I thought that I should write up short descriptions of some example ideologies, just to give you guys a sense of what I have in mind. Note that these are just from the top of my head, so they are not necessarily well-thought-out. Anyways:
Integrated Hyperreality Ontology (IHO, Orthodox Ferrarism): Developed by evolutionary psychologist and political philosopher Thiago Ferrari and his closest circle at the University of Salamanca in the early 19th century, this ideology is founded on Ferrari's studies regarding
supernormal stimuli. According to Ferrari many, if not most, of mankind's societal problems are derived from the clash between the psychological shortcuts to evolutionary success developed during mankind's early history and the demands put on human psyches by modern societies. Put simply, we evolved to like things we no longer have any reason to like.
Ferrari's solution (now regarded by even his most orthodox followers to suffer from a naïvety born from the science's undeveloped stage in 1812, when Ferrari published
A System for Improving Manlike Behavior) was to use top-down symbol manipulation (or propaganda, according to Ferrari's critics) to steer the positive and negative psychological responses to certain stimuli in a societally harmonious direction. Promiscuity would be replaced with content monogamy via fidelity-focused erotic stimuli, inter-religious and inter-racial conflict would be replaced with cultural integration by suppressing cladistic stimuli, economic exploitation would be replaced with mutually beneficial cooperation by promoting altruistic stimuli, etcetera.
Orthodox Ferrarism's reputation has suffered from its usage by several totalitarian regimes in the 20th century. While Ferrari himself was a strict pacifist, many rulers used his insights to steer their subjects' aggression in destructive wars and ethnic purges. The millions of victims killed in the death-camps of the Turkish Ontology remain the ideology's greatest shame.
Objectivism (Universal Reality Ontology, URO): While the Spanish-speaking world quickly embraced IHO, the Germanic intellectual milieu abhorred what was considered "decadent southern subjectivism". Karl Egonsson, a psychologist at the University of Lund, wrote a lengthy rebuttal of Ferrari's theses, published in 1814 as
A Defense of Objective Reason. According to Egonsson, while it was true that some people did construct a "hyperreality" detached from objective reality, reason alone could dispel this illusion and put the human mind on equal footing with the mind of God (used metaphorically; Egonsson was an atheist). While in itself not proposing a political program, Egonsson's ideas were celebrated by those disturbed by the implications of Ferrari's theories. It fell on George Watson, an English-speaking philosopher living in New Sweden, to develop what came to be known as Objectivism, or sometimes as Universal Reality Ontology, or URO.
According to Objectivism, there exists one objective reality, and it is the duty of the government to give its citizens access to this reality. This is best done via state-funded scientific research and public education. In turn, these citizens will be able to contribute to society in a concrete, non-subjective way, further strengthening the next generation, and so forth. Subjectivist forces, such as religion and non-Objectivist ideologies, are to be combated and marginalized.
New Sweden became the first, and still most prominent, state to adopt an "orthodox" URO program. Churches were turned into "optimized" storage facilities, poets and other "emotionalist" producers were sent to work camps, even individual names were replaced with "efficient" numbers. Despite all these radical changes, it was the economy that finally did New Sweden in. A belief in the ability to "objectively" plan every aspect of society led to a horribly inefficient command economy, which eventually collapsed under the weight of black markets and widespread cynicism. For this reason, modern Objectivism is far less radical, and has a more moderate economic program.
Anarcho-Solipsistic Hyperreality Ontology (ASHO, Left Ferrarism, Munkholmism): Already when Ferrari was still alive, several students impressed by his scientific ideas but unconvinced by his political and philosophical conclusions broke from his followers. This group, then known as the "Young Ferrarists" or, disparagingly, the "Coffee House Ferrarists", were known for their anti-authoritarian streak and disbelief that the "hyperreality" (the Ferrarist term for the reality we
want to perceive as a result of our supernormal stimuli-seeking minds) could ever be the same for several different people in any meaningful way. Anders Munkholm, the leader of the group, suggested that the correct way to approach the problem was to maximize the individual "constructor's" ability to project its own hyperreality on the social structures it interacted with. A harmonious society would be created when everyone was able to create the world they wanted to live in, in a way that minimized inter-hyperreality frictions.
Since this is in many ways even more wildly utopic than IHO, later Left Ferrarists would be more moderate and break from many fundamental ideas created by Munkholm (who remained, until the day he died, unconvinced of the existence of any mind except his own). In practice, modern political ASHO emphasizes individual freedoms and a "symbol-neutral" government. ASHO remains highly critical of any attempt at "public information", and almost always vote against state-run schools. Like most Ferrarists, Left Ferrarists have no set policy when it comes to economic matters, although they tend toward the laissez-faire end of the spectrum.
Edenism: A survivor of the Turkish Ontology death-camps, anthropologist Fatima Canaan dedicated her life to understanding human cruelty and violence. Unsatisfied with the standard Ferrarist explanations, she became convinced that humans were a result of two originally separate "root races" merging. The original, "Edenic", vegetarian, communal, matriarchal apes represented the ideal state of mankind, while the "Werewolves", cannibalistic, patriarchal warrior apes, represented the forces that led to war and aggression in society. She described her theory in the 1920 book
Man Into Wolf.
Canaan's suggested solution, later developed into more sophisticated form by her followers, was to in every aspect of life and society imitate the Edenics and shun "Werewolf" influences. Edenism therefore proscribes vegetarianism, free love, pacifism and communal ownership. Canaan originally didn't suggest a political program as such, as she thought modern society was too corrupted by lupine influences. Instead, she argued that those willing to get in touch with their Edenic roots should shield themselves from outside culture, living in separated communes with like-minded friends.
However, Canaan's ideas have been adopted by several groups dissatisfied by the Ferrarist/Objectivist debate, and turned into a broad collection of ideological systems. Many academics, while skeptical of the literal truth of the claims made by Canaan and her
Man Into Wolf, argue that her archetypical analysis of the human psyche holds valuable insight into aggression and instinctive methods of conflict-resolution. Modern Edenism focuses on
drives as fundamental to understanding human behavior, rather than the
impressions of Ferrarism or the
knowledge of Objectivism.
Fenrirism (Werewolfism): Published by the mysterious author only known as "Fenrir" in 1933,
Wolf Into Space agreed with many of the ideas expressed by Canaan and combined them with insights drawn from ASHO. According to Fenrir, Canaan's "drives" can be seen as identical with the "supernormal stimuli response systems" of ASHO, which in effect means that the Canaanite drives are what create the Munkholmist-Ferrarist "hyperreality". Much like Canaan, and unlike Munkholm, Fenrir believed that it was virtually impossible to create a harmonious society simultaneously constructed by the Edenic root drive and the Werewolf root drive. The vastly different perspectives would make conflict certain, which meant that one "race" by necessity must dominate the other. Unlike Canaan, Fenrir argued that the
Werewolves were the one who must take control, as they were inherently superior due to their "vitality".
Fenrirism is currently seen by most of the world as the most dangerous terrorism-inspiring ideology, as it actively encourages cruelty towards "lesser" beings and conflict as a way to weed the weak from the strong. The sole officially Fenririst state, the Drakesland Republic, is one of the few countries where slavery remains legal. Africans are seen as more "Edenic" than the "Wolfish" North Europeans, and are treated accordingly. In the rest of the world, Fenrirism is mostly popular with young males, who see it as an excuse to wear wolf masks and burn down the houses of the "Edenics".
Despite this, academic Fenrirism remains a semi-respected field, often intersecting with academic ASHO in its analysis of individual hyperreality-construction.
Teleology-Enhanced Hyperreality Ontology (TEHO, Techno-Ferrarism): The latest major Ferrarist movement was born from the field of genetic engineering. Noting that IHO assumes an unchanging neural structure, Siamese geneticist Krit Boonpojanasoontorn suggested that the failures of Ferrarist states could be derived from the imperfect base material they had to work with, the human mind. No amount of symbol manipulation could turn a savanna-optimized ape into a society-optimized citizen, argued Boonpojanasoontorn. The solution, then, was simple: Genetically engineer better humans, who reacted to stimuli in a societally harmonious way.
Boonpojanasoontorn and his followers, the atrocities of the Turkish Ontology still fresh in their minds, were fully aware of the many ways in which totalitarian states could misuse their ideas and suggested technological methods of neuro-genetic engineering. The Techno-Ferrarists, as they came to be known, therefore suggested that parents would voluntarily choose to engineer their children, as the same kind of traits that make a person societally harmonious (kindness, fidelity, patience, etcetera) also tend to make that person societally
successful. At most, said the Techno-Ferrarists, the state could offer economic incentives to parents, but never force any treatment on anyone. In later years, however, some TEHO theorists have suggested that the process is going too slowly, and that
some more direct state intervention is necessary.
Note that, while TEHO initially focused on genetic engineering, they have also embraced the developing technology of Brain-Computer Interfaces as a key step in the man-directed evolution toward mental perfection.
