The Bipolarity of Extremism

I first started thinking of this bipolarity with regards to Zionism.  But then I saw equally clearly that it applies to all Extremist Nationalisms and Identitarianisms, including Nazi, White Supremacy, Fascism, Neoliberalism, and so on.  For every Identity, there are some who subscribe to an Extremist version, and all Extremists sound and act pretty much the same.

So I'll just refer to the Extremist nationalism or identitarianism of the generic N people, who could be anyone.  God could be any tribal deity or unquestioned principle.

The Manic

We N's kick ass.  We know what we want (it's in our founding documents, revelations from God to select leaders, and daily affirmations) and we will get it.  Real soon.  We are on the way right now.  Nothing and no one will stand in our way.  Sissy rules of fair play don't apply to us, we are on a special mission from GOD and the ends justify the means.  We're God's chosen people, and we're smarter, stronger, tougher, and more resilliant than anyone else.  Any against us are fools and their corrupt masters.  They know they are weak shits.  They know their time is up.  They will tremble as we approach.  We will clean up the disaster of their corrupt laziness, and build the shining city on a hill that will be as a beacon to all right minded people.

The Depressive

No one, ever, has been more unfairly marginalized, criticized, demonized, or insulted as we have been.  Discrimination and violence against us is legendary, even before we became a people in ancient times we were being abused for standing up for goodness and truth.  Our unique place in the world, as a scapegoat for the corruption and meanness of others, means we need a special place for ourselves, not subject to the whims, evil, and cross examination of others.   A place where we can just be ourselves.  Suffering as much as we are, we can't go on otherwise.  [And back to the top...]

How Communism is Different

There can be extremist versions of Communism, such as the original Maoism*, but Communism per say is not an extremism or extremist identity, though often accused as being such.  (The same is true of Judaism and Jewish Identity; they are not extremist per se, they simply have an extremist version called Zionism.)

Communism does not respect any form of Extremist Identitarianism.  All people should be united in achieving the ultimate goal of Communism (from each according to their abilities, and to each according to their needs).  That pair of universal principles for material human society was expressed by both The Apostle Paul and Karl Marx.  The principles have no specific realization, they are both clear and indefinite at the same time, and are to be continuously defined and improved on by human society.  All good universal principles are like that, such as Equality and Love.

Communism respects personal identities so long as they are positive and inclusive and not demanding of unwarranted special privileges at the expense of others.  Communists do not believe in states or regions defined by ethnicities.  States or regions are defined by every person in them.  There is no way to escape or be protected from injustice or inequality.  It must be fixed whenever, wherever, and however it exists, and it is the job of all good people, working together through coalitions, to do so.

The very word Communism comes from the same root as Common, meaning all or universal, as in the US Contitutional phrase of Common Good.

Communists are accused of promoting Class Warfare, pitting Workers against Owners, but it's an illusion.  Owners are not some alien race, they are merely individuals exercising the false and socially destructive principles of Capital Ownership.  People who are currently exercising those foul principles are free to choose to abandon them righteously and join us.  It is the Capitalist Class who are the true Class Warriors, and they've been winning, mostly, though everyone knows it can't go on forever.

I first heard Zionism being called Extremism by an old leftist Jew (he insisted it was true by definition) and nearly everything I've learned about Zionism and Israel and Palestine and has been through writers who are Jewish at least in the ethnic sense.  People like Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Philip Weiss, and Aaron Mate.  I admire and keep trying to emulate their objectivity and passion for justice and truth.

"Whenever you put some people ahead of others," the old leftist Jew said, "you have supremacism, which is a form of extremism.  Everyone understands to some degree what being put down is like, we've all had that experience in some way, and so we can and should all work together against discrimination and for equality.  But no other group is ever going to be satisfied with having your group, as a group, ahead of all others.  Therefore it is an extreme position.  Zionism says Israel is firstly for the Jews, they can immigrate freely by merely proving they are Jewish, but people from other groups cannot immigrate freely, even if they lived there before and left involuntarily."

(*As of this writing, it's unclear whether Maoism has any meaning at all, except for an ad hoc description of Communism with Chinese Characteristics, whatever than happens to be.  The original Maoism from Mao Zedong had a very clear but fairy tale picture of what society must be like, such as small farming and industry only, and Maoists would stop at nothing to get it, both being clear signs of an Extremism.)