Best ideology?

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Ok, we have had some arguments on ideology recently. So, here is the question: what is the best ideology and why do the other ideologies suck?

Here are the options:

Authoritarian: Society needs to take control over the social and economic environment in order to ensure human prosperity. Markets and social situations, if left to their own devices will degrade humanity. Humanity works best when united with common purpose.

Conservative: Society needs to protect society from evil social forces. Market forces though can be quite beneficial, but only if found in the context of moral forces that keep society together.

Progressivism: Society needs to constrain market forces to prevent excessive economic inequality, terrible poverty, and bad practices, however, personal expression and equality are important and should be maintained if not protected.

Libertarianism: Society should not impose restrictions upon individual action other than those necessary to protect people from direct harm. The economy and human liberty will do fine without having government intervention.

Anarchism: The state's existence is oppressive or evil. Because of that, we should remove the government and organize society without a government.

Other: Society's governing principles should not be so aligned to any of the previous ideologies or to a non-traditional ideology. A society run by experts/other authorities, a monarch, or a democracy with goals rather than ideology or a different ideology would be better.

The reason you created a thread for people to
"Step right up and stereotype themself"
but failed to do so yourself is?

Because I very rarely do. Do you want me to post on my ideology?

that depends on whether or not you
can merely state your own personal
ideology without pressing others to
convert to it. As soon as it turns into
a sales pitch, youve lost me.

needs no words

An ideology that embraces freedom of thought and action provided that it doesn't infringe on another's right to enjoy the same.

Main Entry: na·tion·al·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈnash-nə-ˌli-zəm, ˈna-shə-nə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun

1: loyalty and devotion to a nation; especially : a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups

There is no such thing as the "best" ideology. It is all subjective. However, the group which can best stay in power, wins. Whether they are benevolent or plain self-serving, it all comes down to that. Whether they or right or wrong, it's up to either God or truly no-one to decide. It is as we percieve and judge it.

Government is harmful - there is no real democracy anyway, there is only corruption above local government anyway - so for the good of society there should be an organised way of living without any pressure from above from corrupt thieves. It worked in parts of Spain during the 1930s, why shouldnt it work anywhere else?

If the United States of America and its constituent states and their constituent counties, muncipalities, and townships spontaneously dissolved overnight (much like an earthquake at 4:37 A.M.), there would be mass chaos. There would be looting, violence in the streets, and mass panic. Gangs of violent thugs would forcefully assert themselves in the power vacuum (this is pretty much what the Germanic barbarians did in Roman lands as the legions withdrew or the society crumbled). Eventually new, pretty much feudal states would form and be constantly at war with one another.

You forgot three prominent ideologies: liberalism, socialism, and fascism. Authoritarianism is not really a proper ideology (maybe you were thinking it includes fascism, Nazism, Marxist-Leninism, Stalinism, and Maoism).

Anarchy is harmful. It is individual governments, not all governments, which are harmful. Corrupt governments are harmful. Please, try not to think of it in black and white.

I view American liberalism as a variant of progressivism(it does have roots in the American progressive movement after all) and classical liberalism is libertarianism and frankly, using the term liberalism would be questionable due to its changes in use based upon region. I view socialism as either progressive, authoritarian, libertarian or possibly even anarchist, depending on its variant as socialism is just a manner of organizing the economy and is not a unified ideology in and of itself as one can be a Stalinist socialist, a liberal socialist, a libertarian socialist, and many anarchist doctrines are related to socialism. Finally, I view fascism as a variant of authoritarianism. Authoritarianism isn't a proper ideology in and of itself, however, ideologies under that category are rather endless from fascism, Nazism, Marxist-leninism, Stalinism, Maoism, various variants of populism and theocracy, and such so it is simpler just placing those under another grouping. Including all of those different ideologies would be a waste, so I created a grouping to cover them all.

Well, one can say that this is correct, however, as living beings we all make our own assertions on what is best. Given that this is a political forum, I would imagine that many people have made assertions on political ideology.

Best ideology?
I would say Progressivism.

Last edited by greenblue on 19 Apr 2008, 12:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I agree.

I don't think Anarchy could really work, human beings cannot live without authority, we need it, basically because I don't trust them enough to believe they can handle themselves without authority. Our very human nature is what makes anarchy impossible to work.