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May 13, 2012 |
| Systems of Government | ||
Another Federal and Presidential election is coming … and it seems like the last one was just yesterday. But there is an important difference this time. Some words are being used this time that have not been used since the 1960s, words that most people don't really understand. These words describe systems of government and go by names like Capitalist, Marxist, Fascist, Socialist, Maoist, and on and on.
There are people accusing President Barack Obama of being a Marxist. What does it mean to be a Marxist? How can you tell if he is a Marxist? When President Obama was elected Newsweek magazine came out with a cover that said "We are all Socialists now". What did they mean by that? At about the same time the president said something like "Bush messed it up. What does it matter if I use a Socialist mop or a capitalist mop to clean it up?". What did he mean by that? The French people just voted for a Socialist. What does that mean? A Fascist party in Greece just had unexpected levels of support. Why would Greeks vote for a philosophy that caused the deaths of 10% of their population just 70 years ago?
This lesson will cover these philosophies and we will also look at what the future government of God will be like as much as we understand it.
This lesson is based heavily on the book "The Road to Serfdom" by F.A.Hayek. Conceived and written in the period during the rise of Nazism through the world war that resulted, this book became the definitive work on Totalitarianism, of which Nazism is one example.
Systems of government have traditionally been described in terms of a line that stretches from left to right. The idea is that any system of government can be described as being at some particular point on that line. The further left of the center point of that line the more the government supports leftist ideals; the further right of the center point of that line the more the government supports leftist ideals.
| C o n s e r v a t i v e | L i b e r a l | ||||||||
| S |
| C |
| M |
| D |
| R |
| F |
C - Communist
D - Democratic Party
F - Fascist
M - Marxist
R - Republican Party
S - Socialist
The leftist ideal is that government has a significant role to play in the lives of its citizens. Called Liberalism, this ideal results in these actions and preferences:
Because of this desire to help disadvantaged groups of citizens Liberalism tends to think of its citizens less as individuals and instead as the groups or classes to which they belong, for example a black middle-income southerner. This classification is needed to determine if the person should receive any advantage from the government to correct for disadvantages in society.
The natural result of liberalism is a large government and high taxes to pay for it.
The rightest ideal, called Conservativism, is that government has a very small role to play in the lives of its citizens. This results in these actions and preferences:
Conservatism thinks of citizens as individuals who are equal in the eyes of the government and treated that way.
The natural result of Conservatism is that a person must plan for his own future and maintain a network of friends so that they can work together in hard times. Therefore belief in God is also more common.
The problem with the Left-Right line is that it groups some systems of government together that are wildly different. No one would consider a traditional member of the Democratic Party being the same thing as a Marxist. But the Left-Right line groups them together as it also groups Fascists with members of the Republican Party.
In order to correct for that we compare them to find the characteristic that best distinguishes one from the other. It turns out that characteristic is Freedom. The opposite ends of this characteristic are Anarchy and Totalitarianism. Anarchy is a complete lack of rules and every citizen does what seems right to him. Totalitarianism is total control of the citizen through rules. The citizen makes no decisions; someone makes the decisions for him.
With the addition of Freedom our Left-Right line becomes an area.
| T o t a l i t a r i a n i s m | |||||||||
| L i b e r a l | C o n s e r v a t i v e | ||||||||
| A n a r c h y | |||||||||
| L |
| R |
| D |
| F |
| I |
| S |
| C |
| M |
C - Communist
D - Democratic Party
F - Fascist
I - Islamic
L - Libertarian
M - Marxist
R - Republican Party
S - Socialist
When we view systems of government this way it is easier to make sense of the different philosophies. The line that descends as it goes from left to right is the natural line. It is really more of an area around that line than just a line, but this is where most people are philosophically and prefer their government to be. Some people prefer to have little government involvement in their lives and are prepared to accept little in benefits from that government. Those people would be towards the right end of that line. Other people prefer to have more government benefits and are willing to accept more government involvement in their lives.
One thing we notice is the no-man's area in the bottom left corner. In this area government just can't work. That is because it would have social programs but not enough government to manage them. You might think that there should be a similar no-man's area in the top right. That is the area where there is lots of government involvement in the lives of its people but few if any government benefits. But that isn't the way things work along the totalitarian edge. These large governments keep themselves in control even when the people get little benefit from them and don't want them.
This brings up the question - why would anyone choose to have a totalitarian government. The answer is that they don't. These governments usually come into power because they have seized power in a military action or because they have tricked the people into thinking they are something else.
Totalitarian governments come into power when a country is in terrible times. Usually there is severe economic hardship, strikes, and violence in the streets. Sometimes these conditions have actually been created by the Totalitarians for the purpose of getting into power. The idea is that if things are bad enough under the current system of government citizens can be convinced to try a new form of government.
The Totalitarians tell the citizens how fair this new form of government will be and how their lives will be so much better than they are. Everyone will be guaranteed a job, a home, healthcare, retirement benefits and so on. This perfect society was described by John Lennon (former Beatle) in the 60s in the song titled Imagine. Here are the verses from that song
Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try
No hell below us. Above us only sky
Imagine all the people. Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too
Imagine all the people. Living life in peace...
Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people. Sharing all the world...1
Doesn't that sound wonderful? Everyone working together, sharing everything, no differences between them so they have nothing to fight over. But right away you can see the first problem - religious people aren't going to be in favor of this. Totalitarians have a really big problem with religions, especially religions that say there is a right way to live.
Often there are totalitarians already placed in the current government who are waiting to spring into action. Once they get control of government their first act is to take ownership or legal control of everything, manufacturing companies, banks, farms, churches, and usually personal property.
There is a philosophy called Progressivism. Progressives are really just some type of Socialists. They differ only in that they believe society can be slowly moved into Socialism in small steps. That way a violent revolution can be avoided.
The idea is to increase the government benefits to the civilians progressively until the citizens become dependent on them and over time forget how to live without them. Then at some point the citizens just vote in a Totalitarian government.
But this has never worked. What happens instead is that the government increases the size of government and the benefits but can't collect enough in taxes to pay for them. This causes economic problems and sometimes the collapse of the economy. The result is that a Totalitarian government seizes power, the citizens unwittingly choose another form of government - Totalitarianism - or in very rare cases the citizens manage to bring in a normal government.
Some of the people that want Totalitarian governments are what Marx called "useful idiots". They don't really understand what they are getting into. At the core of every successful Totalitarian government there needs to be a core of people who are determined to keep power, even if it means killing a lot of people. In fact some of the 60s Totalitarian groups were infiltrated by the FBI who found that it was well known that roughly 10% of the population would not accept the new government and would have to be killed.
This makes perfect sense when you look at the diagram above. This form of government is a very long way away from the natural line. For many people it is too far away and they just don't want it. Because of the slant of the natural line it is the right side that is furthest away and least happy with the new government.
The government is able to threaten some of these enough that they at least shut up and cease activity against the government. Other people are sent for "psychological" treatment (you must be nuts) or to "re-education" camps. Some are "sadly" incapable of being reformed and are sent to death camps or killed summarily.
This has been the pattern for all Totalitarian regimes. No one knows how many have been killed because Totalitarian governments are so closed. But the fall of the Nazis and the Soviet Union allowed outsiders a peek at their books and the number is probably in the 100s of millions.
As mentioned above the killings tend to focus on the right side of the diagram, especially religious groups. But make no mistake, though each form of Totalitarianism has pet groups such as unions or businesses, if those groups step out of line or start complaining they will get the same treatment.
The vast majority of Christians are on the right end of the natural line with some being further to the right and others even being a little left of center. But it's important to know that there are groups that call themselves Christians who are at the far left of the natural line. But the beliefs of these groups are far different from the majority.
These groups teach a Social Gospel, a doctrine of works, not faith. Salvation is achieved by a collective effort of the churches to wipe out evil in the world. Along with the usual Christian understanding of evil they add inequality of wealth, inequality of the sexes. They believe in Collective Salvation where no one can be saved (as they understand salvation) unless everyone is saved. In short, Christianity has become a vehicle for their politics. They also believe the Bible is written by fallible men who were influenced by their times and culture and their messages may not be relevant any more.
Here is a quote. "The Christian Left is also all-inclusive. They believe everyone has a place at God's table, no matter their color, nationality, sexuality, or gender. They are the complete opposite of the Christian Right who believe only wealthy white people deserve to eat with the Lord. Unlike the right-wing, the Christian Left believes homosexuals are God's children too. The only sexual morality we should each be concerned with is our own. Concerning ourselves with abortion and homosexuality only divides us and distracts us from real issues like making sure everyone has health care and making sure the poor are cared for. Even the Bible acknowledges this. Sodom wasn't destroyed because of sexual immorality; it was destroyed because it 'had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease' - a pretty accurate description of America isn't it? - and it 'did not help the poor and needy'"2
Totalitarianism requires complete obedience of the government. No opposition is tolerated and not even the expression of opposing ideas is tolerated. This causes a real problem with religious citizens whose allegiance is to a God who has different ideas than the government. Totalitarian governments will tolerate no other gods but them.
The Totalitarian ideal is to be the god. They will protect the people from all harm or unfairness. But they require complete obedience.
God instituted a government for man in his covenant with the Israelites. This government was very different from any government created by man.
But this government failed, not because the design was bad but because its citizens refused to follow its laws and eventually refused it altogether.
We know there will be another government of God when he returns and this one will last for 1000 years. The secret to success in this one is that Satan and sin will be abolished. Every man will live according to God's laws and reap the benefits he offers.
Therefore if the question is, what is the best system of government for man, the answer is none of them. That's more the fault of man than the system of government. Evil men will eventually corrupt any system of government.
We live in very odd times. Many things are changing and very quickly. The difficult economic times are causing countries to do things we haven't seen since just before Hitler. Systems of government that have proven themselves to be failures are once again being considered.
Supporters of these Systems of Government know that citizens wouldn't choose them if they knew all the details of what they were getting. So they don't tell the truth. Instead they wait for their opening in the hope that they can trick enough citizens and force the rest to go along.
It is good for Christians to know that there are some Systems of Government that are truly evil. Their supporters strongly desire to control the United States, failing that the collapse of the United States is their second choice.
This year, 2012, will see many of the governments of the major powers going through elections. Russia and France have finished, Greece is in the process. The US is still to come. This is an important time for the whole world. Christians need to be prayerful, and when their time comes to choose they need to be wise.
1 http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/john_lennon/imagine.html
2 http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/10/20/the-values-of-the-christian-left/