Post-industrial Revolution: The Third


Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were both advocates of the Third Way, a political position that tries to reconcile right and left wing politics, and sees itself as beyond both. In the case of Clinton's Presidency and Blair's time as Prime Minister, this manifested itself as attempting to mix a liberal approach to capitalism with a progressive social policy.


Nick Griffin (seen in the photo on a National Front march) and Patrick Harrington (far right [of photo, and politics]) helped split the National Front in the 1980s with their creation of the Political Soldier group, which advocated the Third Position. The Third Position is a political concept that sees itself as beyond left and right wing politics, insisting on its opposition to both Communism and Capitalism.


This is a Buddhist swastika, a symbol of good fortune. Buddhism says that there are Three Marks of Existence. The third mark of existence is Anatta, or, Not-Self. Buddhism rejects the statements, 'I have a self' and 'I have no self' as statements that bind us to suffering. Buddhism sees itself as being beyond ontological commitments - beyond naive realism and beyond nihilism.


This is a weird drawing of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche studied Buddhism, and at first saw it as a reasonable alternative to Christianity. However, he ultimately rejected it as a passive form of Nihilism. Its attempt to deny ontological commitments was, for Nietzsche, just another way for humans to distract themselves from the harsh reality of acting as a free individual in the world.