A Short, Inaccurate History of Statism

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The Supercargo’s Short, Inaccurate History of Statism

written for Artwiculate’s Word of the Day

on Wednesday 15th December 2010

18th century

Absolutism ☛ Revolution = “All Men” = ☛ Constitutionalism + Federalism = Nationalism + Statism

Absolutism ☛ Revolution = Liberté + Égalité + Fraternité ☛ Republicanism ☛ Nationalism + Napoleonism = Statism

19th century

Liberalism + Egalitarianism ☛ Democracy + Free Trade + Gun Boat Diplomacy ☛ Imperialism ☛ Statism

Liberalism + Egalitarianism ☛ Socialism (Social Democracy + Communism + Anarchism) + Nationalism (+ Populism) = Statism

Liberalism + Egalitarianism ≠ Conservatism + Élitism (+/- Individualism) ☛ Imperialism ☛ Statism

Liberalism + Egalitarianism + Federalism ≠ Conservatism + Slavery + Confederalism ☛ Civil War ☛ Northern victory ☛ Statism

Democracy + Free Trade + Industrialism = Colonialism ☛ Painting-the-Mapism ☛ Imperialism ☛ Statism

20th century

Conservatism + Élitism + Imperialism + Statism + Social Darwinism = Wars + (ultimately) WW1

Machinegunner (Socialism + Egalitarianism) X (Conservatism + Élitism) = Revolutionary War ☛ Statism

World-War-One-weariness + Populism + Nationalism + Communism = Sovietism (Leninism) ☛ Statism (in e.g. Russia)

World-War-One-weariness + Populism + Nationalism + Anarchism + Liberalism = Fascism ☛ Statism (in e.g. Italy)

World-War-One-weariness + Victory + Liberalism + Conservatism + Economic collapse = (degree of) Pacifism + Statism (in eg Britain)

World-War-One-weariness + Victory + Liberalism + Conservatism + Economic success followed by collapse = Isolationism + Statism (in USA)

World-War-One-weariness + Populism + Nationalism + Racism + Conservatism = Nazism ☛ Statism (in e.g. Gemany)

(Nationalism + Statism + Fascism/Nazism) +/- (Soviet Communism) X (Liberalism + Conservatism + Pacifism/Isolationism) = WW2

(Atom bomb + Nationalism + Western Democracy) X (Atom bomb + Nationalism + People’s Democracy) = Cold War = Statism

Statism + Nationalism + Economic competition + Proxy wars + Neo-Imperialism = Statist triumphalism + Western Cold War victory

The End of History (1992, Francis Fukuyama)

Triumphalsim + Nationalism + Neo-Imperialism ≠ Millenialism + Religious Fundamentalism ☛ Terrorism + War v Terror = Statism

OK, that was all. You can come out of the shelters now. 🙂

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The Artwiculate Word of the Day on 15th December was Statism – as I’m sure you guessed. I would just like to say that though many of the above statements are debatable, I think quite a lot of them are defensible.

The illustration is one of a series I made a year or so back for another purpose. I may post them all here some time. They are based on art created during the First World War. “Machinegunner” is based on a drawing by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, “La mitrailleuse en action”, in the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris.


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