In the last article we discussed fascism and how it has crept into all segments of the economy. We learned that it had its beginnings in Alexander Hamilton’s “American System” which was not much more than a newer version of British mercantilism. Also, how fascism evolved out of Otto Von Bismarck’s large regulatory state apparatus and found its way onto both shores of the Atlantic. In this article we will discuss fascism’s fellow traveler and best ally, Fabian Socialism.
The Background in Brief
The Fabians had their beginning in 1883, in England, by Edith Nesbit, Hubert Bland and Edward Pease who decided to form a socialist debate club named after the Roman General, Quintus Fabius Maximus. General Quintus Fabius Maximus devised that weakening the opponent through small skirmishes was a better technique than full head-to-head battles. Rather than the expense of a large force, a small contingency could achieve the desired outcome over a longer length of time. The symbol of the Fabian Society is a stain glass window portraying a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Their motto is: “Let your mouth deny what your hands are doing”. In 1884 playwright George Bernard Shaw joined the newly formed Fabian Society along with Sydney and Beatrice Webb who wrote several compelling studies on behalf of their cause. By 1886 the Fabian Society had some 67 members and included such people as Sydney Olivier, William Clarke, Eleanor Marx, Edith Lees, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, J. A. Hobson, Charles Trevelyan, J. R. Clynes, Harry Snell, Clementina Black, Edward Carpenter, Clement Attlee, Ramsay MacDonald, Emmeline Pankhurst, Walter Crane, Arnold Bennett, Sylvester Williams, H. G. Wells, Hugh Dalton, C. E. M. Joad, Rupert Brooke, Clifford Allen and Amber Reeves.
What is Fabian Socialism
The core belief of the Fabian Society was an adherence to socialism without the violent revolution aspect. They concluded that anarchical communism and Marxist communism made a fatal mistake by either eliminating or supplanting the state. A fundamental understanding among the Fabians was that all government tended toward socialism. Democratic systems were the easiest to infiltrate and the most desirable vehicle. They believed that capitalism was doing a good job of producing goods and services but not at distributing those goods and services. Capitalism would be tolerated until, it too, would be trasnformed into socialism. A small elite group of especially intelligent people would lead them there. Their key plan of attack would be to infiltrate all levels of western society and through gradualism, transform the world into a socialist society. The focus would center on the emerging bureaucratic state in Great Britain, Australia, North America and western Europe along with public education and religious institutions.
The terms “social contract”, “social justice”, “social gospel” are all credited to the Fabians. The Fabians also
supported the role of eugenics to cleanse society of undesirables. In the 1883 they introduced the idea of a “War on Poverty”. They were instrumental in the forming of The United Council of Churches, The Council on Foreign Relations, the Tri-lateral Commission, the British Labour Party, The London School of Economics and a large influence in the Chicago School.
Prominent members of the Fabian Society were such people as Lord Rothschild, David Rockefeller Sr., the Bilderberg Group, Cecil Rhodes, American economist John Kenneth Galbraith and Woodrow Wilson. Current adherents are Tony Blair, George Soros, Gordon Browne and a myriad of officials, clergymen and entertainment personalities. They gave the financial and political support that elected Prime Ministers and Presidents alike. In her book, “Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing” Dr. Amy McGrath shows that upward of six Australian Prime Ministers were Fabians. Fabian Socialists were responsible for the League of Nations and the current United Nations. The Fabian Society of England helped to create the American Society of Christian Socialists, headed by Francis Bellamy who wrote “The Pledge of Allegiance” to be recited in public schools. Their scope of influence spans the entire globe in almost all international and national affairs. The Fabians are behind the U.N.’s insidious Agenda 21 which calls for the elimination of over half of the world’s population through sustainable development programs. The entire environmental movement is just another phase in Fabian “creeping communism”. You get the picture.
Couching the Argument
Learning from their debate club roots, the Fabians excel at passing socialist leaning legislation. The debate over a new legislative action wouldn’t include whether the government should actually be involved in a certain aspect of life or not, rather how much. As an example, let’s suppose a legislator offered a bill to fund
“public” housing. The initial bill calls for $4.5 billion for public housing. At the same time another bill is introduced that would support $2.5 billion for public housing. Both bills originate by the Fabians. The conservative members would be pushed or “whipped” by their leadership to vote for “the lesser of two evils” and support the $2.5 billion bill. They wouldn’t want to spend the $4.5 billion on a project they don’t believe in. Either way, the winners are the Fabians. This is how the Fabian Socialists have been progressing the western world down that road of serfdom for over a century. Once the obvious question is raised about government’s involvement in a certain aspect of life, as in our housing example, that individual is isolated, scrutinized and slandered as an imbecile or a heartless crank. As historian Thomas E. Woods puts it, anyone who delineates off of the 3×5 card of public discourse qualifies as a member of the fringe by the mass media. Ron Paul has recently been called the Father of the Fringe by MSNBC’s Alex Wagner.
The Success of Fabian Socialism
Almost without a doubt, the Fabian Society has been the most successful political movements since the Founding Fathers. Through their stated policy of gradualism, the modern world has been on a steady transformation into a socialist based system, both economically and socially. There are many intellectuals who clamber for the same goals as Fabians but with no realization that they too are just another Fabian product. Many politicians pass pro-Fabian legislation without even having heard of the Fabian Society. Many public education systems teach a pro-State and pro-socialist curriculum only because, over the last century, that was the mainstream reasoning in academia.
The public at large has also fallen prey to this line of thought. It would be very difficult to find a general opinion on main street agreeing that lasses-faire capitalism is the best system to better mankind. On the contrary, there are still many “hanger-onners” to the notion that a socialist, state run economic system is best despite its many failures and long list of human destruction. Most don’t even know that the ideas they push for are in fact, Marxist socialism. The Fabians have been very successful at camouflaging the agenda by using terms as “soak the rich” “pay their fair share”, a “just tax system”, “civic duty” and so on. Marxist exploitation theory is hidden in terms as “a living wage” or “just compensation”. These are kitchen table terms that are tossed around every day in our society.
Short of an outright ban of capitalism, the Fabians have met their every stated goal. Our modern democracies are all draped in a cloak of nationalism as the notion of performing your civic duty or doing what’s best for the public good is front and center. When was the last time the freedom of expression was celebrated when someone decided not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? Such a one would be seen as a traitor to the cause and an outcast. The public might even, ironically, call such a one as being communist. In fact, those who do recite the Pledge are just that. They have fallen prey to State worship and swear allegiance to a system that robs them of their liberty and income on a daily basis.
As Frederic Bastiat once said,
“Here I encounter the most popular fallacy of our times. It is not considered sufficient that the law should be just; it must be philanthropic. Nor is it sufficient that the law should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive use of his faculties for physical, intellectual, and moral self-improvement. Instead, it is demanded that the law should directly extend welfare, education, and morality throughout the nation.”
This is the essence of Fabian thinking and this is common among our fellow countrymen. The Fabian Society has been most successful at having the government usurp the role that the Church once occupied. Today, the American church scene has devolved into not much more than a scattered and disconnected group of social clubs. There are exceptions, of course. In Europe it’s almost nonexistent. The role of the Church as being Christ’s vehicle on earth to care for the down trodden and poor has been neglected. Emphasis is placed more on growing a church’s territory or membership and thus bringing more money into the coffers for building expansion and TV time slots. The public moral decay can be laid at the feet of church leaders advocating for a larger role in State welfare and charity. They forget that he who doles out the gifts sets the agenda. Never bite the hand that feeds you.
Conclusion
It becomes almost a fun mental exercise to pick up on the many numerous Fabian terms that get tossed around in public discourse. It is depressing at the same time to understand that this type of thinking is not going away. Whenever the State has failed in some arena it always blames the free market. Economic ignorance is easily exploited. Keyensian economic theory has been a fellow traveler and instrument for the Fabian Society to progress the world even more toward a world wide socialist economy. Many liberty minded people believe that once economic collapse occurs, they will finally see a free market emerge. We cannot forget what happened when the Soviet Union fell and disintegrated into it’s many fragments. Economists in the west still clung to the notion that a State regulated command economy was best. That somehow, only if the right people were in charge, a top down economic system can work. Unfortunately, the “right people” are Fabian socialists or at least trained by one of their many prestigious universities.
My answer falls along the lines of what Murray Rothbard proposed,
“Second, bearing this objective in mind, we should work on the “lower levels” of thought and action toward a “Fabian” advance of libertarian objectives. In this way, the hardcore man, the “militant”libertarian, works to advance not only the total system, but all steps toward that system. In this way, we achieve “unity of theory and practice…”
After all, when trying to effect change why not use that technique that has been tried and proven to work? The Fabian Society has been a small but extremely effective group that has earned the bragging rights that neither the Marxists or other agents of change have not.
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