The principle of subsidiarity

Submitted by Tomas Kierstein (Denmark), Jan 14, 2008 at 14:32

Psedoerasmus asks how it is possible to label Hitler and Mussolini as Socialists, when private ownership was still allowed under their rules.

That depends on how one defines ownership!

If you define ownership as a persons right to do as he or she sees fit with his or her possesions, then you are of course right. But that was not the case in Fascist Italy, nor in Nazi Germany. The reason being, that they themselves where the property of the State. The State was everything, the individual was nothing.

The goal was the total socialisation of each individual, untill the point, where a "common will" would take completely over, and each person would automatically put the "common well" before their individual interests. The formal ownership ment nothing, as money and property could always be redistributed at the complete and undisputed convenience of the State.That is the essence of Socialism.

The smart part was, that by letting people keep the formal ownership, they practically avoided the depressiv "Nothing is worth while" - state of mind, that was the consequence of i.e. Stalins campaing against the "Kulacs" (anyone who owned more than one cow), and ultimately let to what happened in 1989. People worked their behinds of in the German factories to get a Volkswagen and a house, because they believed it to be theirs.

It fits nicely with what Hitler is claimed to have said to a Preussian Aristocrat, when asked if he was a Socialist:

"I am not only the prime enemy of Communism, I am also it`s Messiah, it`s fullfiller. Who owns what is a matter for children to quarrel over. When I am finished socialising the German people, non of this charade will matter anymore."

For futher insight into the matter, I would recommend an article, written by Pope Pius XI in 1931 about "The Principle of Subsidiarity." It describes how such a system can work in daily life. The absurd ironi is, that the EU uses that very phrase to describe how their decentralised system for political implementations work. Heil Bruxelles!

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