Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus – Dictator Then, Dictator Now

On Saturday Ed Miliband gave a speech at a conference organised by the Fabian Society, by doing so he is endorsing an organisation that is the closest I can equate to an unethical, amoral resident evil still in our midst from a period of of our history that we should not be proud of, let alone influence the thought processes of any putative future prime minister.

The Fabian Society founded in 1884 was named after Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator (ca. 280 BC – 203 BC) a Roman Dictator who defended Rome in the Punic Wars. Verrucosus being descriptive means the 'warty', Cunctator the Delayer. It is from the latter nickname that the Fabians took their tactics of gradually wearing down of capitalism with a view to to its eventual destruction.  As Quintus once advocated defeating the Carthaginian Army.

At the centre of this Society were a civil servant and his wife Sidney and Beatrice Webb. Members have included George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Hubert Bland, Edith Nesbit, Sydney Olivier, Oliver Lodge, Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf, Ramsay MacDonald and Emmeline Pankhurst, Oswald Moseley, Clement Attlee, Anthony Crosland, Richard Crossman, Tony Benn, Harold Wilson, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

These 'intellectuals' regarded the working classes as something akin to to livestock than individuals. Their stated aim was-

"the breeding of even a moderately Imperial race" which would be more productive and better militarily than the "stunted, anaemic, demoralised denizens...of our great cities"; and a national education system because "it is in the classrooms...that the future battles of the Empire for commercial prosperity are already being lost"

George Bernard Shaw speaking of the coming Socialist Utopia

"Under Socialism, you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you liked it or not. If it were discovered that you had not the character and industry enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live, you would have to live well."

The breeding aspect reveals their obsessive interest in eugenics which reached its apogee with the extermination camps across eastern Europe to deal with the 'unfit', the jews, gypsies and homosexuals. The unfit also included Downs Syndrome, epileptics and alcoholics; these were to be reduced by methods ranging from compulsory sterilisation or euthansia. The far left party NSDAP (The National Socialist German Workers Party) known to history as the Nazi party lead by another dictator Adolf Hitler, who, like Moseley and Mussolini, was attracted to extreme left wing politics after the first world war.

The enemy of both the Fabians and these National Socialist movements was individual Liberalism. It still is.

The common thread in all of these is that there should be an elite that knows 'the best' for the the lumpen masses who can be shovelled into grotesque high rise accomodation and are simply there as producers. It is in the interest of the elite that the masses are kept ignorant and largely servile.

The Liberal Democracies made a supreme effort defeating National Socialism by 1945, however this was at the expense of allowing Socialism to be part of the National Government during the war. The result was welfarism and dependency on a massive scale post war. The Liberal Democracies continue to hold the line against Soviet Russia throughout the Cold War

However the Webbs were disillusioned with the lack of progress by the Labour Party  in Britain,  having visited the Soviet Union in 1932. They published a book, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? (1935) based on their experiences there, which indicated a shift from their expectation of a natural progress of social and political reform. Although they expressed concern about the lack of political freedom in the country, they were highly impressed with the improvement in the health and educational services, as well as the political and economic equality of women. They believed that the Soviet type of planned economy would eventually spread around the world. The Webbs' final book, The Truth about Soviet Russia, published in 1942, continued to support the Soviet Union, celebrating central planning.

In 1942, Stuart Chase, in his book "The Road We Are Traveling" spelled out the system of planning the Fabians had in mind; the interesting thing is to look at that plan in comparison to Britain and the EU.

1. Strong, centralized government.

2. Powerful Executive at the expense of  Parliament and the Judiciary.

3. Government controlled banking, credit and securities exchange.

4. Government control over employment.

5. Government control over unemployment insurance, old age pensions.

6. Universal medical care, food and housing programs.

7. Access to unlimited government borrowing.

8. A managed monetary system.

9. Government control over foreign trade.

10. Government control over natural energy sources, transportation and agricultural production.

11. Government regulation of labour.

12. Youth camps devoted to health discipline, community service and ideological teaching consistent with those of the authorities.

13. Heavy progressive taxation.

The fall of communism in 1989 did not bring about the triumph of Liberalism, conversely it saw the rapid expansion of communitarianism in the West.

The old Liberal Party in Britain succumbed to an inverse take over by the Social Democrat Party, The Conservative Party swung to the 'Big Society' under Cameron , and the United States fell to Obama's Democrats. The European Union also swept all before it.

If you want to know why you now live under a 'Nanny' or Communitarian State, you need to be aware of the history of Fabianism and why Ed Miliband chose this venerable institution of intellectual fraudsters to make his first major speech to his supporters, and please note the reference to the 'long' road back to power and his appeals to the Liberal Democrats. Classic Fabianism.

He calls this alliance the 'Progressive' forces. I just see a history of repression, corruption, war and death camps. The road to Hell being paved with good intentions.

I am a Libertarian, because I do not accept my relationship between the individual and the state, as that of servant and master.

There is no need to accept Fabianism and Communitarianism as inevitable, I would refer you to alternative 'think tanks' as to a more honest and peaceful future.

The Cobden Centre

Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with each other and governments less.

Richard Cobden

and the Adam Smith Institute, unless the true Liberals seek Constitutional change on the basis of a Swiss style constitution and a referenda on the European Union as so constituted, we are going to be damned to a Fabian future.