Technology, sovereignty, and the Third Wave By Steve Farrell & Diane Alden To most ordinary people the technological revolution is one of those matter of fact blessings and spoils of life in modern America. Few of us, then, give technology a second thought... except when it fails. Yet, all of us depend on it, enjoy it, and forever demand its ready medley of gizmos and gadgets to be newer, uniquer, and better than before. Technology's job should be to make our work easier and quicker, our leisure more fun and comfortable, and our liberty more secure. And it has. Thanks to the creative genius laisse-faire has fanned, there are always ample numbers of deep thinking inventors and deep pocketed entrepreneurs eager and able to supply the instant gee whiz wants and needs of millions of freemen and freewomen. On the other hand, to the unordinary, that is to that odd creature called the Legislator, technology is an unmanageable, out of control threat which has forced and will yet force America, and other free countries, to contemplate the redefinition of such things as republican government, private property, the individual and collective right to self defense, neutrality, and ultimately national sovereignty. A remarkably shrunken view of the explosive potential of technological growth for good! But then legislators prefer controlling rather than liberating things and people, don't they? And the painful truth is that the I-Need-to-Control-People-Syndrome (INCPS) cuts across party lines, afflicting both Democrat and Republican leaders alike, compelling many to flee from thoughts of how to use technology to better protect our God given rights and hard won sovereignty, and to rather run and seek psychological cover in a progressive-wanna-be philosophy called the Third Wave or what others call the Third Way. A world outlook which has the outward markings of everything new and progressive, but the inner workings of everything old and repressive. Indeed its disciples include such earlier notables as Plato, Karl Marx, and Adolf Hitler. Plato's Third Wave The ancient Greek Philosopher Plato was the first one to use the term "Third Wave" in his pro-Communist (some claim satire) work "The Republic." Plato called the "third wave" that "largest and most dangerous [wave of all]" wherein the pro-Communist philosopher king overthrows the existing order, either by "smooth" persuasion or by brute force. The Third Wave was the transitional phase from any form of government, free or otherwise, to total Statism under the leadership of an elite class of individuals called "philosopher kings." (1) Setting the standard for Third Wavers today, Plato didn't call his revolutionary plan for tyranny, tyranny, but cloaked every item of reform or revolution palatably in terms of justice, the Heavenly ideal, the pursuit of the good, and the love of truth. That works better. So much so that Plato succeeds in convincing the casual reader that he or she is mulling over a Judeo-Christian appeal to virtue, that is until they take a hard look at Plato's definition of virtue. Virtue, he taught, is whatever sustains or brings about the ideal city. And such an ideal city is this! The Third Wave is the real world process of converting this dream of a communist utopia into reality. Here is a partial list of those ancient "virtues" that ride upon the ancient tyrannical Third Wave of 370 BC. They are as modern as today's newspaper.
Indeed today, movement toward direct democracy is one of the central
pillars of Third Way thinking, for those very reasons. The next third waver to build on Plato's plan was modern Communism's hired hack and egotist founder, Karl Marx - who stole all of Plato's Republic into his supposed "original" plan for a utopia, added another borrowed twist from Hegel's Godless dialectic view of history, mixed Aristotle's quantum leap view of evolution, and then through in Plato's idea that the strong rule and create laws and morals which perpetuate their wealth, and dared to call it all a new and unique theory. It wasn't. It was strictly cut and paste. It was, also, really dark stuff! All man cares about is money, comfort, and power. - and probably sex. There always has to be sex. Meanwhile everyone exploits everyone. The government in collusion with the moneyed class exploits the citizen worker. The husband exploits the wife. The parent exploits the child. The priest exploits the parishioner. The majority exploits the minority. But the only one who doesn't exploit anyone, apparently, is the exploited one. He, she, or it, becomes the holy class which must bind together to overthrow all the greedy brutes and lead mankind into a millennium of peace. Of course, mind you, the exploited masses are too stupid to do this themselves, they must be dragged to the light by someone - and that someone is the exalted communist! You see, Marx read "The Cave" too! (24) As for the millennium of peace, there is an unpleasant blip along the way called the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. That's when at the end of the third wave (capitalism - the first two waves are slavery and feudalism) (25) the exploitees get to take out "justifiable revenge" on the exploiters, reigning bloody horror on them until every last vestige of private property and belief in private property are swept from the earth. Then, even though their hands are drenched in blood, poof! the proletariat turn into saints, government disbands, and those who were smart and immoral enough to survive live happily ever after! Just like what happened in Russia and China, eh? Technology plays a critical role in all of this. Of the three private property phases of economic history, all three supposedly arose and were terminated, in part, because of the unforeseen emergence of new forms of technology or methods of production. Primitive communal man moved into the first economic phase of private property with the invention of tools which led to specialization and trade - and thus private ownership. The stronger private property owners, selfish and greedy, then enslaved the rest to secure their booty - thus wave 1 - slavery. In the end, the world returns to communal ownership under communism, again thanks in part to technology. The third phase capitalism which came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution will be destroyed by the same, as modern technology leads to mass production, mass production to the centralization of the world's credit, and the centralization of the world's credit (26) to the world revolution of the proletariat who unite and overthrow their oppressive overseers. Just like modern third wavers and wayers, Marx believed man was powerless against the inevitable march of history, that covetous capitalists who opposed his plan were enemies to public safety, that this last transition was the most dangerous and violent of all, and that Communists ought to be compassionate enough to intervene, guide the agency bereft masses, and expedite the revolution, lest the blood flow too thick. In the last analysis, Marx's revolution, like Plato's exploits the poor as a strategy to invoke class warfare, but admittedly is, as said Lenin, "all about power." Or as he said concerning the poor socialist bloats who really believe in the coming utopia: "They just don't get it. . . the Dictatorship of the Proletariat," that brutal transitional phase, "will never end." So goes third waver number two. Adolf Hitler's Third Way Hitler was number three, and who should be surprised that tyrants and tyrant wannabes should mimic each other. In a 1945 National Socialist Party (the official name of the left, not right wing Nazi Party) birthday address, Hitler condemned "exploitive capitalism and murderous bolshevism," identifying his party's movement as a third way between these two "extremes." (27) Walking in Hitler's footsteps, today, one of Europe's major neo-Nazi "White Power" movements refers to itself, as the "Third Position," again as a go between Communism and laisse-faire capitalism, a key element of modern third way theology. (28) It's the safe middle ground ploy. You know, that spot in the middle of a lions cage where we sit disarmed, bludgeoned, bloodied, bruised, and blindfolded; and yet are so programmed to believe the unbelievable that we recite, "It's safe! It's safe!" And the lion agrees. But there's more to it than just that. Fascism actually makes for one of the best case studies on the modern third wave, both economically and politically. Economically fascism is but a form of socialism and a sister to communism. As communism in theory is complete state ownership of the means of production, fascism is state majority ownership of major industry and utilities, heavy regulation and more "government partnerships" of other industries and businesses, and laisse fair of nickel and dime operations. Thus private enterprise and private ownership are given a window of opportunity, but a very closely monitored one which can be eradicated selectively or collectively by government fiat at any moment. A privately owned press exists, for instance, but the competition is not one of ideas but of markets; indeed, opposition to the state by the press, except within prescribed boundaries, is an intolerable and dangerous business. While scientific development is in "private" hands yet is controlled via block grants. You want our money, you teach our science. Just as effective if not more effective than straight forward totalitarianism. Therefore, fascism embraces much of the already discussed principles of Plato and Marx but utilizes different methods of control. Politically Hitler's fascism offers four other prominent features as major players in today's Third Way. 1. A rejection of majoritarian government. Hitler said his "doctrine" was "people and country," and he accepted the idea of a democratic election (to get into power), but he rejected "decision by the majority (parlimentarianism), and demanded "absolute authority" for the executive, after the elections (29). A bit of Hobbes, but a bit of Marxian minority rule too. The minority is just different this time - Aryans and Nazi's. The masses were inherently scorned too, for Hitler taught, they don't want self rule but only to be led. 2. Decentralization of power, but don't get that confused with federalism. American federalism gives state and local units complete sovereignty over delegated powers; decentralization on the other hand creates local units of power which are still accountable by the central authority. Hitler's brand of decentralization gave general guidelines and layers of central check systems on those periphery units, however, within those stipulations (such as fierce loyalty to the party) he granted peripheral leaders ruthless autonomous power, even in competition with other agencies. Its socialism's self fulfilling prophecy of the strong survive - providing a new pool of brutal leaders for the government (30). It also creates a loyal cadre of men trapped by fear of reprisal for their sins, who in protection of their own self interest, feel inclined to sustain their corrupt party to the bitter end. Decentralization serves other political purposes too. It creates a nice front for the outside world, as if to say this kind of rival power struggle is proof of democracy or weakness and division. Hitler used this in the foreign aide game, as did the Old Warsaw Pact, as does the "new" Russian Federation, China, and other communist states today. The Third Way doesn't lack for smarts. 3. A double-talk rejection but endorsement for Internationalism. Hitler rejected the International community because of its punishment of Germany under the Versailles Treaty, but if the truth be said he favored its use when it benefited Germany. Further, he viewed expansion into the territories of Europe and Asia, the springing forth of "national offshoot[s] for centuries," and the requisite disarmament of all neighbors on its "frontiers," as the right and destiny of Germany (31). Call it what you like, imperialism, a Eurasia with Germanic hegemony, or dreams of a worldwide Aryan led Utopia (and he spoke of Utopia), there really is no difference. 4. The strategic injection of state sponsored religious fervor into politics. In Mein Kampf Hitler writes: "The future of [the] movement is conditioned by the fanaticism, even more the intolerance, with which its adherents present it as the only right one." (32) This being the very sin socialists accuse Christians and Jews of, except it is they (the socialists) who in this century have engaged the power of the state and the collective good to do their intolerant bidding against mankind in record numbers. An estimated 200 million killed by secularly or athiestically oriented governments in this century alone, fares far worse than the old state church horrors of Europe. Hitler and his Third Way intolerance, inflicted horrendous carnage on his people and their neighbors. Love of fellow man, was not in his religious formula, just love for the state. A critical imbalance. Aside from that, it could have been enduringly worse if he had only done a better job of masquerading it all before the world in better Democratic language than he did, or in terms of "justifiable revenge" for previous Jewish persecution, or better yet, if only there had been a Clinton, or a NATO or a UN to back up his claims and call it the right thing to do! Plato, Marx, and Hitler are the forefathers of Third Way/Wave thinking. Thinking that is through and through socialist. Today its proponents quite predictably include the socialist Fabian Society, the British Third Way Party, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Schroeder, most delegates to the European Union, People's Liberation Army friends and fiends Bill Clinton and Al Gore, the Democratic Party itself - which hosts a Third Way site (33), and most surprisingly a pack of "progressive" Republicans to include their "icon," Contract With America author, Newt Gingrich - a man who calls himself a "conservative futurist," and who enthusiastically forwards and markets "ex"- Marxist turned Third Waver Alvin Toffler's books (34). Odd bedfellows by their own admission. In every case their Third Way banter includes appeals to direct democracy, decentralization, minority rule, and the abandonment of "fuzzy" sovereignty. They allege, technology makes all of these things possible and necessary. In fact they are collectively positive that this is the road, the only road to the future. Their only fear is that a blind and dangerous rear guard, namely you and I, will resist, slow them down, and usher in a costly conflict. But they have it all backwards, don't they? They are the rear guard of the old oppressive state, and we are the progressives who will work to sustain our liberties in the face of their great fraud. And this we will do, with God and the technology he has blessed mankind with, by our side. Maybe its time they not we opened their eyes! Still to come: 21st Century Democracy and the Third Way; George W., The Third Way and Compassionate Conservatism, and Third Way Contract Newsmax writers Diane Alden of Holly Springs, MS and Steve Farrell of Henderson, NV are widely published research writers and former co-workers at Right Magazine, where Steve served as managing editor. Joint projects include their upcoming book "Democrats In Drag: A Second Look at the Republican Party." Please email any comments to Steve and Diane at cyours76@hotmail.com Footnotes: 1. Plato. "Great Dialogues of Plato," (New York and Scarborough,
Ontario; Mentor Books, 1956) pgs. 271, 296-300. |
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