Amerika

A great post from Outside In presents the best summary ever of Neocameralism:

A Neocameral”neostate” is not owned by its residents or its agents. Its “monarch” (or “CEO”) is an executive appointment. (90% of all confusion about Neocameralism, and Neoreaction in general, stems from a failure to grasp this elementary point.) Note: “subscribers” (plural).

Under Formalist doctrine (which is a subset of and tangentially related to formalism) the separation between government as self-interested party and government as service is closed, and government essentially follows a “subscription” model. Citizens sign up for the government that offers them the most.

This is what we might call “post-Libertarian” theory, as it flows out of Libertarianism. Its primary aim is to reduce government from being able to operate behind an ideological aegis which allows it to commit parasitism that cannot be criticized because its goal is theoretically noble.

However, Neocameralism has a fatal flaw: it experiences the same problems as current consumerism. Subscriptions are a form of “voting with dollars,” and are left up to individual choice, which succumbs to the same problem as other demotist systems (consult The Bell Curve and The Blank Slate for more detail).

When people vote with their subscriptions, they will flock to that which is more mentally convenient, thus ending up at liberalism. After all, right now people know that voting Leftist results in them paying more taxes and receiving less, and still they do it — why? Answer: because government is not the cause but the effect, and the cause is that under social systems, egalitarianism is the way to advance. Again, the problem is us. Government and decline are the result of human individualism, or hubris a.k.a. exaggerated sense of self-importance, not the other way around.

To all who wish to venture in the world of post-Leftist thought, it is important to remember a golden rule:

The problem is equality

Do you yet see where this goes? The ego demands to be equal so that it cannot be criticized. In groups, that becomes collectivized individualism or “Crowdism,” of which Leftism is but one variety. Until we get rid of the notion of equality, and replace it with culture and hierarchy, we are doomed.

There are no ideological answers. Ideology, like politics itself, tends only toward the Left. It does so because it is inherently based in equality, much like any subscription-purchasing model of government. While I admire and enjoy Mr. Land’s spirited defense of this viewpoint, I must disagree that this presents us with any kind of future.

Tags: formalism, neocameralism, neoreaction, post-Libertarian