by user A Libertarian

What is fascism? There are multiple definitions of it, many of which talk about it as though it is a generic name for any dictatorial government. One of the great qualities of humans is their ability to be ideologically dynamic. We change our values and outlooks spontaneously (albeit there are times when they are promoted by the environment). When we change our outlook on something we do only after re-evaluating the information about the outlook, finding new information, or crushing the falsities of the outlook (it was those three things that helped change the public's view on the shape of the earth: from flat to round). The outlook on life that we choose is based on the comparison of the opportunity cost to opportunity benefit of the lifestyle and views in question. One of the downfalls of humanity is the persistence of people to follow a view that is incorrect but supported by their peers (hence the reason why pockets of culture exist even in the age of the internet). It is this almost unbreakable bond to “common knowledge” that causes people to shape their views about something in such a way where facts are trampled by more collectively accepted lies (this is why there are almost a hundred political parties in this county. The two main ones are seen as evil, and people still support them. And people attack all other parties by using the old-fassion, and incorrect, “spoiler argument”. interesting!).

What is fascism? There are two definitions of the ideology: one true and one false, deadly false. The first is that it is the ideology of hitler, mussolini, franco, pinoche, your boss, your enemy, Muslims, the president, or anyone else you don't like. Unfortunately that is the false definition of the ideology. Here is a good example of the false ideology: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Fascism

The second is the true definition: fascism is an ideology, founded out of negative liberty, with an existence in less of a theoretical world and instead in more of a practical world. Unlike negative liberty, fascism sees that there are incidents when the rules of opportunity cost and benefit are broken for gambles and ignorance. Fascism is not dictatorial or even centrist (only positive liberty creates dictatorships since dictators only exist because they “help” the people).

The idea of negative liberty acknowledges that opportunity cost and benefit should drive the social and economic aspects of the country. X doesn't rob Y because the opportunity benefit in the act is far less than the opportunity cost if it doesn't go as planned (i.e. X gets caught) which is a chance that carries too much risk. But there is a catch: what if X is crazy, mentally incompetent, or, because of lifestyle, has noting to loose which, in turn, destroys the high level of opportunity cost in the act. This is the one major fault of negative liberty: it feels that all people in the system think like economists.

There is a solution, however. It is fascism. If you look at real fascism (i.e. Not hitler, mussolini, Bush, your neighbour, your boss, that kid that beat you up, etc...) you will notice an odd thing: fascism is for individual liberty in many of the aspects of life which points to the underlying ideology of negative liberty that makes up fascism. The proof that fascism is negative liberty is in its view that humans are, to some degree, able to be autonomous and dynamic through their consciencesness (i.e. They are not animals that live off of instinct, which is how positive liberty views humans, but instead have the ability to think and create solutions to new problems). The affirmation of this metaphysical position is the catalyst of many of the unique views of fascism but it is also co-dependent on another idea, that of chance. Fascism views the world in much of the same way that libertarianism does: that people do things that the perceive as beneficial and better than the alternatives. This is the idea, as mentioned above, of opportunity cost and benefit. The difference is that the fascist have less faith in that outlook on decisions when it comes to human relations as a whole.

The problems that fascism sees are:

Not all people have the same degree of opportunity cost since all people have different ideologies and different things to loose (a suicidal person with nothing has less to loose in a crime than a life loving rich person)

Opportunity cost and benefit are more complex than just a decision on a single issue. Sometimes, even with that principal guiding one's self, a person doesn't always make the best decisions. An example would be a lazy person: the lazy person may see more of a value in being rich than lazy but stays lazy since they perceive that each action that leads to being rich has a higher cost than each alternative decision which keeps them lazy. Also they may see it as the chance of being successful is uncertain same with the benefits but the benefits of being lazy are seen and knows. The last reason may be that the person knows less about success and therefore avoids that which they don't understand. Because of such things as this, fascist see that opportunity cost and benefit, although effective in low level decisions (sit or get up), can't possibly be the best system for higher up decisions(be lazy or get rich) because of the more powerful lower level decisions that have little to do, with regard to objectives, with the higher level decisions.

Not everyone is intelligent enough to see the opportunity cost and benefit of their actions and/or people may not process the outcomes of actions before doing them. An example: a person that doesn't understand the need for oxygen may accidentally kill someone else through suffocation or a person may make a snap decision which leads to the death of another person since the decision was made without adequate reasoning.

The results of this view on negative liberty, and the reasoning negative liberty rests one, is what makes fascism unique. Fascism, like negative liberty, views humans as unique, dynamic, and conscience. That very view separates fascism from positive liberty and positive liberty's descendants (socialism, communism, and incremental socialism (i.e. Commonly called progressivism)). Fascism, because of its lack of faith in the rules of opportunity cost and benefit, has a unique view on how a country should be organized and run. The fascist country would be a corporatist state. Contrary the erroneous definition of corporatism created by the anti-capitalists, corporatism is *not* a system where corporations and government gang up on the people (sorry to all of you that played Cybermage and EVE, fascism is not like that). A true fascist corporatist state is one in which the country is ruled by three equal and powerful groups that decide legislation based on voting. The three groups are the government (possible meritocracy based), special trade unions' representatives (every worker is in a union that represents that field of work and they vote on their representatives. NOT the same as Marxist socialist unions), and the leaders of the business world. These three groups decide on all things and none of them are to be in an alliance with another. This system exists because it is the only economic system that is supports both individual freedom and protection from the faults of opportunity cost and benefit. Here are some examples fascist parties and fascist-like parties in the United States:

1) http://www.americanfascistparty.com/index2.html (American Fascist Party)

2) http://www.falangist.com/index1.htm (not truly fascist and more religious)

3) http://falconistparty.net/ (fascist-like party)

I don't know everything about fascism and I admit that (something few people can do when talking poly-tics). Please comment on this. Understand, I am not a fascist, I am a libertarian for some reason.

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