The Old Politics
There is a shift in politics. This has been apparent for some time now. Politics used to be run along the lines of Left against Right. This evolved from the French Revolution era. Members of the National Assembly who supported the republic, the common people and a secular society sat on the left and supporters of the monarchy, aristocratic privilege and the Church sat on the right. Later this developed in to the political spectrum that dominated the 20th Century. The left pursued what it deemed “progressive” values. It was associated with ideas such as solidarity, worker’s rights and internationalism. Also with ideas of social justice, secularism, and agitating for class conflict. The idea was that the state would pay for everything. The right was associated with traditional values, quite often religion (although this fell away towards the end of the 20th Century), meritocracy, free markets and deregulation and low taxes, and minimal state interference. Words such as “reactionary” have been used.
At the extremes of these political philosophies were the far left and far right. On the far left you had Bolshevism, Leninism, Stalinism, Trotskyites, etc. All advocated radical forms of socialism or communism. Here the state owned all property. The individual was meaningless, all was subsumed to the state. Maximum interference in economics was the order of the day. 5 year plans and new tractor factories. Shiny. Totalitarian government was installed, with a ruling party or one supreme leader. All were equal, but some were more equal than others. Gulags, famines and mass murder shortly followed. (Spoiler: Socialism doesn’t work.)
Far right regimes have also existed. Often, they were run by the military such as Franco in Spain. They could have racial discrimination such as in South Africa during the Apartheid years. They could be based on a monarchy such as Japan in WW2, but not necessarily. They may also favour capitalism and corporatism. Often they favoured imperialist expansion by invading other countries rather than respect borders. Torture, repression and murder usually followed. The two groups claim to be diametrically opposed. But ironically, they often shared many features. Totalitarian rule by one party or supreme leader has already been mentioned. A cult of the leader was also common. Secret police, a controlled or suppressed media, political prisoners, concentration camps of one sort or another, political violence against opponents, all were regular features. Uniforms, slogans, symbols, flags, salutes, you name it and it was in. Both systems managed to kill millions in the 20th Century. Some groups had features of both, confusingly. Both Mussolini’s Fascists and Hitler’s National Socialists (clue is in the name) had elements of far right and far left elements. Take a look at the Nazi 1920 Munich manifesto:
http://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/nazi-party-25-points-1920/
In it you find collectivist ideas, points such as welfare and old age pensions, seizing businesses, equality and nationalisation. Alongside these are racial doctrines, the army, expanding the borders and regaining territory. The overwhelming policy of Nazism was antisemitism and hatred of the Jews. There was the idea that big Jewish banks were behind all the ills of the world. Jews and capitalist banks behind everything? Now who does that remind you of in the present day? (Hint: Momentum.) This led to the now infamous Holocaust, typified by Auschwitz. Imperialist ambitions led Hitler to invade Poland along with the USSR in 1939. Similarly, Mussolini started out on the left, being a member of the Italian socialist party and writing for a left-wing newspaper. His economic policy was a mix of syndicalism and corporatism. Needless to say it didn’t work. Mussolini had imperialist expansionist aims similar to the USSR and Nazi Germany, invading North Africa to try and recreate a Roman lake. It was he who helped patent many fascist trappings, such as the salute, although he took many things from D’Annunzio. These two groups have muddied the waters, and many dispute whether each dictator and their movement were really far right or socialist. I have had great fun teasing Antifa types with the socialist parts of Nazism and Fascism.
The Modern Day
So, what about now? Towards the end of the 20th century events have overtaken the traditional left-right divide. Globalism accelerated. Not just in the UK, but around the world. The EU in particular wanted to tie nations together in ever closer union. Tony Blair unleashed New Labour on an unsuspecting U.K. The migrant crisis hit European shores, and the USA, Canada and Australia. Identity politics became fashionable, especially on the left, and has now begun on the right with so-called identitarian movements such as the Alt-right, and neo-Nazis (no, they are not the same thing).
These force began to tear apart the old order of politics, and forge strange new alliances. Welcoming migrants would seem to be a preserve of the left. “Workers of the world unite!” Yet they find themselves allied with big businesses who want exploit cheap labour. An example of this is Brexit. Left wing groups and cultural Marxists who favour refugees and migrants were campaigning for open borders alongside business and political elites like Richard Branson and Tony Blair, both multi-miilionaires and prime examples of capitalism. Also, with Neo-Nazi leader Richard Spencer, who opposed Brexit in several online articles. He favours a pan-European white identity and dreams of a European empire. Strange bed fellows indeed. On the other side, left wing patriots from old school Labour working classes that were losing out on jobs and wages to migrants were allied with conservative traditionalists who wanted to restore British sovereignty. Both were appalled by the growth of radical Islam. This was seen in UKIP, which forged a vertical coalition of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds to fight for Brexit and against globalism. They took votes from both Tories and Labour, gaining 4 million votes in 2015. Once the EU referendum had been won, they then went back to these original parties as seen in the 2017 general election.
The traditional parties themselves are split on Europe. Both Conservative and Labour parties are riven with internal dissent over EU membership, Brexit and the negotiations. Globalists are fighting Nationalists within each party. There are also splits along these lines in the cabinet. Labour’s Brexit position seems to change weekly. Internationalists and Blairites fight with Labour leavers for dominance on policy. This provides further evidence of the shifting lines of politics.
The phenomenon was also seen across the Atlantic in the USA. Globalists, hard left types and pro immigration fanatics were allied against the right and old school, Mom’s home made apple pie American workers, alongside bikers and survivalists. Trump rode this wave to victory. Perhaps typifying this was the rise of the Alt-Right. Fed up with all pervasive social justice and equality, which in reality was anything but, and a daily onslaught of cultural Marxism, political correctness and social degeneracy, the youth of generation Z decided to rebel. Kekistan was born. Pepe was born, the frog that launched a thousand memes. Alleged conservatives were horrified. They themselves turned on this new movement. They were then christened “Cuckservatives.” An apt description, meaning a conservative in name only that wanted to virtue signal what a good person they were to the left, while going down to electoral defeat again and again and allowing the globalists to make gains. Kekistan didn’t care. Kekistan was fed up with losing. Kekistan wanted to win.
Intertwined with this we have the delights of identity politics. Instead of putting your nationality as your primary identity, you identify by your skin colour, religion, gender, sexuality or a combination of them all. Instead of looking beyond identity to see if the person was best for the job, identity is now the main qualification. Competency is ignored and identity is key. This was largely fuelled by the left initially, in a bid to break down national identity so that they could undermine nation states and continue the march of cultural Marxism. If you can smash the national identity by turning people against each other, and people feel no loyalty to the state, you can bring down the state and change cultural norms and values. Instead of saying “We are all British” they encourage splits and people being different. Cultural Marxists then feel they can draw people to their cause. The straight white male is the main enemy. He is blamed for all the ills of the world. He is used in the same way as Hitler used the Jews, as a scapegoat. If only the white male wasn’t here, everything would be fine. This worked to an extent. But as mentioned, there is a backlash. Traditionalism is the new radicalism. It amuses myself and my friends in our late thirties, heading towards forty and expecting to put our feet up with a pipe and slippers and unfashionable jumpers, that we now have to be the front line in the culture wars.
Further exacerbating the situation is mass migration and international terrorism. These are the two biggest issues of the 21st Century. Even before 9/11, the US embassy in Nairobi was bombed. This was the first time I heard the name Bin Laden. Since then Islamists have been on a roll and haven’t looked back. In 1997 Blair’s reign of terror began and the borders were thrown open, and the ill fated military misadventures in the Middle east began. These two issues have dominated the first two decades of this century, and don’t look like going away. They will continue to influence politics for many years to come. New parties are already forming, such as For Britain, under Anne Marie Waters, and the Veterans and Democrats party. Labour keeps threatening to split under Corbyn. Many are deeply unhappy with the Conservatives. How long until we see an Islamist party? Time will tell what the future holds.
The More Things Change, the More They the Same
Both Nazi/Fascist and Communist regimes have brought untold pain, misery and death to millions. They both destroyed the economies and people of their host countries. Neither of them is any good. None of them should be revived. Unfortunately antisemitism is once again being revived in the UK, and not just by Neo-Nazis but others on the left and in a certain other religion. It stands at its highest ever level as I write this. Too often it is tacitly condoned or dressed up as criticism of Israel. When Trump recognised Jerusalem, who burned the Jewish businesses and synagogues? It wasn’t the right. The Nazi label is rightly seen as vile. The path of Nazism leads to mass graves and self-destruction of yourself and your country. Fact. But the term Nazi is often overused by people who wish to smear others they disagree with, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg. This is a dangerous game to play. Like the boy who cried wolf, people will stop listening. When actual Nazis show up they will be ignored. The real Nazis prayed on people’s fears and frustrations. Communists terrified people and the Nazis used it to drive support. If people feel they have no voice in mainstream debate and are constantly told they are evil white people, where will they turn? It is also worrying that left wing media are trying to make Marxism cool. Left wing news carries photos of Kim Jong-Un’s sister “stealing the show” at the winter Olympics. Kids, look to Venezuela to see how trendy it is. My grandfathers saw off Nazism and Communism. I pray their service was not in vain.
© Jonathon Davies 2018
