A Political Street Dictionary for a 21st Century
Ivan Potter Each of us stands at a new crossroads of geo-political importance as to shape the entire span of history and events for the rest of the 21st Century. There is no more "normal" in American politics and government. Our new reality of life is rapidly spiraling back to the beginning of the 20th Century. Most experts will agree that history does repeat its events and trends exactly. Yet, history can and does reflect the events of 100 years ago. The forces unleashed in the time period of 1900 through 1920 set and framed the energy of the entire 20th century politics, government, economics, resources, and war. The millennium wave carried forth over the threshold of the century mark in the year 1900, anarchism and capitalist empire building. Add to this landscape the energies and forces of communism, fascism', national socialism (Nazism), robber barons, militarism, and poverty. These movements were the foundation for the Boxer Rebellion in China (1904) Russia Japanese War (1904), World War 1, Russian Revolution (1918), World 11, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Cold War of the 1950s and 1960s. It is estimated that over 100 million people died in the 20th Century due to the events listed above. As a spectator to the unfolding of 21st Century history and events, you will need a new understanding of all the players in local, state, national, and international geopolitical events and uses of power. For a new century, many events will be framed by 100 to 250 year old rules and definitions of use of power and engagement for change. The words and definitions below are offered as a guide to many of the key forces colliding with each other in 2017 through 2027. Anarchism
Democracy
Example: The United States and Canada are democracies.
Democrat
Capitalism An economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth. Communism
Fascism
"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." [Robert O. Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism," 2004] Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
As a rule, fascist governments are dominated by a dictator, who usually possesses a magnetic personality, wears a showy uniform, and rallies his followers by mass parades; appeals to strident nationalism; and promotes suspicion or hatred of both foreigners and "impure" people within his own nation, such as the Jews in Germany. Although both communism and fascism are forms of totalitarianism, fascism does not demand state ownership of the means of production, nor is fascism committed to the achievement of economic equality. In theory, communism opposes the identification of government with a single charismatic leader (the "cult of personality"), which is the cornerstone of fascism. Whereas communists are considered left-wing, fascists are usually described as right-wing." The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition National Socialism (German history) the doctrines and practices of the Nazis, involving the supremacy of Hitler as Führer, antisemitism, state control of the economy, and national expansion Also called Nazism. Marxism The system of economic and political thought developed by Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, especially the doctrine that the state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class, that class struggle has been the main agency of historical change, and that the capitalist system, containing from the first the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and a classless society. Manifest Destiny The belief or doctrine, held chiefly in the middle and latter part of the 19th century, that it was the destiny of the U.S. to expand its territory over the whole of North America and to extend and enhance its political, social, and economic influences. "A popular slogan of the 1840s. It was used by people who believed that the United States was destined -- by God, some said -- to expand across North America to the Pacific Ocean. The idea of manifest destiny was used to justify the acquisition of Oregon and large parts of the Southwest, including California. ( See Mexican War.)" The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Militarism
Poverty "Poverty is general scarcity or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.] It is a multifaceted concept, which includes social, economic, and political elements. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the lack of means necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. Absolute poverty is considered to be about the same independent of location. Relative poverty occurs when people in a country do not enjoy a certain minimum level of living standards as compared to the rest of the population and so would vary from country to country, sometimes within the same country." From Wikipedia, Socialism
Imperialism
"It is the old story of 1798, when French republicanism sick of its own folly and misdeeds, became metamorphosed into imperialism, and consoled itself for its incapacity to found domestic freedom by putting an iron yoke upon Europe, and covering it with blood and battle-fields." [Francis Lloyd, "St. James's Magazine," January 1842] Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper Nationalism Historically, the meaning of nationalism has been the acquisition by the state of any property, such as the steel industry, the railway system, the chemical industry or the land.
Neo-Nationalism Neo-Nazism A new movement to celebrate the popular contraction of the name National Democratic Socialists, the party led by Adolf Hitler. The term arose as a parallel to the word "Sozi" (the first two syllables of "Sozialisten"), with which the German Socialists had been labeled by their opponents in earlier times. National-Socialists were first styled Nazi-Sozi, but the second half of the term was late abandoned. Today groups sympathetic to the 1933 National-Socialists aims (ideas of founder Adolf Hitler) are called Neo-Nazis. Penguin 4th edition of "A Dictionary of Politics" Nihilism From the Latin word nihil, meaning nothing; an intellectual movement in Russia in the middle of the 19th century, which became famous through Targentv's novel, "Fathers and Sons", 1862. "Nihilists recognize no authority, doubt every general principle and valve, often confused with anarchism, it is a philosophical and literary outlook rather than a political doctrine." Penguin 4th edition "A Dictionary of Politics" Robber Barons
Republican Word Origin and History for republican (adj.) in 1712: "belonging to a republic, of the nature of a republic, consonant to the principles of a republic," from republic + -an. The French republican calendar was in use from Nov. 26, 1793 to Dec. 31, 1805. (noun.) one who favors a republic or republican principles" (or, as Johnson puts it, "One who thinks a commonwealth without monarchy the best government"), 1690s; see from republican (adj.). With capital R - Republican refers to a member of a specific U.S. political party (the Anti-Federalists) from 1782, though this was not the ancestor of the modern U.S. Republican Party, which dates from 1854. Republican Party
With the creation of language, words became powerful. Ancients believed that words could cause physical harm or they could heal. They still can. Understanding the movements of the nineteenth and twentieth century starts with defining the words that describe them. History doesn't repeat itself exactly but the ideas of prior times echo across the 21st century.
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