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December 1, 2004

Politicism

Note: this is a post recovered from my old blog, before it died of an insufficient backup. Any comments/trackbacks on it have not been brought over, but can be seen with the original. The date is that of the original posting.

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Joe Katzman at Winds of Change, one of the best blogs around, has posted on politicism. Katzman quotes Glen Wishard:

"The rise and fall of the Marxist ideal is rather neatly contained in the Twentieth Century, and comprises its central political phenomenon. Fascism and democratic defeatism are its sun-dogs. The common theme is politics as a theology of salvation, with a heroic transformation of the human condition (nothing less) promised to those who will agitate for it. Political activity becomes the highest human vocation. The various socialisms are only the most prominent manifestation of this delusion, which our future historian calls "politicism". In all its forms, it defines human beings as exclusively political animals, based on characteristics which are largely or entirely beyond human control: ethnicity, nationality, gender, and social class. It claims universal relevance, and so divides the entire human race into heroes and enemies. To be on the correct side of this equation is considered full moral justification in and of itself, while no courtesy or concession can be afforded to those on the other."

As Katzman notes, the idea of politics as the central, meaningful experience in every life is a good umbrella for modern forms of totalitarianism. I'd go further: it's a root cause of totalitarianism. After all, if everything is political, you cannot afford to lose an election; so why have elections once the "right people" are in power? As Robert Heinlein put it:

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

UPDATE (12/9): Kevin at The Smallest Minority has an amazing post on ideology and the escalation of failure. How did I miss this blog for so long?