Failed Single Party Nations of the Past – Where Are We Going Now?

Here is a look back at what contributed to WWII. Could it happen here?

Nations run by a single party (political, army or dictatorship) tend to become intensely nationalistic, racist, militaristic and imperialistic. They are supported by the ‘masses’ but not necessarily the majority of the national population. Support for this system is enhanced by identifying an ‘enemy’ and its ‘supporters’, labelling them with prejudicial adjectives and urging the masses to support violence against them.

Other characteristics that help create a ‘successful’ single party system include:

• Highly advanced technologically – dramatic changes in high-tech economies help bring on social and economic conflicts that are typically resolved with increasing levels of violence;
• A small group of wealthy entrepreneurs is required to initially fund the system;
• Any democratic institutions like courts and legislatures must be marginalized.

The single party state uses propaganda, i.e. the media, to manipulate the masses and solidify its power. Anxieties over social and economic issues are broadcast, exploited and focused on an enemy and its friends. The supporting masses are manipulated to stay in line behind the single party by being made to feel they are on the verge of losing their central place in the single party state. The media and technology are key to this. — To incite terror and control of the masses, the single party must be well organized, technically highly skilled, and in control of the media.

Success also requires a state of war based on high-tech skills and financial resources. Initially, the war is internal but grows as the power of the single party grows. War, of course, and the needed power requires a strong military. The military favors, by its nature, conformity and thus becomes codependent with the single party. Support for a single party and love of conformity helps with enforcement of conformity of the masses through the military. In other words, the military becomes supportive of both the uniform single party and its goal to unify and control the masses. This need for conformity by both the single party and its military requires high-tech skills and financial resources from the wealthy to spread the word – imperialism is on the rise.

The masses tend to hold the military in some esteem. There is genuine popular support. The masses hope the military can keep the single party from straying too far and the military will oblige the masses – to a point. The single party knows this and has to keep an eye on the military to make sure they don’t stray from the single party line. If the military does stray, the single party will add them to the enemy list and purge the trouble makers in a very public way. This also helps keep the masses in line.

Although not a requirement, an economic depression can facilitate the formation of a single party and its codependent military. Any economic downturn magnifies the economic and social conflicts between the masses and their many enemies. The masses join the unemployed and feel useless, unwanted, and outsiders from the respectable ranks of society. To regain their self respect, they join the military, put on a uniform, rejoin the single party, and become respectable again. Conformity is enhanced by an order of magnitude.

Even without a depression, a high-tech, militarized single party must bring many contradictory social groups together. This is done through great common denominators like insecurity, frustration, and resentment. These common denominators and the military are the substance that promotes conformity in and support from the masses. But there are additional psychological requirements needed to keep the support of the masses.

These masses must feel dependent and that dependence should be based on insecurities that are common across the masses. This dependence requires an authority figure they can believe in, accept without question and regardless of facts, provide comfort for their insecurities and give them a role in the military to help them feel they belong. There dependence allows them to take orders and they in turn issue orders to others just as dependent.

However, the masses are also frustrated because they are denied self-expression and self-assertion. The single party knows this frustration exists and that it will lead to repressed hostility and aggression. This hostility and aggression must be redirected to the ‘real’ enemy. The single party must provide an enemy for the masses to vent their resentment on.

Ideally, this enemy is easily identifiable and, if not, the state will make it easy by applying labels verbally and physically. As long as there is an enemy and the repressed hostility, aggression, and resentment of the masses can be vented against that enemy, the frustrations and insecurities of the masses are assuaged and the single state can maintain its imperialist pursuits knowing the masses are provided an ever expanding supply of enemies.

For the masses who can’t master their own dependent lives, the single state provides mastery over others.

This is some of what happened in Germany and Italy before and during WWII. Could it happen here? Maybe, maybe not. Is there a way to judge if it is or isn’t happening? Maybe, maybe not. But that is what this blog is attempting to do – Where are we going (WAWG)?

This blog is tracking a set of 14 characteristics (blog categories) defined by Laurence W. Britt in 2003. Blog articles are written about possible instantiations of these characteristics. If you want to explore these articles, refer to the various navigational aids on the left side of this web page.

In addition to the blog articles, an index is being tracked and evolved to see if a trend of these characteristics exists.