Rationalism
“
It is time to make America great again! No longer shall people suffer in search of meaning! No longer shall their goals diverge into madness!
— Josh Hawley, 2032
Rationalism is a culturally and economically right-wing, ethnocentric, statist and nationalist auth-right ideology that presents itself as the rational alternative to neoliberal wokeism and later also anarcho-syndicalism. Due to this, it is very reactionary in nature and arose by the end of the 2020s as a counterreaction to said wokeness.
About
Economically, it tends to embrace a state regulated capitalism similar to that of Keynesianism. Unlike fascism, rationalism is not very racist, though at least non-angloponic rationalism tends to be very anti-immigration. Rationalism is conservative, however tends to rebuke concepts of freedom of religion and individual liberties, viewing it as a shallow and unnecessary distraction from the real goal of serving the state. Rather than believing the state is for the people, it believes the people are for the state, which stood in stark contrast to most conservative movements back in his infancy. Rationalism also gradually became increasingly anti-theist, as the process of secularism concluded.
Rationalist Countries
A lot of countries has at one point or another been considered rationalist:
- URA
- British Empire
- Thai Empire
- British Anatolia
- British Aegean
- British Norway
- Bahamas
- Dominica
- Satakunda
- France
- Italy / North Italy
- Spain
- Morocco
- Wallonia
- Poland
- Hungary
- Lithuania
- Idel-Ural
- Union of Russia (2085-2086)
- Kyrgyzstan
- Pashtunistan
- Possibly more
Subideologies
Rationalism has seen a lot of variation in ideology but these are the most prevalent ones:
- Angloponic Rationalism (Practices in URA and Britain)
- Falangist Rationalism (Practiced in Spain and Morocco)
- Zemmourism (French Rationalism)
- Christian Rationalism (fizzled out over time)
- "Rationalism" (defined as the default if no other category fits)
Angloponic Governance
Each state elects a "Rationale" as state governour based on merit and rationality. The Rationales in turn pick the Imperator, who will be dictator for life unless 60 % of the Rationales vote to depose him. Each Rationale can decide to "critique" (half the turn length of another Rationale) every year, whilst the Imperator can do the same but once every other month. The starting term limit of a Rationale is 160 years.
The only people deemed eligeble to vote are the meritocratic elite, who will, upon their state's Rationale's term limit having expired, vote for a new one based on merit. If the Imperator chooses to devote his time to it, and deems any potential candidate as irrational (either on an ideological or on an intellectual basis) he has the veto right to nullify their campaign. If the Imperator wants to use his veto right in this regard but the voting is completed before he can do it, the Rationale gets chosen either way, thus encouraging more speedy politics compared to in a democratic system.
Early History
The far-right saw a gradual rise in the early 2000s, however the rationalism we think of when we hear the word today didn’t come about until the National Front won the French election in 2029. The word itself wasn’t coined until 2026 however.
United Rationales of America
Towards the end of Trump’s second term the controversies were overflowing, the main ones being his intervention in the anarchist civil wars of Panama, Venezuela and Colombia, his delayed intervention in the Second Chinese Civil War and his decision to leave NATO in order to better focus on the previous two. In retrospect, it maybe isn’t too surprising that the American Alt-right decided to split off from the Republicans to form the American Rationale, (today named the United Rationales Party of America, URPA for short), for the 2028 election. However, they did not capitalize on Republican failures, as they were rather supportive of their controversial policies. The American Rationale likely would just have just fizzled out after losing the election if it wasn’t for the fact that the global stock market crashed halfway into the Democrats’ term, which devastated their reputation too. This, combined with the fact that they were stuck fighting two gruesome wars their whole term, won the American Rationale lots of voters for the next election. By the time of the 2032 election, they had gotten 48 % of the votes, only losing because the Republicans and Democrats had formed a coalition. This enraged them who claimed coalitions was "cheating" and they followed up by starting the Second American Civil War where the Rationalists ultimately won, in part thanks to French support.
French State
After the French 2029 election, rationalism quickly began to spread like wildfire, especially after the left’s failure to prevent the European 2029 stock market crash in Germany. The national-conservative ruling party of Italy Fratelli d’Italia modeled their politics after the French and far-right parties of Poland and Spain also started taking notes. After this, most of the Old West ended up falling to rationalism as the French and American movements morphed into one. Rationalism then presided to purge the woke left into near extinction, only returning as smaller movements in the Republic of Russia and during the Second African Revolution over 30 years later.
Decline
Ever since neoliberal wokism had been essentially made extinct, rationalism had began to lose its steam. This may have contributed to URA's reckless persue of influence expansion in spite of the state of his economy, as means of creating a new goal for the people to be motivated for, in order to not fall into utter irrelevancy alltogether. In 2085 Poland brought back elections and his rationalist party was immediately voted out in favor of a more moderate national democracy. World War III saw the fall of most rationalist countries in Europe, including one of the founding fathers of rationalism, (ie France). This, coupled with the fall of anarchism made rationalism's original purpose now obsolete. For most scholars of rationalism it has quickly become apparent that rationalism must adapt and reform it is wants to survive the comming decades.