Baileyism - Liberal Democracy Means Nazis Sometimes in Gubbamint

Our well meaning liberal friends are free speech absolutists, which means no outlawing Hard Right Parties, no outlawing Hard Right "news" and platforms, no outlawing the rich from owning newspapers, no outlawing the rich from funding parties (especially hard right ones) and there are, all over the world, enough liberals that no left leaning coalition is possible without them.  It means that the right and eventually the hard right will always eventually be in charge of the government part of the time, until the democracy isn't.

Baileyism is about the fundamental understanding that any system is going to have flaws, and that if you are attempting Utopia, you need to have something more than just trying to use the gubbamint to help the confederation of Identities or the less fortunate.  You need to figure out how to do good in this world in more ways than one.  The people of America have grown so use to the gubbamint as a source of good that, now that we have nazis working to actively do as much harm as possible, a lot of good the gubbamint has done, the liberals are looking around like floundering fish out of water with open fish lips and flapping around in moral outrage while people drown.

Baileyism has no time for that.

The more intelligent are already organizing into cells, but most of those people are direct action type.  Like, let's go rescue immigrants being targeted by ICE or protesting minorities being threatened by proud boy militia.  And those people are the immune response of civilization; but you can't build a body with just white blood cells.  Civilization and the things that make life livable, much less the infrastructure that have a livable or free society requires more than just running around putting out one fire after another.

We need infrastructure to build infrastructure independent of the gubbamint and independent of the liberals who hate good people and hate the far left.  The liberals are just as much of an obstacle to utopia as the hard right nazis.  Eventually, a functional society will need and allow liberals but to achieve utopia we need to counter intuitively do good work without the liberal, since the liberal is also the royal faction of the left.

Ever notice how in most table top role playing games there is the 'royal' faction? Like the Venture in Vampire the Masquerade? The faction that feels entitled to power for its own sake? Yeah that's the liberal and thus as the loudest voice in the room most of the pawns and ants on the left are drawn to them.  Pawns and Ants are the cells that make civilization possible, but no good of any kind will come from trying to keep them from following the liberal.

Baileyism is about building utopia in spite of these people

Baileyism - Neutral Good and Thugs

First of all, let's address the elephant in the room using a "Christmas Movie" after Christmas.  I had to start somewhere, with something, and let's also remember the fact that it's a wonderful like was originally release Jan 7, 1947 which isn't even in the stretchy definition of what Christmas constitutes like Epiphany.   Second of all, this movie still checks every box I'm looking for as a framing device to discuss what we need.  So if using Christmas Movies released after Christmas to fix the god damn planet bothers you, there's the door and feel free to step out while the world around you burns.

Ahem.

Anyway.   The DND alignment system is trite and simplified but a highly useful framework to demonstrate the kind of philosophical thought exercise I wish to describe in Baileyism.  The whole POINT of the entire exercise is to strengthen the commons, strengthen civil society in SPITE of government.   Until we have enough non governmental infrastructure to educate and unite against Hard Right Maga liars, until we have enough anti capitalist inertia to be able to tell the truth against Nihilionares no matter what they do, we need to use our still existing right to free association to bypass them.   Using the DND alignment axiom; with Chaos representing the individual and Law representing government, Neutral Good is where there is an alignment between them.

George Bailey is Neutral Good.  The Bailey Building and Loan is an institution, created by private individuals that can empower the rest of us to have enough power, time and prosperity to unite against tyranny.  Time and again in every problem facing society, we see 'we can't solve this problem because of X' usually with X being something related to Capitalism.   The infamous Powell Memo should not just be a historical evidence of crimes against humanity but also a blue print of how to fight capitalism.   Everything they did, we can do better and build parallel infrastructure that doesnt depend on government, doesn't depend on magical supermen coming from the sky to save us.  We need to build the tools to help us build private neutral good infrastructure that can, by private association, exclude Hard Right and Maga ruiners or agents of chaos that mean no good for society.

Government, as powerful as it is, is a tool that the left has relied on for far too long.  A properly done government has significant disadvantages that a private civil society does not have.  A government must equate for all its citizens; ergo it cannot exclude Christian Nationalists.  A government is often slow to adapt.  A government also responds to elected representatives, which ensures that the rich corporate oligarchic masters are able to wield disproportionate policy.  

This philosophy requires courage and faith.   Just like George Bailey.  Which is why I choose him as a template.  No one MAKES George Bailey sit with the building and loan and ensure the decency in the lives of the people he helps in the movie; it is a private choice by a private individual.  But he makes a world of difference.   Can you imagine how much better the world would be with more such individuals and the equivalent of the Building and Loan in finance, in tech, in newspapers, communication, entertainment and more?  Altruism is a powerful tool that can build more altruism.  The belief in Eucatastrophe, a better world despite what the cynics say has the power to make it so.

Mr. Potter, and his rampant greed is objectively Neutral Evil.  The two men stand in silent but legal conflict for the soul of the town.   While entirely off screen, there is zero doubt in my mind that from time to time Mr. Potter has employed Chaotic Evil thugs to terrorize the opposition to get what he wants, especially in the darker mirror world of Potterville.   To the Neutral Evil capitalist, any tool is a means to an end.  So too, for the Baileyist, should any tool that isn't evil be a means to save the Bailey Building and Loan.  The Government? Sure.  But also the work of people, always striving towards its mission to provide the people of the town better homes.

Neutral Good is the central point I make about the philosophy.  Government is a useful tool but at the end of the day, it is critical to remember it takes a village and a village is more than town hall.   So often Anticapitalist dogmas get lost in the weeds with this kind of argument.  As problematic as the DND alignment system is for any moral or civic framework; remember that its a better starting point than the libertarian lie which tries to make libertarianism some special ideology whilst ignoring its roots as a tool for capitalists and utterly ignoring the anticapitalist roots of true anarchism.  Capitalism is evil.   There are few exceptions and certainly no conservative ones.