Gestaltism (from Alemannian Gestalt ‘shape, figure, form’) is a political and economic ideology whose goal is the creation of a unified human society, a singular human political entity with a near-omnipotent central authority figure to govern over mankind. A Gestaltist society entails the eventual absence of private property, social classes, money and ultimately, the state itself. Gestaltism is part of the broader socialist movement.
Unlike most other socialist movements across the world, Gestaltism considers economic policies secondary, with Gestaltist writer Archer Maine seeing them as tools, where “private enterprises can be controlled, public enterprises can be controlled better”. Gestaltists derive their belief for a strong central authority figure with near omnipresent surveillance of mankind from a religious basis.
They see humanity’s past and current devotion to God and the gods as simply a want to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning, with humans worshipping divine observation rather than any other consideration regarding divine entities. Another example of this theory is presented in the form of fame, whereupon human validation, observation and judgement by their fellow man is idolized and worshipped. Their ultimate belief is in the creation of a deus ex machina, a god derived from human technology made to observe and govern over mankind in a tangible way, able to address problems of individual citizens with ease via omnipresent observation of their lives. So far, such a creation exists only in Gestaltist theory.
Gestaltism shares many ideas with pre-existing socialist movements, believing in the prioritisation of workers rights, universal healthcare, citizen welfare and equality among people groups. Currently, only two primary schools of thought exist in Gestaltism; militaristic, and plain.
Etymology
Gestaltism derives from the Ymirian word gestalt (which means a collection of physical, biological, psychological or symbolic elements that creates a whole, unified concept or pattern which is other than the sum of its parts due to the relationships between the parts).
Theory
Gestaltist theory primarily revolves around the idea of the “Divine Gestalt”. While its social and economic ideas are shared by various other socialist and leftist movements, this idea is what sets Gestaltism apart from these movements. The idea of the Divine Gestalt consists of three principal pillars.
First, is Omnipresent surveillance. Gestaltist theory states that only through omnipresent surveillance and judgement will the State be able to best serve its people. While this aspect has been criticised by many, Gestaltist theorists argue that such ideas have always been idolized by human society, with their primary examples including the argument of an omnipotent and omnipresent god being a central aspect in many of the world’s largest religions, as well as the concept of fame as a more contemporary example. Fame being worshipped incredibly by both people in consumer society, as well as mass media, despite simply being a vehicle for the observation and judgement of others. Gestaltists argue that the next step in this process is information harvesting machines, oftentimes referred to as a deus ex machina or “God from the machine”.
The second pillar is that of Universal governance. Gestaltist theory states that despite its attempts to do so peacefully, liberal democracy exists still as a vehicle for outside influences to sow chaos and mistrust between individuals in a supposedly peaceful struggle of power. The idea of universal governance relies on the ideas of the first pillar in gathering the opinions of individual citizens to find the largest injustices and issues they find in their day to day lives, and adopt policies to remedy those issues on a societal level. They believe by the use of the practices of the first pillar by a strong singular governing authority, can the greatest good be done.
The third pillar is that of Global Unity. Gestaltist theory argues the concept of borders and national separation to be inventions from a time of a species limited by nature. With humanity’s spread across the globe into a global species, able to practically travel wherever technology allows them, Gestaltists see borders as simply as an invention made to hold mankind back.They argue for the abolishing of borders, and nations all together, in favour of a singular global Unity State.
Most Gestaltists share these same three ideas, however most disagree on the way such ideas are implemented and spread globally. Plain Gestaltists echo the arguments brought forward by the first Supreme Protector, stating that “no man has ever accepted new ideas from the barrel of a gun”, believing global cooperation and understanding to be the best gateway to spread such ideas to the globe, only seeing violence as an option when all others have been expended. Militaristic Gestaltists however see the matter in a much more pessimistic way. They argue that the only way to have Gestaltism spread globally is to subjugate other world governments into accepting the ideology by eliminating the competition, or by forcing the ideas into new societies.