Thursday, June 23, 2011

Leaders, Culture, Economics and Politics

Part 04

Previously, I cited the ecology of leadership and Socialist leaders. Then, I digressed a bit into the world external to the leader where my thesis is that no business leader can avoid dealing with the total human ecological environment.

Returning to the externals of my original example, my intention is to highlight the differences in the strategic planning process of leaders under capitalism and socialism. The essence of the difference lies in the fact that under socialism, to succeed, the leader must be leader-centric, while under capitalism the leader must be customer-centric. In the leader-centric context, it is easy to see how ego can play a significant part in a leader's approach to strategic planning.

Continuing with background information, much of the confusion surrounding Socialism, in addition to it's being self-contradictory, stems from the fact that the socialist movement takes great pains to frequently circulate new labels for itself as a way of covering up its true identity. As each attempt to make it work fails, another leader, who wants to give it a shot and put his own brand on it, appears. So, as each label gets worn-out, it's replaced by another label which raises hopes of an ultimate solution of the insoluble basic problem of Socialism—until it becomes obvious that nothing has been changed but the name.

As to a planned economy, which one might people choose? For those who might think a planned economy tailored to the wishes of advocates all along a spectrum from democracy to dictatorship are different; they are not, except in non-essentials. All are precisely as socialistic as the Socialism propagated by any other socialist group. The differences are not among the ends sought, they are among the ways and means to achieve them. This makes differentiating Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini like differentiating citrus fruits: different sizes and colors, maybe, but still citrus, nevertheless. Take the following examples.

The communists of the Soviet Union called themselves Socialists (as in Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, etc.). In Germany, the Nazis called themselves Socialists, as in "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei," or, in English, National Socialist German Workers Party. (The term, "Nazi," is just the shortened form of Nationalsozialistiche.) Their significant differences were political. Until Operation Barbarossa, they were as thick as thieves, cooperating to carve out satraps from their surrounding territories.

Hitler was favorably impressed with Italian Fascism. The Italian Fascists called themselves Socialists. Mussolini, a Marxist who left the communists because he thought he could do things better and faster by putting his own spin on them. In fact, toward the end of his "term in office," (after the king had arrested him and the Nazis had rescued him, the Nazis set him up as the leader of a puppet government. He was titled "il Duce di Repubblica Sociale Italiana" or "Leader of the Italian Social Republic."

As to fascism (after "fasces," the symbol of bound sticks used a totem of power in ancient Rome), Mussolini said, "Fascism is a religious concept...[it] should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Thus, fascism is just a highly nationalistic socialist movement. With this statement, "il Duce" was trying to give his political philosophy the color of a religion and, at the same time, blend it with economics. (With such integration, could he, perhaps, have been using concepts taken from Mohammed's model as a guide.)

More in Part 05

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