at no point in that definition, did he mention political “left” or “right”, nor did he mention, more importantly, economics.
That’s because authoritarianism has no left or right, and it will use any economic system as a facade to attract supporters in the particular political system in which it vies for power. I mean, look at history, and look at the current world order.
Authoritarians exist inside their own little political world. The major and only goal, is power. Pure and simple. In fact, the only person to whom that power resides is “The Boss.” The top guy, the dictator, or whatever title he decides to give himself, which will vary depending on what the political entity within which he operates uses. Remember, he needs supporters.
That’s why you see dictators take all kinds of titles, use all kinds of economic systems, depend on all sorts of supposedly “democratic” or simply “traditional” institutions used historically in that country. It doesn’t matter in the end, the goal is for the power to reside with The Boss. Everyone else depends on and listens to him, or they disappear.
So, forget all that “Communist” bullshit. Fascism is a thing, but remember, in the end, The Boss is all who matters, not the name of the supposed political theory they use. I know there are places on the Web who define Fascism, and often use 14 points to define it. All that is pretty accurate, but remember, most of those 14 points can be boiled down to the four mentioned above — and even those boil down to one single point.
The Boss is in charge. His power, his decisions, his preferences. Those are all that matter, and he’ll use any political machination, any economic ideology, any traditional institution, any social institution, and fool even his supporters, to gain the power he craves.
The warning to anyone who is attracted to Authoritarianism is, remember that one thing. The Boss cares about only him. Remember Hitler? He used the Brownshirts to foment violence and chaos to seize power. But then, who got the Shaft afterwards? Yeah, the Brownshirts. Because specifically, they represented the chaos. His promise to the people of Germany was to eliminate that chaos. So, he did!
Perhaps the White Supremacists should understand that point. I’m sure the Proud Boys and those other idiots are regretting their choices now that their leaders are sitting in Federal prison!
In the end, authoritarianism stands alone in the political spectrum. It’s neither left nor right, nor centrist, either. I’d not be sure where to even place it in relation to the Overton Window.
In the end, it’s evil, pure and simple. It exists because there are evil people who crave power, and will do anything — literally — to achieve that end.
Never forget. Just…don’t.
