DJ Duk

November 19, 2004

-ism

I've previously promised a brief list of the "-isms " that keep cropping up in political discourse. Much as I like lying and reneging on promises I thought I'd actually do this, just to keep folks off balance.

Totalitarianism A cynic might say that this is what any government wants to be. Really, totalitarianism means that a country wants to do everything for its people. Sounds kind of good at first glance, but it degrades quickly. The government provides all services, all products, hires all people, handles all commerce, decides who gets married and to whom, raises children, decides what religion people have and how to worship, decides, ultimately, who lives and who dies. The government takes an active role in everything all people within that nation do and the people are expected to be subservient to government. Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia we're very close to but not quite ideal totalitarian states. Microsoft is a bit closer for PC users. Totalitarian states have a tendency to want to expand their borders, usually through rampant, unrestrained violence.

Socialism I've covered this at some length previously. Briefly, socialism is an economic system where the state directly controls the economy in addition to whatever else it does.

Communism An enforced single party socialism. Communism is essentially a method of maintaining socialism by restricting political freedoms.

Capitalism An economic system that, at its simplest, lets money itself run an economy. The basic idea is some people have money (or capital, which is basically money by another name) and they want more of it. They then spend that money to do things like open a business. They spend money to make money. Other people who don't start with money work for them and get some money. They then develop their own enterprise and hire others to make more money for themselves. I could say a great deal more about capitalism and I most likely shall later.

Collectivism Any philosophy acknowledging that people are stronger when working together than apart. The downside to most collective ideas is that The Many can and should coerce The Few for the perceived greater good. This puts a real crimp on personal freedoms. Socialism and communism are both types of collectivism.

Chauvinism In its broadest terms the belief of one group that it is better than some other group. Racism (which I won't define here) is a type of chauvinism. In the common usage chauvinism refers to the belief that men are superior in some way to women. This idea does not appear to be genetic because those who profess it are rarely given the chance to breed, except in Alabama.

Fascism Truly not too different than totalitarianism fascism espouses the total dominance of the nation state, both for its own native citizens and for all the others it can capture. Fascism is essentially the Italian word for totalitarianism.

That covers all of the "-isms" I've used on the site. If I've missed anything please let me know.

Posted by DjDuk at November 19, 2004 11:44 AM