Fascism and Fasciasm

ChatGPT document created from this original Facebook thread. Executive summary follows. See the link for the rest.

The document argues that hierarchical developmental models become problematic when they treat a single scale of development—'altitude'—as the dominant measure of knowledge, consciousness, complexity, or social organization. The author calls this tendency a form of fascism and proposes fasciasm as an alternative: a way of understanding people, ideas, and social systems through interconnected, mutually influencing perspectives rather than a single governing hierarchy. 

Drawing on integral theory, developmental psychology, philosophy, complexity science, cognitive science, and the biological metaphor of fascia, the author argues that:

 

- No single developmental scale should dominate every other perspective. Cognitive development, social relationships, states, skills, culture, and context should be understood in relation to one another.

 

- Higher developmental capacity does not guarantee freedom from ideology. People considered highly developed can still reproduce authoritarian or self-serving beliefs.

 

- Rigid hierarchies can justify domination. When a supposedly superior level or elite claims the authority to govern everyone else, a developmental model can become an instrument of power.

 

- Complex systems require multiple, interacting perspectives. Real systems often contain overlapping hierarchies, cross-cutting relationships, nonlinear changes, and no single organizing center.

 

- Fasciasm offers a connective alternative. Like fascia in the body, social and conceptual connective tissues can coordinate diverse elements without requiring a single controlling center.

 

The document's ultimate concern is both theoretical and political: How can we coordinate different forms of knowledge and development without turning one perspective into an unquestionable authority?

 

This is the author's argument, rather than a claim that developmental hierarchies are inherently fascist or that the proposed alternative has been empirically established.