Before we continue, perhaps it is fitting to explain what led up to this project.
Strangely, I first started closely looking into questions about ideology when a friend of mine, a Medieval military historian named Russell Mitchell, sent me an email asking me to provide input on a debate which was raging on a history-centered message board to which he had contributed. It was apparently one of those regular digressions which chronically plague the medium, but which can achieve surprisingly relevant or even insightful results. This particular digression surrounded a debate among fellow discussants about the difference between communism and fascism. Apparently many of these historians had difficulty separating the two from each other, due to the historical phenomena of widespread misery and/or a high body count which tends to accompany both regimes. Given my experience in the study of politics, Russ hoped that I could provide a succinct and putatively authoritative response. After all, such discussions often take on the character of competitions, and it’s always nice to win.
The more I thought about the question, though, the more perplexed I became. Indeed, the outward appearance of historical “communist” regimes and “fascist” regimes does appear markedly similar: viz. the aforementioned misery and death toll. But what struck me even more was that in the United States, ideological liberals and conservatives appear to have a habit of accusing each other under their breath of either being communists or fascists in order either to irritate their ideological opponents or else to strengthen their own convictions. (Consider for a moment the lyrics to Greg and Evan Spiridellis' Internet-based parody of the 2004 Presidential campaigns sung to the tune of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” (http://www.jibjab.com) and why its humor resonated with voters) To a degree each of these ideologues may have a point.
This tendency also called my attention to those who referred to both liberals and conservatives in such terms—the ideological libertarians. Now keep in mind that by libertarians I do not necessarily refer to registered members of the Libertarian Party in the United States. After all, many ideological libertarians may find surer ground in electoral politics within either of the two coalition parties (The Democrats or the Republicans) than in a separate ideological party such as the Libertarian Party. Also, ideological libertarians may even avoid associating themselves with the Libertarian Party because of that party’s poor reputation as a haven for anarchists and users of illicit drugs. Nevertheless, they may choose to distance themselves as well from those they perceive as ideological extremists within the party to which they have aligned themselves, often associating themselves with “centrists,” but having clear ideas about the status and importance of their liberty (Barlow, JP, interviewed by Brian Doherty, Reason 36:4 (Aug/Sept. 2004); p48).
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