0th Position

THE 0TH POSITION

Ever since the French Revolution the left-right ideological split has been ingrained in modern society. With the left wanting reformand the right preaching conservation. As this axis slowly became outdated in the interwar period, ideological positions took over, in an attempt to explain the problems of society and their solution in a more detailed manner.

The 1st position is general libertarianism. The American and French revolutions were both inspired by it. It preaches the importance of financial and personal liberties. It is the inspiration for the modern political centre, neo-libertarianism, neo-conservatism and keynisian economics, even social democracy for the most part.

However, intense class divisions and a more revolutionary approach to reform inspired the 2nd position, or Socialism. Even though the interpetation on how to achieve a communist society, or one that is stateless, classless and moneyless differs from the different internationals or the form of governance to enforce it, the core message of revolutionary political struggle remains the same.

The last to be introduced in the 1920's is Fascism, originating from Benito Mussolini. Although it is continiously decried, most fascistic regimes generally differed on various issues, especially justifying theories of superiority. Various common grounds can be found between them though, such as totalitarianism, militarism and nationalism.

Nevertheless, these position can already been seen to be falling apart in the modern political sphere. Modern populists, such as Trump, the AfD or Putin, do not share any of the core values of the previous ideological bulwarks. In fact they seem to not share any consistent core principals. Even though one can easily criticise the failures in previous political or ideological systems, their leaders presented themselves to ascribe to a set of ideals, irrespective of what was actually enforced. But nowadays, enemies switch to friends and back in a blink of an eye, the "truth" is rejected and rather what is ideological beneficial is adopted, promoting a full distrust of anything promoted by the media or the status quo. This started with the Post-Left, who disregarded anything that was considered absolute or moral, rather finding meaning through momentary personal gratification. The world of post-politics is now rather dominated by the Post-Right instead, with right wing populists switching their rhetoric based on their current interests, without appealing to the "truth" as was the case no longer than a decade ago. So, clearly the political cycle is bound to change again.

Such political systems fall apart faster and faster, especially in the fast-paced reality of modern life. Despite that, there is one political system which is alwyas disregarded in classifications, one which escapes and has pre-existed any axes, compasses or positions, despotism. Despotism, or the 0th position, as the natural form of governance had dominated human organisation in the Indo-European sphere since at least the 6th century B.C. (If we are not to consider the Greek 7th century ethnic kingdoms as such).

Reactionary politics have always advocated for the Organic Kingdom, Religion over identity and the Family Unit as its main tennants. This has also found the peasantry always at the forefront of the movement, supporting the Legalists in both France and Russia during their revolutions. So, in a way, Agrarianism and Regionalism are also part and parcel of the 0th Position, as a popular form of governance. Financially, land is also very important, and both capitalism and socialism decry traditional land distributism and end to the exploitation of the common man.

May this serve as a short introduction to the 0th position, the ideological aspects of which are to be continiously analysed and expanded upon. That's all for now, so concerns and criticisms will be welcomed.

~Seftor