Who should rule?
Logging on this morning, I see that this has once again become a burning issue among the commentators. So far, I haven’t had much to say about the topic. I don’t aspire to rule over anyone. Becoming a politician isn’t a good fit with my introverted personality type. It is a task that I would prefer to leave to others. We have already had one commentator storm off the site because of a controversial turn in this discussion. It is better to discuss the matter now (in its own definitive blog entry) than to have it continue to spill over into unrelated threads.
Nietzscheans
As everyone here knows by now, NeoNietzsche is a passionate admirer of Friedrich Nietzsche and subscribes to a peculiar interpretation of his theories. He believes in a caste system (warrior, cleric, peasant) and sees himself as part of the elect few who should rule in a White Nationalist ethnostate. Following Nietzsche, NN believes everyone has an essential orientation, master or slave, dominant or submissive, and that different moral systems correspond to this primordial mammalian division. As an advocate of “master morality,” he would abolish liberal democracy and confer elite status upon the “higher types” who are naturally born to rule.
Jeffersonians
In the United States, Jeffersonians are the most numerous in White Nationalist circles. In their view, the best type of government is the one that governs least. These people don’t see anything essentially wrong with the American system. They believe in state and local government and instinctively oppose the consolidation of power in Washington. Jeffersonians like to attribute our racial decline to the corrupting influence of outside forces, namely the Jews, and argue that racial sanity would quickly return to America after the excise of this cancer. Under the Jeffersonian system, elite status would be conferred through local elections and the private accumulation of wealth in a capitalist economy.
Hamiltonians
Like the Jeffersonians, the Hamiltonians still believe in republican self government, but prefer a strong, centralized state to a weak one. Instead of free trade, they want an America First trade policy. Hamiltonians support a strong public sector and a regulated market economy to ensure a more equitable distribution of wealth. They believe a few constitutional reforms will be sufficient to reverse our racial decline. In their ideal White ethnostate, elite status would also be conferred through elections and wealth accumulation in the private sphere.
Libertarians
The libertarians are a subset of the Jeffersonians who believe in a minimal state. They believe the only function of the state is to protect individual rights: military, police, courts. The libertarians would scrap the entire ediface of twentieth century progressive reforms in the name of liberty. In a libertarian White ethnostate, elite status would be conferred through participation in the market economy, as government would be hamstrung by a strict constitution.
Fascists
The fascists (this includes National Socialists and related species of fascism) want an authoritarian state headed by a dynamic leader with near absolute power. They would dispense with liberal democracy entirely and replace it with a racialized bureaucracy. This concentration of power would be used to rid the fascist ethnostate of Jews and other undesirable elements. Elite status would be conferred through rising in the party and pleasing its established leaders.
Platonists
For lack of a better word, the “Platonists” are White Nationalists who advocate rule by a Guardian caste or order. These Guardians would be chosen through breeding and merit. Exemplary Whites imbued with an unusual dedication to their race would enjoy rights and privileges that other citizens would not.
Christian Nationalists
The Christian Nationalists believe a strong, rejuvenated Christianity is a necessary component of a White ethnostate. In essence, they want an ethnostate based on Christian moral values. Some Christian Nationalists want a republic; some a monarchy; some a theocratic dictatorship. In all cases, elite status would be strongly connected to religious piety.
Monarchists
The monarchists want a king and hereditary aristocracy. Elite status would be conferred through the possession of royal blood.
Anarchists
The anarchists want to dispense with government entirely. In their proposed ethnostate, as there would be no government, politics would not exist and there would be no mechanism for selecting elites. In theory, everyone would be equal in this classless society.
Where I Stand
So, after all this, what is my answer to this question?
Politically, I stand between the Hamiltonians and Platonists. I think that government can be a force for good and that White Nationalists will need a strong central state to repel invasions by our multitude of enemies. The republican system is a proven model for ensuring continuity and the peaceful transfer of power. I think we would be unwise to dispense with it in pursuit of some of the more outré, untested ideas discussed above.
The worst aspects of republicanism can be dealt with through constitutional reforms. For one, I don’t believe in universal voting rights. In my ideal republic, the franchise would only be extended after certain conditions are met. Voters would be required to demonstrate they are intelligent, competent, and moral enough to enjoy the privilege of selecting our leaders. I also believe that the Guardian caste should have more sway than the average citizen. A real electoral college could be set up in which the Guardians could exercise a veto over bad popular selections.
Morally, Alasdair MacIntyre has been the major influence on my views. Like MacIntyre, I believe that morality is only logical within the context of established traditions. There are a number of moral traditions out there, each of them with their own history, each of them having different premisses as their starting point. It is impossible to properly reason across these incommensurate traditions.
I believe our moral discourse has been the victim of the catastrophe described by MacIntyre in the Preface of After Virtue : we only possess fragments of a coherent moral framework, terms which have lost the context which once made them plausible, and that rational people are diverted into nihilism by this disarray. There are no universal, objective moral principles analagous to the laws of science. Instead, moral philosophy is a practical science like Aristotle always claimed it was: it is a how-to guide for actualizing some given ideal. In other words, I believe that morality (at some level) is reducible to aesthetics. That’s a topic for another day.
These are only my answers. What are yours?
NeoNietzsche,
Perhaps if you spent less time being a “bulldog” and more time reading and reflecting on posts, you would see that I dismissed Nietzsche as a relevant source for guiding action altogether. I’m not going to follow up with an alternative guide to action because my post was directed at people who may have been misled about the nature of Nietzsche’s philosophy…not you.
I have no interest in discussing or debating Nietzsche with you. I apologize for any misunderstanding I may have caused with my inappropriately sassy closing sentence.
Hey, Uh-huh: Certainly am still tilling chernozem, but not hemp. I cultivate P. somniferum, though only for its nice appearance; I don’t need drugs or the money they might bring. And I’m old enough to be your mama, so watch your mouth, you little whippersnapper.
Hey, just a suggestion, but could you maybe talk plain English for those of us who aren’t into big words?
My dad told me that a long time ago the cops would come around to people’s homes and tell them to destroy whatever few little opium poppies they had on their property. Can you imagine. What a fkg stupid world where our police force worries about a few flowers.
Yes, I know you’re old, married, and a MILF. We’ve been down this road.
What a fkg stupid world where our police force worries about a few flowers.
Ahmsayin.
Actually, if you want, I wouldn’t mind re-making your acquaintance, if only to pick your brain about the right way to grow la Noir Idole. wastulas@eml.cc
Wikitopian,
I apologize for any misunderstanding I may have caused with my inappropriately sassy closing sentence.
Your entire penultimate comment was inappropriately sassy, dude.
you would see that I dismissed Nietzsche as a relevant source for guiding action altogether.
Indeed. What can one possibly glean from a philosopher who enjoins one to “live philosophically”?
Perhaps if you spent less time being a “bulldog” and more time reading and reflecting on posts, you would see that I dismissed Nietzsche as a relevant source for guiding action altogether.
I do not believe, based on my attention to posts current since I recently began to participate, that you committed this dismissal amidst that material. If I am in error in this belief, you have my apologies for my misbehavior.
Otherwise I plead that I have not been informed as to how far back into the archives it is proper to go in order to have given sufficient attention to “reading and reflecting” to have met your standards.
Donald,
You’re right. This is the third or fourth pissing contest I have had to close. I will reopen the forum and move these conversations over there.