So apparently Rhyd has decided to be the prophet of The Death of Liberal Democracy? and we’re about to see what he thinks “liberal democracies” really are. So prepair your tin foil hats, get ready for space lizards, and make sure you have your mercury shots for the syphilis infection he’s no doubt spreading around. We boldly go where no man should have ever gone before!

“The End of History”

In 1989, an advisor to president Ronald Reagan named Francis Fukuyama wrote a highly influential essay called “The End of History?”, in which he suggested the Liberal Democracy is the end point and highest evolutionary state of political governance. Citing the fall of Fascist governments in Spain, Italy and Germany, as well as the failure of State-Communism as seen in the then-crumbling Soviet Empire, Fukuyama suggested that Capitalism and Democratic forms of government were the destiny of humanity. Though his essay (and subsequent book) have fallen mostly out of favor, the sense that we are now living in the most peaceful, advanced, and static form of society has become so entrenched that few even see the matter as open to debate.

Oh boy, I see we’re not really helping the idea of Rhyd being a non-racist here. I mean, he’s starting off by basically attempting to silence the voice of an Asian person. Bad form Raging Rhyd, bad form.

Still, I can see where Fukuyama is coming from. If the ultimate goal is to respect everyone’s rights of self determination, liberty, and to pursue their own happiness, than liberal democracy is really the best and ultimate way to do this. At least according to Western Liberal Philosophy. And given that liberal democracies had triumphed over every other form of government at the time in terms of economic success, population happiness, and military might it’s hard to say he was wrong at the time.

But of course, we have people who will never be happy so long as their enemies are allowed to have a say in the way things are run. Because those other people are evil, and deserve to be silenced and even exterminated for their horrific crimes against the righteous and holy classes.

The consequence of this thinking, however, is that most people see Capitalism as an inevitability and the modern Liberal Democratic State as unquestionable. Not only that, but it’s difficult for many people to conceive of a form of existence outside of the present state of affairs, as the system in which we live has become almost invisible as a thing at all.  Thus, Capitalism seems to have ‘always existed,’ and many instruments of modern State violence (the police, the military, private property) seem to be as necessary as air or food for the existence of humanity.

1) Capitalism is a form of trade. Trade has always existed.

2) the police have always existed in some form. If there is crime (which there always is) there is a state sanctioned force to prevent and punish crime. This has nothing to do with capitalism.

3) Armies have always existed.

4) private property has always existed. It’s just that it used to be the property of the kings and nobles alone, or whatever their equivalent positions were in history.

5) when you fall down the stairs, does you head make a hollow clopping sound or does it ring like a church bell?

You know, I didn’t think anyone could be this ignorant of the entirety of human civilization, but holy shit, I was proven wrong. Rhyd seems to actually believe that there were not cops, no armies, no trade, nothing but a glorious Garden of Eden, and then the evil snake Chronomancers showed up with their clocks and paradise was lost to a world of democratic governments where everyone has the right to vote and be protected from criminals by specially trained individuals and to have their homes protected by other specially trained individuals.

Only in moments when Liberal Democracy doesn’t function the way we have been taught to believe it does do we ever notice its existence. When police kill an unarmed Black man in the streets in America without reason,…

Name one, Rhyd. Name me one single “unarmed black man” who has been killed by the police…without a reason.

See, I’ve actually kept up with that situation, or I did until everyone stopped giving out Names. Because every name you look up, you discover that the black man involved was not only committing a crime, most of the time they were violently attacking the police officers and died in the attempt. So fuck you, and fuck your lies, Rhyd.

…when we see photos or hear reports of wretched prisoner abuse by US soldiers, or in large-scale terror (in Paris, in Orlando) or riot (Ferguson, Oaxaca), the invisible tapestry of Liberal Democracy seems to rip before us.  At such times, it is almost as if a wall we never noticed is breached, and we get a brief glimpse into the world outside before the opening is repaired.

Let’s see…Paris and Orlando. Both incidents of Islamic Religious Terrorist violence. Well I suppose you could consider those failings of liberal democracies. After all, the only reason those responsible were not carpet bombed out of existence and their lands subjugated by the sword was our desire to respect their human rights and provide their peoples with the same chance at liberty and democracy that we have.

So you’re right Rhyd, liberal democracy failed us. We should have instead gone with European Imperialism and slaughtered their men, enslaved their women, butchered their children, and taken their oil as our own. Point to you Rhyd, totalitarianism works.

Now, as for Ferguson and Oaxaca, sure Rhyd. I’ll give you that one too. In Ferguson, the police were held back in order to respect the human lives of the rioters and looters. Truth be told, they should have all be shot on the spot. They were breaking the law, they were causing terrible, sometime irreparable, harm to law abiding citizens. I can only presume from Rhyd’s words that Oaxaca is of a similar situation in which case…I suppose Rhyd is giving us the perfect example of how not to enact the failings of a liberal democracy because the Mexican government is apparently shooting them.

Thank you, Rhyd, for showing us the clear way to solving life’s problems.

Thus,  if it were really true that Liberal Democracy is the best form of government, then events like those in Oaxaca and the United Kingdom make no sense. Why would the Mexican government gun down teachers for protesting an educational reform?…

My guess, because the Mexican government is not a liberal democracy. I could also be how those Teachers are protesting these educational reforms. But I don’t think it’s ever been one. It might be a democracy, but it’s certainly not a liberal one. I mean, I don’t think gays, blacks, or other minorities in Mexico really have that much way in rights or legal protections. Hel, apparently their own teachers don’t even have legal protections. So you can’t really call them Liberal.

…Why would the United Kingdom vote to leave perhaps the greatest triumph of Liberal Democracy, the European Union?…

Oh that’s easy. Because the European Union is not, and never has been, a liberal democracy. It has always been an authoritarian oligarchy. Member states only get to elect people to what is basically an advisory council with no actual legal or legislative powers. All the law creation and administrative power rest in the hands of unelected officials who have no respect for the wishes of the citizens of member states and have been openly talking about dissolving the national governments of member states, and forming an EU army so that they have “political legitimacy.”

Which you would know already if you actually bothered to learn what you’re talking about.

…And why would workers in France choose to shut down commerce, energy distribution (including nuclear power plants and gas refineries) rather than just vote for a more sympathetic government?

I don’t know Rhyd. Why do you and your comrades constantly insist that the entirety of society must be over thrown in a Marxist revolution and our democratic governments be abolished in favor of totalitarian collectives rather than just…voting for it?

To some degree, all three events seem regressive or reactionary, a revolt of backwards people against the flow of history. And that’s precisely how these events become painted by the media and by leaders: the Oaxacan teachers are violent primitives, the Brexit-Leave voters are all racist and idiots, and the French strikers are lazy and unwilling to adapt to the future.

And you’ve done nothing but to argue that these stereotypes are true, at least when it comes to the UK. And given that you haven’t told me what the labor laws being protested are, or what the reforms protested by the teachers are…and you seem to be saying that all these reports are of a similar nature, then I can only presume that it must then be true for France and Mexico as well.

These narratives function as a way of closing the breached wall, or repairing the invisible fabric of our present world-view. Once the crisis is averted or resolved, the events are re-written in our histories (not just by historians, government officials, or the media but by ourselves, as well) to return to the status quo we were familiar with before. Life returns to normal and the State is no longer questioned. That is, we return to ‘The End of History’ where Liberal Democracy is the highest form of society, Capital is unquestioned, and the State continues.

So, just to clarify.

The French strikers are heroes, do not believe the lies that they’re just lazy.

The Mexican teachers are heroes, do not believe the lies that they’re violent primitives.

But remember, the Leave party really were racists and islamophobes for wanting to leave the EU.

But we shouldn’t believe these stories because they’re just lies told by the state and ourselves to keep up the illusion of liberal democracies being ultimately good and the ultimate form of government for humanity. Well, believe the one about the Brits. That’s not a lie.

We’ll carry on in part 3

 

Bellona Invicta