Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the elite and academia learned exactly the wrong lesson from WWII. They concluded that since the national socialists had national in their name, nationalism must have been the problem. I suspect this is because the elite have a blind spot when it comes to central planning. That’s why they ignored the socialist part of National Socialist. Moreover, if you asked a GI Joe in Normandy, “What’s wrong with Nazism?” They would reply, “Because fascism is tyrannical and expansionist.” They didn’t fight and die to stop nationalism, they fought against encroaching tyranny. What made the fascists evil wasn’t their love of country, but their hatred of freedom. This misunderstanding is why people are so confused about what a fascist is.
Goebbels (pronounced Gur-bls) and Mussolini said, “Fascism is corporatism.” In their minds no different than modern corporatism. In which corporations and government work hand in hand to accomplish the goals of the leader. Whether that goal setter be Il Duce or The Fuehrer. Hitler had a more broad conception of his National Socialism. The Fuehrer wanted to include the people, corporations, and government, all under his accountable hand, to achieve greatness. Centrally planned of course by him. Accountability was his big push. He lambasted legislatures for being unaccountable. Hitler assured the Germans that a despot is accountable, because there is no one else to blame. That was the political theory of fascism and National Socialism.
Another historical example is Darius I emperor of Persia. He discovered that the Magi were secretly ruling Persia, so he slaughtered them, and told his peers what had happened. They discussed the various forms of government, democracy, aristocracy, or monarchy. Darius wanted monarchy since it had worked so well under Cyrus and his son Cambyses. So they decided on monarchy, with the king to be chosen by test. In the race Darius cheated and won. When his cheating was discovered the others thought it clever, so he was made king anyway. So began the reign of Darius of Persia. This story tells us many things. One is that those who benefit from despotism will tolerate cheating if they benefit anyway. The nature of single person leadership is corrupt and it always eventually leads to war.
Whenever the people, corporations and government align under a despot, great things can be accomplished… genocides, classicides, and world wars. The failure of Xerxes to conquer Greece was simply the result of centuries of ill management. The failure of the fascists to win WWII was due to their absurd ideas. As when Hitler allowed Army Group Center to collapse due to lack of supplies, because sending Jews from Hungary to the death camps was more important. War of aggression is the only thing that central planning excels at. Whether the central planner is Hitler, Cyrus the Great, or Qin Shi Huang. In this all despotic regimes are the same, expansion is their primary goal. Even as the seeds of their own destruction are planted at their birth. Once expansion stops collapse starts.
The real lesson from WWII then is that central planning results in war and catastrophe. Japan was a centrally planned empire bent on expansion, as was Germany, and Italy. The Greatest Generation fought against despotism, which, as we have illustrated is synonymous with central planning. The real enemy of mankind then is central planning. The elite are blind to this fact because they have a stake in not understanding. They all seek to be the central planners. So since we have to have learned something, it must have been that nationalism leads to war… not central planning. Every nation the despots invaded was just as nationalist, but not expansionist. This also serves the central planners’ goals since it implies central planning should be done for the whole planet… magnifying the error globally.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
