I'm trying to think of the word that fits the following definition:
The belief or intuition that all complex systems, natural or man-made (e.g., social systems), can, should, or ought to be or have been created and maintained by a centralized authority and/or power.
What's the word? What's its antonym?
The word (let's call it Xism for now) would be a superset of Statism and Creationism. It implies a need to impose order or to find order in already existing complex systems. That order needs to come from an supreme authority.
The closest I've come up with so far is "anti-dynamism" where dynamism is used per Virginia Postrel's definition in "The Future and its Enemies." But she uses the term dynamist solely when referring to social systems and stasist (the opposite) as opposing change, which is a bit different than what I'm looking for.
4 comments:
Well, since there hasn't been a rush at suggesting words, here are a few I've been thinking of:
orderism
organizationism
commandmentism
commandism
directionism
directivism
hierarchism
regimentism
systemitism
behestism
fiatism
lordism
manupstairsism
numenism
omnipotentism
primemoverism
guardianism
tutelarism
attendantism
patronism
keeperism
overseerism
guidism
chaperonism
stewardism
shepherdism
teleologicalism
Isn't teleological usually used on the religious side? Is it typically used when describing Statism, Collectivism, etc.?
Teleology is starting something with a specific end in mind.
Darwinism is a non-teleological theory of evolution and intelligent design is a teleological theory of evolution.
The religious element isn't necessary, but it is usually there.
Humans naturally incline to teleological explanations, probably because we like to plan things. Even many people who claim to believe that darwinism is true mistakenly think that the theory holds that evolution has a 'goal' (eg. to develop ever more sophisticated creatures).
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