How To Define Irony -- "Islamofascism"

[peristaltor]

I started writing this in November, but faltered, and started again, and faltered again. I find the entire topic just too important to treat lightly, but too emotionally fraught to resort to the bludgeon of didactic accusation. Telling people "You're evil!" just gets you dismissed

Comments

[beachofdreams]

The observation about the cap is interesting. In fact, many states (especially Republics) observe, through imagery and symbolism, and well as formal decree, that there is a balance to be observed between liberty and order.

The French, for instance, use this symbol as the Seal of the Republic,



Note the similarities between France and America: liberty, holding the fasces to indicate fidelity to the rule of the free state and her dominance. I'm sorry to admit that I forget what the actual Statue of Liberty's Book represents.

Liberty and the Rule (of law, of government, of the Monarch) have always been strange bedfellows. In modern times, states have coped with this tension by adopting different branches of government -- The Executor, Head of State, or what have you, as well as the Judiciary, are fascists in the way of the classics -- they execute the will of the people, protect fidelity to the Rule of Law, or sit at the head of the State, respectively, through powers vested in them (through fasces handed to them), except in the case of Monarchs, whose power is limited, not given. Well, then, why the tension; why Rules at all? Welcome to Legal Philosophy. Anyway, wasn't it Edmund Burke that said this,

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,-in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity,-in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption,-in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."?

Here Burke is, of course, talking about control. But in the presence of unrestrained liberty, Burke, the pessimist, who was horrified by the French Revolution, suggests a restrait of civil liberty, to beg the question, placed upon them (as in placed whether or not they want it or not). Moral chains, as it were. Burke was English, impressed with his own country's balanced approach to its own Revolution, which never banished the Right of the Monarch completely. Of course, the Parliament now served as a vessel for some of the Monarch's power, yet the Monarch did and still does exert power directly. And there is no hiding it. There are no fasces balanced with lady liberty in the coats of England nor in any of its former colonies (like my country).

To take England herself as an example, the arms are adorned with symbols of power and customary rights:



Why, even the Unicorn, the sinister, is chained. The Unicorn, by the way, represents Scotland. In Canada, it represents Quebec. Dieu et mon droit means "God and my right", best complimented with the Crown at the head, which is at the head of the Canadian coat as well. A ruling presence, to be sure. The coat is an orgy of power flaunting and turf marking.

[beachofdreams]

The motto of the Canadian government is, "peace, order, and good government" -- the equivalent of the the American "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happines". It seems that England and its Commonwealth have always kept a certain form of fascism in store and on the seat, not only as a matter of tradition, but as a living political ideal. In my country the Rule of Law is not only protected by the judiciary, but its power is sourced from the Queen and her appointment of the head of Her government -- the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. Not only this, but the ideal of order is extolled over liberty. In the US and in France, the judiciary and the legislature exist, predominantly, to protect liberty, but through the Rule of government. I'm not saying Canada or England is a dictatorship. Far from it. Nor is the US. But any of them could turn out to be. Yet, if any of them turned out that way, how different would they have become from their former selves, at least from their former formal selves?

Where am I going with this? Well, given the Commonwealth's symbols, isn't it interesting that the fasces were taken as the symbol of complete and utter control through private ownership? The fasces, historically, are representative of the Rule of Law -- Burke's moral chains. The Crown, on the other hand, is the penultimate symbol of private ownership. Why, even Napoleon, heir to the French Revolution, re-introduced it, but in its original form -- the Laurel Wreath of the Roman Emperors. "King', as you might not know, is originally derived from "Caesar". Why not the Crown? Well, perhaps it's because the Crown also signifies lineage and heredity, something a Hitler or Mussolini couldn't quite claim; Napoleon, yes, but only when using the ancient and somewhat vague Hellenic crown, which isn't neccessarily a symbol of blood ties.

[peristaltor]

I thought about really enlarging the original post, and even had that image selected, until I waded into the overwhelming magnitude of fasces images in the world and decided to limit the discussion to a "reasonable" level.

There is one I neglected, one I meant to include with Lincoln. Note the Memorial armrests, and the fact that they did not have axe heads. This was traditional in the Pomerium, and is found in the US only associated with Presidents. There are similar fasces adorning the Oval Office, our equivalent to the Seat of Power, so it seems. (I guess I lost the link.)

Oh, the English symbol didn't appear, for some reason.

The Unicorn, by the way, represents Scotland.

I've visited Hadrian's wall (what's left of it). Those Scots have an independent streak in them!