Authoritarism or Totalitarism?

AUTHORITARIANISM

Authoritarianism is the political ideology that is diametrically opposed to libertarianism. Authoritarians and libertarians disagree violently on the nature of freedom. While libertarians maintains that freedom brings out the best in people, authoritarians believe that freedom is the root of all evil. In fact, according to the standard authoritarian dogma, sex and greed are the two strongest motivating forces behind human behavior. I, along with most authoritarians, believe that these evils must be reduced in order for society to improve. Society can only improve if the people that make up that society improve. And (according to authoritarian political ideology), the only way for people to improve is if the State intervenes and controls every aspect of a person's life. Freedom must be suppressed, because if people are given freedom, they will not use this freedom in a way that is beneficial to the whole of society. People are basically selfish, and thus will act in such a way to increase their own lot in life. People will consider the welfare of others as of secondary importance. That is why the Government is needed. Humans will not "restrain" themselves and become responsible and concerned citizens on their own. The only way for a government to establish a just and moral nation is by tightly regulating the activities of its citizenry. The Government is needed in order to establish economic and social equality for all its citizens. More importantly, the Government is needed in order to establish a healthy moral climate for the nation. When the standard of morality of a nation in increased, all the citizens of that nation will enjoy the benefits that come with a healthier, safer, and cleaner (read: porn-free) society.

The reputation of authoritarianism has been severely damaged in modern times due to two perversions of authoritarianism-Communism and Fascism. These two forms of authoritarian government are, without question, quite evil. Even worse, they tend tto attract perverse and despotic leaders, such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini. Communism and fascism are perverted forms of authoritarianism because they simply use authoritarianism as a method to enforce their perverse political ideologies. Communism uses an authoritarian form of government in order to advance its extreme left-wing agenda, while fascism uses a similar form of govero attract perverse and despotic leaders, such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mussolini. Communism and fascism are perverted forms of authoritarianism because they simply use authoritarianism as a method to enforce their perverse political ideologies. Communism uses an authoritarian form of government in order to advance its extreme left-wing agenda, while fascism uses a similar form of government in order to advance its far-right political agenda. As a result, communism and fascism are not representative of pure authoritarianism. Indeed, these two political ideologies contain grave defects that are not found in pure authoritarianism.

Communism is inherently atheistic. As a result of this, communists usually are not concerned with enforcing a moral standard on society. As a result of this moral laxity, the culture of communistic nations becomes degenerate. Communistic countries have extremely high abortion and illegitimacy rates. While communism may be successful in reducing economic and social inequality, it utterly fails when it comes to creating the healthy and safe moral climate that is needed in order to bring the best out of people.

Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology that is founded on demagoguery. While fascists often give lip service to the lower classes of society, they utimately seek to form a union with the elite sector of society. Fascism contains all of the worst elements of right-wing ideology and none of the best ones. Not only does fascism fail to solve the problems of economic and social inequality, it actively seeks to aggravate them. While fascism isn't quite as hostile to religion and morality as communism, the nature of the fascist state is so evil that the lip service it may occasionally give to the Christian Church lacks credibility. Thus, with fascism, the moral cimate of a nation in not going to improve. This fact, combined with the fact that fascism aggravates existing economic and social inequality, makes fascism the worst possible perversion of pure authoritarianism.

Pure authoritarianism does not contain the inherent flaws found in its fascist and communistic cousins. Unlike fascists, pure authoritarians seek to use government control of the factors of production, not only to increase productivity and output, but also to narrow the economic inequality among the citizenry. Unlike communists, pure authoritarians usually have a strong belief in God, and seek to enforce moral standards on society. They understand that a healthy and safe society can only exist when that society is forced to obey a strict moral standard. In summary, pure authoritarianism seeks to use government to promote justice and morality. Pure authoritarians realize that BOTH justice and morality are needed in order for a nation to reach its full potential.

Libertarianism is the worst possible political ideology. Libertarians believe in strongly reducing government control over both the economy and the personal lives of its citizens. While libertarianism may seem appealing to many people, it is in fact a quite dangerous political ideology. Not only does libertarianism fail to offer help to the "economic underdog", it actually increases economic exploitation of the masses by an elite sector of society. Furthermore, by forcing government to remain silent on issues of morality, libertarianism will actually lower the standard of morality in the country. History teaches us that if a government does not enforce a high moral standard on society, the society will be reduced to moral chaos. Thus, by failing to restrain the natural human inclination TOWARD evil, libertarianism will result in a society that is NOTHING BUT evil.

Authoritarianism is a political ideology that ultimately seeks to bring the best out of people. Authoritarians believe that in order to bring out the GOOD that is in people, you have to suppress the EVIL that is in people. Authoritarians believe that people are inherently selfish and hence uncapable of creating a better world for themselves without the strong, guiding, hand of the State. The necessity of this "guiding hand" is best summed up by this famous quote from the great statist philosopher Thomas Hobbes:

"For the laws of nature, as justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and in sum, doing to others as we would be done to, of themselves, without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like. And covenants, without the sword, are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all."

[1]Manifesto
Reference: http://cord.iupui.edu/~jsmattes/home.html