Peter J. Chesterton

There was once a time where ideology was much simpler.

Way back when, in the days when people thought the Earth was flat and Hercules actually lived, there were really only three ways to rule a state: either as a democracy, as a republic, or as a monarchy.

All three seemed quite promising as the world approached the B.C.-A.D. switch.

However, democracy would die with the fall of Athens and republicanism would die along with Caesar (these two would come back in a mixed form later on, but for the purpose of this post, we’ll count them as dead for now).

Monarchism was the only form of governance left standing.

And so it would go, from the start of the Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople, that the king, queen, duke, & lord (and the occasional priest- but let’s be honest, the Papacy is essentially just a rebranded monarchy) would reign supreme across the globe… Nobody else could come up with, or have the power to implement, a better way to live.

But then, around 1440, something changed.

A German man named Gutenberg invented a strange machine that could “print” books…

Nobody had to go through the painstaking process of copying them word-for-word anymore.

That means that any average Joe could easily write whatever he wanted and toss it out to the masses with ease.

People now had the power of implementation.

The printing press’ influence was immediately felt.

In the coming decades, a man named Martin Luther would come up with some pretty radical ideas for the time, basically summed up in one sentence:

“The Pope’s wrong.”

Absolutely revolutionary.

Nobody else had had the bravery or the gall to say such a thing…

But more importantly, nobody else in history had had the ability to spread such an idea.

With the printing press out and about, Martin Luther had no such restrictions.

This new concept, known as “Protestantism”, began to spread like wildfire.

The Papal monarchy was being challenged.

Would this mean the end of monarchy as the dominant political concept-?

No… Monarchies would continue to function the same way and keep (if not expand) their influence over the next century, but the rise of protestantism definitely laid the groundwork for future change, and it never would’ve been possible without the printing press.

Fast-forward a couple centuries to late-18th century America.

The Americans- while formerly British themselves- had over the decades began to form their own form of national identity, and they were tired of serving under the Anglo-Saxon yoke.

Many prominent revolutionaries wished to spread their spirit of rebellion across the 13 colonies, but then again, how could you possibly do such a thing…?

Oh, yes- publications.

Famous works such as Thomas Paine’s Common Sense helped to spread this revolutionary zeal across the colonies and show the newfound American people that it only made sense to call themselves “Americans”.

Fast-forward once more to mid-19th century Prussia (modern-day Germany).

Two men disillusioned by the current system of monarchism as a whole, Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, start envisioning a “better” system- one that abolishes the “oppression” of a monarchy and the “weaknesses” of a democratic republic… A system which they would name “communism”.

Through the power of the press, other disillusioned men and women such as Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, & Rosa Luxemburg would be able to hear, to know, to understand this new system- and, eventually- implement such ideas.

Now things are getting complicated.

There were three at the beginning, yes… Then it shrunk to one… Then the first two combined into one… Now there’s another one…?

So, what’re we at, now… three-?

Oh.

Felt like a lot more than that, didn’t it?

It was around this time that ideology switched from simple binary- either you’re a monarchy or you’re not- to something more complex, more complicated, more…

…Alive.

Of course, any written document in history will always be debated on its true meanings and implementations, and communism was no different.

Most (at the time, at least) it should be followed to the letter in a form of “orthodox marxism”.

Some believed it should be mixed with the idea of a democratic republic to form something of a “social democracy”.

Others believed it should be mixed with the monarchy to create “monarcho-communism” (to be frank, not even I understand what goes through those people’s heads…)

Still, a good portion believed it should be mixed with anarchism as an “anarcho-communist” society…

…Wait, “anarchism”?

Yes! Anarchism!

Anarchism, the (originally late-19th century) belief that there simply shouldn’t be any government at all.

It comes in numerous forms… Anarcho-communism, anarcho-capitalism, Anarcho-Monarchism… (What-?)

I know, I know, it’s confusing.

It’s only going to get worse, though.

A couple decades after the days of Marx and Lenin came a young little Austrian painter whom you may be familiar with.

As he spent his days rotting away in prison for opposing the artificial state of the Weimar government, figuring he had nothing else to do, he decided to spew out his abhorrent thoughts and ideas into one handy manifesto known infamously as “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle).

Thus was born fascism.

Wait- didn’t Mussolini come up with that, when he and his supporters marched on Rome?

What Hitler made was National Socialism (isn’t that an oxymoron…?), more or less a variant of fascism.

Several other people over the years would create their own variations of Mussolini’s fascism and Hitler’s national socialism, just as they did with Marx’s communism.

Lincoln Rockwell created an Americanized nazism… Eastern European fascists created National Bolshevism… Franco created (or at least popularized) the catholic spin-off, Integralism… Third Positionism… Accelerationism… Eurasianism… The list goes on and on.

The list only gets more confusing the further you go down.

As ideology became more and more complicated, it became less of a way to determine an effective system of governance and more of a game, something to do for fun-

To theorize and idealize in terms of ideology became entertainment for many people (I must admit, me included, although I wouldn’t dare to believe in or preach any of those previously mentioned schizophrenic concepts).

Liberalism… Conservatism… Libertarianism… Radical Centrism… The Third Way…

It feels like reading another language sometimes.

In a way, that’s because it is.

It’s the language of political dreamers and ideological diehards, and while many of them are for the most part harmless, a good portion of them wish they’d have a chance to change the world in their own image, and some of these diehards are silver-tongued enough to make you think they’re moderates and incorporate you into their little nightmare of a game.

Don’t fall for it.