VJMP Reads: Gaddafi's Green Book III (fin)

VJMP Reads: Gaddafi’s Green Book III (fin)

This reading carries on from here.

Part III is titled ‘The Social Basis of The Third Universal Theory’. This is divided into eleven chapters.

In the first, ‘The Social Basis of The Third Universal Theory’, Gaddafi declares that the social bond is the basis for the movement of history. Each group has common social needs which must be collectively satisfied. The national struggle is the basis of history. “…just as community is the basis for survival of all groups within the animal kingdom, so nationalism is the basis for the survival of nations”.

“Nations whose nationalism is destroyed are subject to ruin.” The destruction of nations leads to minorities. National unity is the basis of survival – Gaddafi compares it to gravity. Gaddafi channels Edward O Wilson at one point, stating that the social bond works automatically towards the goal of national survival. Nationalism is the secret of group survival and it’s harmful to go against this. He observes that marriage within a group strengthens its unity.

In the second, ‘The Family’, Gaddafi compares the family to a plant, both being an expression of Nature. Any “dispersion, decline or loss of the family” is unnatural and could be compared to the destruction of a plant. Gaddafi compares society to a garden. The ideal form is one in which the individual can flourish within the family and the family within society. A society in which individuals lived without their families would be artificial.

In the third, ‘The Tribe’, Gaddafi notes that a tribe is just an extended family, and a nation is just an extended tribe. This same point was noted in Aristotle’s Politics. “The relationship which binds the family also binds the tribe, the nation, and the world.” Feelings of kinship decrease the larger the kinship group is. Gaddafi ridicules those who think otherwise.

In the fourth, ‘The Merits Of The Tribe’, Gaddafi describes the tribe as a secondary family. It raises and educates those within it. It also allows more freedom than the family, which supervises closely. Blood is the prime factor in its formation, but a person or family can be part of the tribe by affiliation and then later part of the tribe by blood.

In the fifth, ‘The Nation’, Gaddafi notes that loyalty to any one of family, tribe, nation and humanity weakens loyalty to the other three. Selfishness is harmful to the wider group, but self-respect is beneficial to it. A shared destiny is essential to nationhood. “The national state is the only political form which is consistent with the natural social structure.” The nation-state will naturally endure unless attacked from the outside or unless it collapses into tribal mentality.

All states composed of multiple nations will eventually destroy themselves, because the social factor of national bonds will inevitably triumph over the political factor. The tribe develops individuals at the post-family stage, and the nation develops individuals at the post-tribe stage.

In the sixth, ‘Woman’, Gaddafi opens by declaring it self-evident that men and women are equal as human beings. However, the fact that both exist and not just one shows that they occupy different roles. Men and women cannot replace each other in those natural roles. Nurseries are unnatural and should not exist, save for the case of orphans, where nurseries are better than foster homes.

“In need, freedom is latent.” Therefore, women should not be forced to work to provide the necessities of life. Belief in gender equality deprives women of their freedom. Gaddafi notes, with disapproval, that societies everywhere seek to turn women into men. “Men and women must be creative within their respective roles.” Women should not be forced to carry out men’s duties to gain equality with men.

In the seventh, ‘Minorities’, Gaddafi outlines two kinds of minorities. One belongs to the nation, which provides its social framework, whereas the other must form its own social framework. He suggests that the problems of minorities have to be solved at the national level, in a society controlled by the masses. Minorities should not be seen as substrata.

In the eighth, ‘Black People Will Prevail In The World’, Gaddafi claims that black people are motivated to vengeance by slavery. Much as Asians and white people had eras of dominance over history, so too will the blacks. He notes that the backwardness of blacks has led directly to their numerical superiority. The populations of other races are declining because of their obsession with work, but this hasn’t affected the blacks.

In the ninth, ‘Education’, Gaddafi speaks against rote learning. He notes that the style of education that is typical in the world goes against human freedom. Forcing a human to learn according to a curriculum is dictatorship. State-controlled and standardised education stultifies the masses. Education of all kinds of subjects should be available. “Knowledge is a natural right of every human being.”

In the tenth, ‘Music And Art’, Gaddafi laments that there is no common human language. He makes the startling claim that the stylistic sentiments of earlier generations are passed down to later ones in the genes. “People are only harmonious with their own arts and heritage”. Eventually, Gaddafi claims, all people will speak one language, or society will collapse.

In the eleventh, ‘Sport, Horsemanship And The Stage’, Gaddafi equates spectator sport with watching someone pray or eat at a restaurant. Much of this chapter has no real Western context, as our participatory sports are organised in a different way. He agrees with the general Western sentiment that sports should be for the masses. But he makes some odd claims, such as that the grandstand was invented to deny popular access to the sporting field.

In summary, Gaddafi’s The Green Book is a wide-ranging summary of his political and social beliefs. It is penetratingly insightful at places, and bafflingly vague at others. His criticisms of democracy, as it is practiced, are brilliant, but the book is light on practical detail regarding the alternative. Far from coming across as a dictator, Gaddafi seems intelligent and reasonable in this book. There is no focus on destroying his enemies, but rather on how a great country could be built on nationalist and socialist principles.

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VJMP Reads: Gaddafi’s Green Book II

This reading carries on from here.

Part II is titled ‘The Solution of the Economic Problem: Socialism’. This is divided into seven chapters.

In the first, ‘The Economic Basis Of The Third Universal Theory’, Gaddafi calls for the abolition of the wage system. He states that “Wage-earners are but slaves to the masters who hire them.” The producer has a right to that which they produce – a secondary benefit through the improvement of society or through wages is inadequate. Inequality cannot be tolerated as it leads to exploitation.

Gaddafi repeats Adam Smith’s rule that economic production is the result of raw materials, capital input and human labour. He claims that all three of these components are necessary to produce anything, and therefore all three should get an equal share. Gaddafi also notes that the working class is declining owing to scientific and technological advancement. People are, however, the basic component in any production process.

In the second, ‘Need’, Gaddafi notes that a person cannot be free if their needs are controlled by others. Need leads to the enslavement and exploitation of those who need. Conflict is caused by one group controlling the needs of a second, giving that second an incentive to rebel. Need is a problem inherent to life.

In the third, ‘Housing’, Gaddafi opens with “Housing is an essential need for both the individual and the family and should not be owned by others”. A person cannot be free while living in a home owned by someone else, whether or not they’re paying rent. Fiddling with rents won’t help – the important thing is ownership. People won’t have the right to own multiple houses, because to do so is to control the needs of others, which is exploitation and cannot be permitted.

In the fourth, ‘Income’, Gaddafi declares that income is an imperative need. In a socialist system, there are no wage-earners, only partners in the production process. Income should not be a wage in exchange for having one’s production taken away.

In the fifth, ‘Means Of Transportation’, Gaddafi declares that transportation is also a necessity. Therefore, it’s subject to the same restrictions from being controlled as housing and income. Like housing, transportation may not be owned for the sake of renting it out.

In the sixth, ‘Land’, Gaddafi begins by stating that “Land is the private property of none.” He believes that the land ought to belong to whoever works it. Gaddafi’s aspiration is to create a society that is happy because it is free. This comes about via the liberation of people’s material and spiritual needs from the control of others.

Gaddafi is aware that wage-earners have little incentive to work. Neither do poeple who work for the common good. The self-employed, however, have plenty of incentive to do so. Gaddafi sees the economy as a zero-sum game, because, for him, there is no reason to produce beyond one’s needs. The industrious and skillful have no right to lever this advantage to take from the shares of others.

An especially diligent or intelligent person may meet their needs with less effort, but they may not acquire more than they need. Happiness is a matter of material and spiritual freedom. Profit itself must be eliminated, as it inevitably will be as the socialist process continues to evolve.

In the seventh, ‘Domestic Servants’, Gaddafi states that domestic servants are a type of slave. The Third Universal Theory offers freedom to both wage-earners and domestic servants. Household services should be carried out by employees, not by domestic servants. He concedes that it isn’t easy to assign a share of production to service workers.

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VJMP Reads: Gaddafi’s Green Book I

Muammar Gaddafi’s The Green Book was published in 1975, and was intended to be read by everyone. Gaddafi was murdered in 2011 for opposing the same people that Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy opposed, i.e. globohomo. This book is therefore of immediate interest to anyone else who opposes globohomo.

Part I is titled ‘The Solution of the Problem of Democracy: The Authority of the People’. This is divided into ten chapters.

In the first, ‘The Instrument of Government’, Gaddafi points out the inherently tyrannical nature of electoral democracy as practiced in the West today. Up to 49% of the population can have a government that they did not vote for imposed on them. He writes that “dictatorship is established under the cover of false democracy.”

In the second, ‘Parliaments’, Gaddafi decries the parliamentary system as a “misrepresentation” of the people. Democracy must mean the authority of the people, and not an authority that presumes to act on behalf of the people. As soon as the election is over, the representative assumes sovereignty from the people. The people have the right to destroy the parliamentary assemblies that have taken their sovereignty away.

“The most tyrannical dictatorships the world has known have existed under the aegis of parliaments.”

In the third, ‘The Party’, Gaddafi decries the modern political party as “the dictatorship of the modern age”. He states that “A party’s aim is to achieve power under the pretext of carrying out its program.” Any party not in power will seek to harm the nation so as to undermine their opposition. Moreover, a country governed by one party is not meaningfully different to countries governed by one sect or by one tribe.

In the fourth, ‘Class’, Gaddafi argues that leadership based on class suffers the same problems as leadership based on party, tribe or sect: it can only ever represent a minority. Even if the working class replaced the others, differences in material wealth or prestige between working-class factions would soon lead to the old class system reasserting itself. As before, so after.

In the fifth, ‘Plebiscites’, Gaddafi observes that the people’s expression is limited to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Referendums are often used to cover up for the failures of democracy. The solution lies, he writes, in finding an instrument of government that is not subject to either internal conflict or underrepresentation of the people it governs. This instrument can only be the authority of the people.

In the sixth, ‘Popular Conferences And People’s Committees’, Gaddafi declares that direct democracy is indisputably the ideal form of government. It’s just impractical. Gaddafi’s Third Universal Theory divides the population into Basic Popular Conferences, each of which chooses a secretariat from among their number. The population then appoints People’s Committees to replace government administration.

In the seventh, ‘The Law of Society’, Gaddafi contends that the natural law of any society must be based in either tradition or religion. Constitutions are artificial, thus invalid. He argues that human beings are essentially the same everywhere, and therefore natural law is applicable to all. Ruling systems must follow natural law, and not the reverse. So all laws must be grounded in tradition or religion.

In the eighth, ‘Who Supervises The Conduct Of Society’, Gaddafi appeals again to his Basic Popular Conference model. No one group can claim the right to police society, therefore society has to police itself. If the people organise themselves into Popular Conferences, however, they can supervise themselves.

In the ninth, ‘How Can Society Redirect Its Course When Deviations From Its Laws Occur’, Gaddafi notes that if a system is dictatorial, resistance to it must take the form of violence. Because the use of Basic Popular Conferences and People’s Committees means that the system is not dictatorial, it can be reformed without violence. Because the system encompasses all, there are no outsiders to direct violence against.

“Violence and revolution are carried out by those who have the capability and courage to take the initiative and proclaim the will of society.”

In the tenth chapter, ‘The Press’, Gaddafi states his belief that the press is primarily a means for society to express itself, and therefore does not belong to individuals or corporate interests. He points out that media sources can only ever speak for their owners and not for society. As such, private publishing or information enterprises must be banned. Only People’s Committees are permitted to act as the media.

Gaddafi finishes this first part of the book by noting that the strongest party in the society is always the one that rules.

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VJMP Reads: Free Speech Under Attack V

This reading carries on from here.

The 13th chapter in Free Speech Under Attack is ‘Speaking Controversially’ by Robert Stanmore. This essay begins by looking at the controversy over Israel Folau when he quoted a Bible verse promising eternal punishment to sinners. Stanmore cites Mark Latham as stating that corporate elites are intruding upon workers’ rights by punishing them for what they say on social media outside of work hours.

This also happens in New Zealand, as shown by the example of Ray White Real Estate, who sacked two of their agents for social media posts critical of Islam. Given that a large proportion of the population is critical of Islam, and for very good reason, this seems like an excessive and callous response. Stanmore concludes by claiming that the possibility of offence being taken is a fair price to pay for free speech.

Chapter 14 is ‘Free Speech and Universities’ by David Round. Here, Round recounts how the Education Act guarantees academic freedom. The primary concern of universities is to develop intellectual independence. But the general societal trend is towards intolerance of free speech and free expression. Round wisely points out that today’s generation is both tolerant in some ways and intolerant in others when compared to their grandparents.

Round details the social media attacks against himself and his reputation for supposed racism, and the efforts made by cancel culture to shut down the Canterbury University Law Revue and Don Brash’s scheduled speaking appointment at Massey University. He also discusses the attempts made by Muslim and Chinese interests to buy influence in Western universities through making donations.

Chapter 15 is ‘Silencing the Public on Immigration’ by Robert Stanmore. This is another short essay, at only five pages. Stanmore begins by noting the unprecedented increase in Third Worlders moving to the West, and by pointing out that these moves are happening without the consent of the local populations.

Stanmore states, correctly, that the United Nations is inescapably opposed to the interests of individual Western nations. Free speech is, unfortunately, far from a universal human value. He also discusses the evil of the United Nations Compact on Migration, and how our Government kept it secret from us. He ends with an appeal to learn from the experience of Europe and only allow immigrants who are compatible with our way of life.

If you enjoyed reading this essay, you can get a compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2019 from Amazon for Kindle or Amazon for CreateSpace (for international readers), or TradeMe (for Kiwis). A compilation of the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2018 and the Best VJMP Essays and Articles of 2017 are also available.

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